Biography of Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus was born in June 1940 in Eastern Bengal, the third of 14 children, of whom five died as infants ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006). Yunus was influenced by his father, a successful goldsmith who urged his sons to pursue higher education, but more so by his mother, Sufia Khatun, who helped any poor that came to their door ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006). Her compassion spurred him to do all he could to eradicate poverty ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006).

Many years later, now a Bangladeshi economist at Chittagong University, Yunus took his students on a field trip to visit a poor village. They spoke with a woman who made bamboo stools and found that she had to borrow 15p per week to purchase the raw bamboo for each stool she made, which-after repaying the middleman at rates as high as 10% per week-left her with a profit margin of only one penny ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006). Yunus realized that if she could have borrowed at a better rate, she would have been able to raise her means above th

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Category: People - B