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 the subsistence level ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006).
Yunus took it upon himself to lend tiny amounts to 42 basketweavers, finding that this not only enabled them to survive but also created "the spark of personal initiative and enterprise necessary to pull themselves out of poverty" ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006). To promote that financial recovery, Yunus took the time to teach them sound financial principles that would enable them to help themselves ("Banker to the Poor," 2006).
Although advised against it by banks and the government, Yunus continued to issue "micro-loans," and in 1983 he founded the Grameen Bank-a name that means "village bank"-that today has 1,084 branches and 12,500 staff that serve 2.1 million borrowers in 37,000 villages ("Muhammad Yunus," 2006). 94% of the borrowers are women, and over 98% of the loans are paid back, which is a stellar recovery rate, "higher than any other banking system" ("Muhammad Yunus,
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