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Did Microlending Survive the Recession? Yes, Says Grameen Bank Founder

2,120 views · Published 7 June 2010 · 5:09 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: FORA.tv · 2010 · News & Politics

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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus says the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and its microcredit program remain robust despite the gloomy state of the global economy. Yunus credits the bank's one-on-one relationship with the "real economy" for shielding it from the economic turbulence. "We don't even know there's a crisis going on," he says.

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Microcredit pioneer and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus shows how he believes the social business model can harness the entrepreneurial spirit to address poverty, hunger and disease. Yunus shows how social business has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, adopted by leading corporations including BASF, Intel, Danone, Veolia and Adidas, as well as entrepreneurs and social activists worldwide.

He demonstrates how social business transforms lives; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; explains that public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model; and claims that social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.

Social Entrepreneurship in America is a special series featuring leading innovators and pioneers utilizing entrepreneurial passion and rigor to solve societal problems.  - Commonwealth Club of California

Muhammad Yunus is founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank, established in Bangladesh in 1983. Dr. Yunus founded the bank with the objective of helping poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound principles of finances so they can help themselves.

The Grameen Bank has advanced to the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through micro-lending and its model has been replicated in over 100 countries worldwide.

In 2006, Dr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Bank.

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