Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Muhammad Yunus Comes to UC San Diego
to Deliver Lecture on Microloans to Close Rich
and Poor Gap in United States

September 25, 2007

By Henry DeVries

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, will be in San Diego to lecture on “Social Enterprise: Doing Well by Doing Good” at the University of California, San Diego at 2 p.m. Sunday October 21 in Mandeville Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public; however, tickets are required for entry.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Grameen Bank and its founder, Bangladeshi economist Dr. Yunus, for pioneering microcredit — using collateral-free loans of tiny amounts to lift millions of women and their families out of poverty. He will discuss how similar models can help close the gap between the rich and poor in the United States.

Dr. Yunus will discuss his new mission, Grameen America. The first Grameen Bank style microcredit program in the United States, Grameen America will provide loans and savings programs to foster entrepreneurship among the poor and immigrants throughout the United States.

"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said in its citation. "Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights."

Though it is not the first time the committee has chosen to honor economic development as a contribution to world peace, it was the first time the prize was awarded to a profit-making business.

Borrowers receive modest amounts of cash, often as little as $20, to start or grow a small business. Since its creation in 1983, Grameen has made a total of $6.44  billion in such small loans to 7.27 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and has turned a profit in all but three years. To date almost 99 percent of the loans have been repaid.

The success of the Grameen Bank has inspired many imitators, and encouraged commercial banks in many developing countries to take up microcredit lending as well. Microcredit financing is estimated to have helped some 17 million people worldwide.

Sponsors of his presentation are UC San Diego Extension’s Helen Edison Lecture Series, the International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego and San Diego State University.

Free tickets may be obtained (a maximum of four per person) through UC San Diego Extension by calling 858-822-0510. Parking is free on Sundays.
On the day of the event, doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Seating is unassigned.  No cell phones, video or photographic equipment will be allowed.

For additional information contact UC San Diego Extension’s Helen Edison Lecture Series at (858) 822-0510 or visit http://helenedison.ucsd.edu. For additional information on Grameen America visit www.grameen-info.org.

 

Media Contact: Henry DeVries, 858-534-9955 or 619-540-3031 (after hours)