Muhammad Yanus was a professor of economics when his life
changed during the 1974 famine of Bangladesh. He wanted to learn
more about why people were dying of starvation, so he visited
a village and talked to a young woman named Sufia Degum, who
was making bamboo stools. Yanus learned that she, like many
others, was caught in a cycle of poverty. Degum had to borrow
the equivalent of 22 cents from a middleman for her supplies.
To repay her loan, she had to sell him the stools at the end
of each day, profiting only 2 cents a day. There were 42 people
in the village who were in the same position. The total cost
of opening their own businesses was approximately $27.00, so
Yanus, with $27 from his pocket, made those loans. He tried
to persuade the banks to provide credit to the people but they
refused. So Yanus started the Grameen Bank which eventually
loaned over $2 billion in small amounts to people living in
poverty. His willingness to lend to the poor inspired other
micro-lending programs, including one that is part of JGI’s
TACARE
project.
