Empowering Individuals in the Global Community Through Entrepreneurship
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We would like to congratulate and honor, Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank, for winning the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. The award, announced from the Norwegian Nobel Committee, to Dr. Yunus and the bank he founded — Grameen Bank is for "their efforts to create economic and social development from below."
Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank are an extraordinary example of the power an individual can have to reach the lives of millions through the strength of innovation, ideas and entrepreneurship. In 1976, Professor Yunus began an amazing experiment by providing poor people, primarily women, with access to financial capital through microcredit without requiring collateral.
At that time, he had an unshakeable belief that, given a chance, all people can escape poverty through their own efforts. Today, the theory has held true; according to their website, the Grameen Bank has provided more than 5 billion dollars to 6 million people in Bangladesh and 97% of the borrowers are women. In addition, his concept has catalyzed the creation of more than 250 microcredit institutions in more than 100 countries based on the Grameen methodology. The loans provided by Grameen have been repaid at a 98% repayment rate and have indisputably contributed to the eradication of poverty; impacting lives one at a time through the creation of micro-enterprises.
Poverty is a global epidemic — even in a time of technological breakthroughs in medicine, science and agriculture — more than one billion people live on less than US$1 per day. Whole Foods Market has responded to this need by creating the Whole Planet Foundation, whose mission is to improve the economic well-being of the poor in developing countries by providing micro loans to women. Dr. Yunus is a founding member of the Whole Planet Foundation and he serves on our Advisory Board. To date, the Whole Planet Foundation is providing microcredit to thousands of women in the Lake Atitlan Region of Guatemala and in the Limon Province of Costa Rica, with plans to expand to Assam, India as well as other Latin American, African and Asian countries in the near future.
With this award, the Nobel Peace Prize committee has acknowledged that poverty and economic instability are root causes of war, terrorism and territorial disputes and they have validated the bold idea pioneered by Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank, that microcredit contributes to peace, one individual at a time.
We are humbled to partner with the Grameen Bank and Trust and Dr. Yunus and we deeply congratulate him for this extraordinary award.
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