A Social Business, Microlending Essay -- Microlending Development

What is microlending? In simplest terms microlending is the lending of very small amounts of money at low interest, to low income people in urban and rural areas. It started forty years ago, when a person named Muhammad Yunus was visiting his family and his country Bangladesh which had recently become an independent country. Muhammad Yunus had left his home country then –East Bengal- when he was a child with his parents in search of a better future. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a PhD in economics. Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, the first non-profit organization to offer microfinance services in Bangladesh and in the world (New York Times). This bank showed the world on how little money can make a tremendous difference in people’s lives. Presently, there are thousands of institutions around the world that offer microfinance services, which sometimes suffer setbacks and uncertainties as any other for-profit or non-p rofit organization. When Muhammad Yunus was in Bangladesh, he realized that Bangladeshis were living in a more precarious condition than he had imagined and read on the newspapers. Many people owed money to these ruthless and heartless village money lenders. These people were never going to repay the loans because the interest rates were so high therefore, they were trapped for life. However, he found something very thought-provoking, which was the fact that when he accumulated the debt of approximately forty people, the grand total was seventy dollars. He gave people money out of his pocket so that they can repay their debt and they can be liberated. This was the moment when the idea of creating a microfinance institution originated- Muhammad Yunus realized that ... ...lo. "Can Microlending Save Haiti :[Money and Business/Financial Desk]. " New York Times 14 Nov. 2010, Late Edition (East Coast): ProQuest National Newspapers Premier, ProQuest. Web. 5 Dec. 2010. Richard Chacon, Globe Staff. "SMALL LOANS, BIG HOPES MICROLENDING LETS HAITIANS SEEK CREDIT :[THIRD Edition]. " Boston Globe 7 Oct. 2000,ProQuest National Newspapers Premier, ProQuest. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. David Gonzalez. "A Haitian Bank Takes Its Money to the Streets. " New York Times 17 Apr. 2001, Late Edition (East Coast): ProQuest National Newspapers Premier, ProQuest. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. FARID HOSSAIN. "2006 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE / Beating poverty, $200 at a time / Thousands of Bangladeshis pulled from despair by man's tiny loans :[3 STAR , 0 Edition]. " Houston Chronicle 14 Oct. 2006,ProQuest National Newspapers Premier, ProQuest. Web. 11 Dec. 2010.