Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
Praise for Small Loans, Big Dreams\ "I was enthralled to see the difference a few dollars loaned with no collateral in Bangladesh could benefit and change Chicago's poorest of the poor. I learned how pennies defeated myths about the poor. This book will renew your belief in the American dream and show that there can be economic liberty and justice for all—here AND abroad! This story must be told and retold—and then updated again as the successes pour in. Please keep fast-forwarding!"\ —MIKE...
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The stark reality of global poverty—the poorest half of the world's population owns less than one percent of its assets, and that nearly one billion people subsist on less than $1 per day—rarely registers even a ripple in the international media. Western attempts to stem hunger and poverty are often piecemeal and ineffective, applying band-aids rather than finding permanent solutions. But Muhammad Yunus, visionary founder of the Grameen Bank, has demonstrated different and more inclusive ways of approaching the problems that confront humanity. In creating Grameen, he turned the conventional wisdom of traditional financial institutions on its head: instead of seeking out wealthy people with collateral and excluding the poor, Yunus sought out the impoverished and excluded the rich. His approach, known as microfinance, has revolutionized global antipoverty efforts.In Small Loans, Big Dreams, Alex Counts presents compelling stories of women benefiting from Yunus's microcredit in rural Bangladesh and urban Chicago. He sets the stage by telling the story of Grameen's founding by Yunus, describing the environments in which Grameen Bank and the Full Circle Fund—a bold effort to apply the same principles in Chicago—and their clients operated. He then recounts the experiences of different borrowers in each country, interspersing them with stories of Yunus, his colleagues, and their counterparts in Chicago. These fascinating accounts not only show the power of the strategy, but also prove that it is no panacea that absolves governments and businesses from their obligation to consider the needs of the poor. Instead, microfinance emphasizes that other sectors think about the implications of its success for their own work—which may be based on flawed assumptions about the poor that the success of microfinance has disproved.Microfinance has the potential to reach truly massive numbers in the years ahead. But in order to grasp future opportunities and challenges, it is essential that people everywhere understand just what it takes to build a large microfinance institution like Grameen Bank, and how this allows for market-based poverty reduction through the principle of self-help. To that end, this book provides a straightforward, inspiring, and accessible guide.
Foreword viiAcknowledgments xiIntroduction to the 2008 Edition 1Introduction to the First Edition 11Muhammad Yunus-From Vanderbilt to Chittagong 27The Birth of the Grameen Bank 53Zianpur Bazaar 83Les Papillons 115Amena Begum's Dream 147Omiyale DuPart 165The Haldar Para 189The Maxwell Street Market 215Krishna Das Bala 241The Hip Hop Shop 261Dry Money in a Monsoon 283The Black on Black Love Festival 301The Sixteen Decisions 333"We're Here for You" 359Epilogue 377Appendix 385Notes 387About the Author 393Index 395
