Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in 1976 with just $27 from his own pocket The idea came to him while he was teaching economics at Chittagong University in southern Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest nations in the world. He and his students an experimental project: They lent poor women small amounts of started money The women used the money for their own small businesses; for example, to buy straw to make stools. Until then, the local women relied on local moneylenders who charged them high interest rates