Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a banker and economist, was born in Bangladesh in 1940. He studied economics at Dhaka University in Bangladesh. He taught for a few years and then went to the United States to continue his studies. He returned home to Bangladesh in 1972 and started teaching again.
One day in 1976, Yunus visited a poor village in his home country. There he met some women who wanted to make furniture, but they didn't have enough money. He decided to help them and gave them $27 of his own money. They made and sold the furniture, made a profit, and then returned he money to Dr. Yunus. At that point, he saw how very little money could help a lot. He decided to help poor people. A bank loaned him the money.
In 1983, Yunus started the Grameen Bank. This bank loans money to poor people.
Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their work with the poor
In 2009, the bank had 7.95 million customers, and 97% of these customers were women. The success of the bank inspired other people in many different countries to start similar banks. Yunus once said, "Conventional banks look for the rich; we look for the absolutely poor.