Muhammad Yunus Presented with Congressional Gold Medal Today
CEO Sally Osberg snapped this photo today at the United States Capitol, where Congressional leaders presented the founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus, with the Congressional Gold Medal.
“It takes genius to do something simple, and Muhammad Yunus is a genius,” Sen. Dick Durbin said during the ceremony.
Yunus was honored because of his “efforts to combat global poverty,” and has also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Peace Prize. Those are besides many other awards, including our Global Treasure Award just last week at the Skoll World Forum.
Here’s a new interview with Yunus from the New York Times’ Fixes column: “Yunus is best known for his work pioneering and spreading microfinance. Today, microfinance providers reach about 200 million clients globally. In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank has 8.4 million borrowers, 96 percent women. Yunus has also developed many other enterprises that offer an array of products and services to the poor, including Grameen Phone, the largest cellphone operator in the country. Over the past two years, his work has come under attack by the government of Bangladesh, which we have reported on here, here and here in Fixes. Below, in an interview conducted a few days ago, Yunus reflects on his life, the role of social business, and the importance of imagination in creating a poverty-free world.”
Read the rest: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/beyond-profit-a-talk-with-muhammad-yunus/
Source: Skoll Foundation
