Yunus Invited to Launch Social Business by Palermo Mayor
Professor Yunus was invited by Mayor of Palermo, Senator Leoluca Orlando to meet him at his office in Sicily's capital on August 7, 2014.
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus was invited by Senator Leoluca Orlando, Mayor of Palermo to meet him at the Mayor’s office Villa Niscemi in Sicily's capital on August 7, 2014. The President of the Municipal Council Salvatore Orlando and the President of the Council of cultures Adham Darawsha attended in the meeting among others. Mayor, already well informed about the concept of social business, wants to launch a social business to address the problem of youth unemployment in Palermo city. He proposed Professor Muhammad Yunus to apply the idea of Social Business in a joint project for women and youth with the use of assets confiscated from Mafia. Mayor Orlando has successfully clamped down on the notorious Mafia of Palermo, and has confiscated a large part of its assets. During his visit to Mayor’s office nearly 50 Bangladeshis came to meet Professor Yunus. Three elected Bangladeshi council members joined the Mayor in his discussion with Professor Yunus. Mayor announced that Bangladeshi community has become the largest foreign community in Palermo as of last month. Still this time, Tamils were the largest community in this historical city of 700,000 people. There are more than 10,000 Bangladeshis in the city. Of 21 city council members, three are from Bangladesh. University of Palermo with 50,000 students offered to confer an honorary degree to Professor Yunus during his next visit and the university Rector expressed his interest in getting his faculty members and students involved in social business project in Palermo. Professor Yunus also had a lunch meeting with the faculty members.
