Right in our backyard is an organization that is working hard to alleviate poverty around the world. The organization is Freedom from Hunger located in Davis. On Sunday, a member of this organization's Ambassador Council, Dr. Muhammad Yanus, will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Freedom from Hunger will be hosting a viewing party starting at 2PM at their office in Davis. You can RSVP at 530-758-6200 ext. 36 or by emailing jbeeman@freedomfromhunger.org.

Dr. Yunus, known as the banker to the poor, sparked the present day microcredit business model by giving tiny loans to the very poorest people in Bangladesh. His first loan, the equivalent of $27, was given to a group of very poor women in a small village in 1974, Two years later, he founded the Grameen Bank in order to make these kind of loans to a wider audience most of whom had no collateral and no chance of getting a loan from a traditional bank. The movement known as microcredit had begun and spread around the world assisting thousands of people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. By 2006, when Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize, the bank had helped more than six million borrowers, the vast majority of them women.

In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee stated: "Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means." Dr. Yunus will be donating his share of the $1.4M in prize money to a variety of charities.

Interestingly, Dr. Yunus graduated from Vanderbilt University which he attended on a Fullbright Scholarship. Charity comes full circle.

Freedom from Hunger, a powerhouse in the microcredit business, bases its work on Dr. Yunus' model.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive