Posted by By Nick Rester,
Managing Editor
Michael Okwu and Dr. Yunus
On Friday February 26th, Professor Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for economics and 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom award winner, spoke on his goals and triumphs through Social Business.
Dr. Yunus won the Nobel Peace Price for his foundation of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Through this, he introduced a system of micro-loans into the community to aid the impoverished and help stabilize the economy.
The event was kicked off by school President Richard R. Rush, who introduced Yunus and CNN and NBC journalist Michael Okwu, who would lead the discussion. A short video was played depicting faculty members of CSUCI traveling to Bangladesh to see the impact of Social Business first hand.
Michael Okwu started the discussion off by commenting on the poverty we had just seen in the film.
“70% live under the poverty limit.”Yunus commented.
Okwu asked him how he came up with his idea of micro-loans. The idea came to him, he told us, as he watched the poor people suffering so much under debt from loan sharks.
“I started loaning to people small amounts,” he recolected, “Paying back people’s debts, teaching them how to stay out of debt.”
Currently, he said, Grameen Bank loans: “$100,000,000 a month with average loans of $2,000.”
Yunus defined Social Business as anything but charity.
“The loans pay back the debts. That’s the idea of microcredit. If you take charity it’s not involved with the first person. With charity, someone who is receiving is often of low status.”
Okwu asked Yunus’ goal for the future. He thought a moment, then confidently stated:
“The eradication of poverty by 2030.”
After a standing ovation for the Nobel winner, a trailer was shown for his new film about his endeavor to bring Social Business to America. It is titled To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America and premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
President Rush returned to the stage to award Steven M. Hilton the first Yunus Social Innovation Medal for his contributions towards the movement of Social Business.
During Yunus’ interview, he spoke of many goals for his Social Business, but one certain goal had already come to fruition. The establishment of the California Institute for Social Business which was launched that day on CSUCI’s campus by the Nobel Prize Recipient.
To conclude the event, the faculty of the California Institute for Social Businessing took the stage to pose for a photograph together in front of the new CSUCI logo.
