Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus Touches Bay Area
Posted by Kath Delaney, Founder and Chief Executive Officer on December 18, 2006
About 10 years ago, I was standing in the Fairmont Hotel lobby in San Francisco in my capacity as communications director for the State of the World Forum, when I had one of those life moments—I realized I was witnessing history and profound influence, power, and grace walking by my path. The press pool was covering President Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa Gorbachev leaving the Hotel with another delegate of the forum, the then little known Dr. Muhammad Yunus. http://www.grameen-info.org/.
Dr. Yunus, an economist, attended the forum to present his work combating poverty by providing small loans to rural women in Bangladesh. Gorbachev, then Governor Vicente Fox from Mexico, and the other heads of state at the meeting were deeply moved by Yunus’s humility, graciousness and profound presentation on alternatives to poverty.
Last Monday, Dr. Yunus won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. His work on behalf of poor rural women and his socially driven entrepreneurial work of the Grameen Bank has inspired hundreds of microcredit NGO’s around the world.
I knew then that Yunus had inspired and made a significant impact on the several hundred delegates at the meeting, including several leading women’s rights advocates such as the late Congresswoman Bella Abzug and Nell Merlino, founder of Take our Daughters to Work. (In the last few years it was renamed to include sons.) http://www.daughtersandsonstowork.org/. Nell is now the CEO of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, the first online micro lender. http://www.count-me-in.org/.
Here in the Bay Area, my colleague Adriana Dakin and I are working as consultants to Julie Abrams, the CEO of Women’s Initiative for Self Employment (http://www.womensinitiative.org). She is another up-and-coming leader in the field of microenterprise. When Julie spoke earlier this month at her organization’s fundraiser, she recognized founder Paulette Meyer, who this week received a Jefferson Award for her work as a local hero. In its 18-year history, Women’s Initiative has served 15,000 women, radically changing the lives of women and families by providing empowering business training and micro-loans.
Some of the most prominent Bay Area businesswomen team up with Women’s Initiative to make a positive impact on the success of high-potential, lower-income women. The program has been so successful at helping women raise their earnings that the organization is expanding to three additional counties around the Bay Area in 2007. We know Julie works long hours to achieve the organization’s mission.
This holiday season, we owe her and other changemakers a gift of gratitude for finding effective ways to improve the lives of thousands of women every year in the most tangible and inspiring ways.
As this year comes to an end please consider making a contribution to Women’s Initiative. To learn more and donate now please go to: http://www.womensinitiative.org.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and joy filled Holiday Season!
