Counting down "Ten Most Exciting Stories of Change" ....No 8

No 8....Small-scale Banking

Sounds boring doesn't it? Well, its actually quite an exciting idea and concept.

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In the wake of the 1974 famine in Bangladesh, US educated Bangladeshi economist, Muhummad Yunus, was inspired to do something about the poverty in his own country. He saw a need for the poor in Bangladesh to be given loans with reasonable terms to help them recover from the devastation.

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Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in 1976, which provides a chance for millions of the world's poorest people to work their way out of poverty. It's a small-scale banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity. The bank focuses on lifting people out of poverty and they lend to beggars, home buyers and students to name a few.

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The bank provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh who don't have access to traditional banks, and it's clients are mostly women. As of May 2007, the bank had 7.16 million borrowers and 2,422 branches, covering more than 93 per cent of the villages in Bangladesh. Grameen Bank members have a household income 50% higher than those in villages who aren't involved with the bank.

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The founder Muhammed Yanus won the Nobel Peace Prize for life changing work in 2006.

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I'm going to be writing more about Muhammed Yanus. What I love about him is that he could have used his talents to become filthy rich instead he has used his gifts and talents to change the world.

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For the thinkers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW-4gJmXy5M

Counting Down...The Ten Most Exciting Stories of Change....No 9

Number 9.....The Abolition of Slavery

The transatlantic slave trade, which led to the forced removal of up to 12 million African people over 300 years, is one of the ugliest periods in human history. By the end of the eighteenth century, three out of four people on earth lived under some kind of slavery. The slave trade changed Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and North and South America economically, demographically and culturally. The trade in human cargo also created a global market and stimulated major economic growth and the transfer of vast amounts of wealth into the hands of European and American companies. But through a mass movement that brought together enslaved Africans, anti-slavery campaigners and ordinary members of the public, the slave trade came to an end during the mid-nineteenth century. The abolition of the transatlantic slave trade is one of the modern greatest moral triumphs. This makes the re-emergence of modern slavery all the more shocking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery

Check out the following links to make a difference with the re-emergence of modern slavery.

http://www.projectak47.com/ak-47/default.aspx?di=0

http://www.thea21campaign.org/index.php/en/home/home-page

Counting Down The Ten Most Exciting Stories of Change....NO - 10

I promised on the weekend that on my blog I would be writing about the ten most exciting stories of change. Each Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday or whenever I get around to it I'm going to be counting down the most exciting stories. Stories like these are what I am most passionate about because it proves that what we do can make a difference
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Did you know that over 2 billion people live on less than US$2 a day?
over 1 billion people on our planet live on less than US$1 a day?
and almost 1 million people die every year because of poverty?
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Addressing problems on this scale is scary and overwhelming!
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Excuse me for sounding corny, but I believe that if we all become contributors we can all make a difference together.
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....10.... Millennium Development goals
The best news of all is that the world has a plan, the know-how and the money to end world poverty. The plan is know as the Millennium Development goals, and it aims to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
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The goals include things like providing health services to pregnant women, ensuring environmental sustainability and sending children to school.
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This short clip explains the 8 goals beautifully!