Dr. Yunus Receives Nobel Prize for Microfinance Work at Grameen Bank

Most Silicon Valley technocrats will recognize three of the four people in this picture. They are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, and John Doerr from Kliener Perkins Caufield & Byers.

But you might not recognize the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Dr. Yunus spoke about his work in microcredit and the Grameen Bank at a Google company-wide meeting in May 2004.

Microcredit is the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. It has proven to be an effective and popular measure in the ongoing struggle against poverty. Dr. Yunus has a extended description of microcredit here and in his book. Learn more about the Grameen Foundation at their Website or RSS feed.

If you are Java developer and are interested in helping the Grameen Bank, they are coordinating an open source effort called the Microfinance Open Source (MIFOS) project.