Steven Holt: “I rise in strong support of this legislation to award Dr. Muhammad Yunus a Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts to…”

“I rise in strong support of this legislation to award Dr. Muhammad Yunus a Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts to fight global poverty. Muhammad Yunus is widely known as the banker to the poor, and is one of the world's great humanitarians and an economic genius. In 1974, as Bangladesh was struggling with a terrible famine, this professor of economics led his students out of the classroom and into a village nearby. There they discovered that impoverished people could not get ahead because of the oppressive business practices of money lenders who exploited their poverty and desperation. With just $27, as we have heard today, of his own money, Professor Yunus liberated 42 victims of these unfair practices from their debt burdens. And from that first experience with the power of a small amount of money, Dr. Yunus developed the concept of microcredit. With just a few dollars to work with, the poor are able to become entrepreneurs.”