Ewha University to Honor Poverty Fighter

from The Korea Times

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Muhammad Yunus, a poverty fighter, will receive an honorary doctorate degree from Ewha Womans University Tuesday.

Yunus, 67, managing director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

The Bangladesh poverty fighter invented ``Grameen Micro Credit’’ in 1976 _ a program that lends money to underprivileged people without security and started to extend the system to other countries in 1983.

``Yunus has introduced new models to wipe out poverty. Especially, he has enabled women to take a leading role in economic activities by helping them in extreme poverty,’’ Lee Bae-young, the university president said Thursday.

Yunus also plans to give special lectures under the theme, `` Putting Poverty in Museums’’ and ``Microcredit and Social Business to Create a Poverty-Free World’’ at Ewha from Sept. 10 to 11.