“Colombia Desafía la Pobreza”
Special Guest: Muhammad Yunus - Nobel Peace Prize,
Founder Grameen Bank

August 7 2006, New York. The AlvarAlice Foundation will be one of the institutions organizing the event “Colombia Desafía la Pobreza” (Colombia Challenges Poverty) that will take place in Bogota and Cali from October 2nd through 5th. Professor Mohammad Yunus will participate as the guest of honor and keynote speaker. This effort has been lead by Desafió Colombia, who has been preparing the event with the support of the Fondo Nacional del Ahorro (National Savings Fund), the Consejería Presidencial para la Mujer (Presidential Council for Women) and Give to Colombia Foundation among others.

The main goal of his visit to Colombia is to share his experience in microcredit to interested organizations and entrepreneurs. Consequently Mr. Yunus will be meeting with heads of ministries and high government officials so as to provide some help to public sector institutions in the development of financial programs targeted to micro-entrepreneurs.

Professor Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, whose objective has been to reduce poverty through more than 2 billion dollars in loans to the most vulnerable sector of population.

Greameen is a microcredit system that is conferred without collateral, and destined to benefit the poor with the objective of making them invest it in activities that will generate income to improve their quality of life. It is based on mutual trust, responsibility, participation, creativity and solidarity above all. Grameen microcredits are only applicable to micro-entrepreneurships capable of providing support to their recipients and are not intended as charity or paternalism.

Professor Yunus is also responsible for many innovative programs that have benefited the poor. In 1974, he developed Gram Sarker’s idea (community governments) as a means of local government based on the participation of the rural population. This concept was a success and was later adopted by the government of Bangladesh in 1980. He has taught in Universities across the United States and Bangladesh and is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions as a result of his commitment to poverty alleviation.

Other distinguished guest such as Maria Otero, -specialist in microcredit for women heads of households in Latin-American- and Luis Alberto Moreno –current President of the Inter-American Development Bank-, will also participate in this event.