This book is the compelling story of the Grameen Bank, one of the most successful development organizations in the world. Founded by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh in 1976, the Grameen Bank has extended small loans for self-employment to more than two million women villagers and has helped lift hundreds of thousands out of poverty. The Grameen Bank's "trickle up" approach has inspired the creation of hundreds of "micro-credit" programs around the world and helped to reshape international development policy.

"If there is one man who has achieved stardom of sorts at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women [September 1995], it is [Muhammad Yunus] who wandered into a desperately poor village . . . and got an idea that is changing the face of banking."--New York Times