This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Impoverished Latinos in Provo are benefiting from the revolutionary microcredit idea of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
The Bangladeshi has worked with professors and students at Brigham Young University to create nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that give microcredit - small loans of about $200 - in impoverished areas of Utah County and villages in Mozambique.
Warner Woodworth, a professor of social entrepreneurship at BYU, struck up a working relationship with Yunus about 10 years ago. Woodworth took a group of about eight students to hear Yunus speak at a conference on the East Coast, and Yunus was impressed with the large showing from Utah, Woodworth said.
"He was blown away by the fact we went across the country," said Woodworth, who had already started a couple of microloans before he met Yunus.
Yunus subsequently came to BYU to speak to an overflow crowd. Woodworth then formed a faculty committee on poverty, overseen by Yunus, who also sits on the editorial board of an academic journal Woodworth started, Journal of Microfinance.
The collaboration between the two led to BYU students and faculty raising about $8 million and starting more than 20 microcredit organizations, which this year will extend about a million microloans globally. The money comes from private donations, much of it contributed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns BYU. The concept defies traditional banking practices, which cater to customers with collateral. Microcredit allows a person to purchase a dairy cow or sewing machine and repay the money without interest for others to use.
That Yunus won the award was no shock to his nephew, Ujal Ibrahim, a junior at BYU studying microbiology and communications.
"We have expected it for a while, but we thought maybe it would be the economics prize," Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim and his older brother, Kushal, applied to BYU as a result of Yunus' connections with the school.
Kushal Ibrahim earned a Master's of Business Administration about four years ago and is now working in Texas.
Ujal Ibrahim met several BYU students who volunteered as interns at Yunus' microcredit bank in Bangladesh, Grameen Bank, and "made a connection" with the students.
"BYU attracted me most of all the schools I applied to. With my family connections, high academics standards, and the moral atmosphere, this was the place for me," said Ibrahim, who is Muslim.
BYU also became the first U.S. university to award Yunus with an honorary doctorate.
Ned Hill, dean of BYU's school of management, has hosted Yunus during campus visits.
"He is a world-class individual, who has helped the poor of the world become self-reliant," Hill said.
Self-reliance is something Woodworth wants for Latinos in Provo. The NGO started by Woodworth and his students, MicroBusiness Mentors, gives out $500 loans and holds training sessions to help Latin American immigrants start their own businesses. Woodworth anticipates about $130,000 in donations in the next two years and hopes to bump up the amount of money loaned. He also plans to open a branch in Salt Lake to help the Polynesian community.
"We want to get gangs off the streets and reduce violence by providing viable jobs for people," Woodworth said.
He credits Yunus for the inspiration and dedication he has shown to his students and to those who have benefited from microloans. His dedication has spanned from hosting CEOs to learn about microcredit in Bangladesh to speaking at this year's Stadium of Fire Fourth of July celebration.
"The thing I love about him is everything I've proposed, he's said yes to," Woodworth said. "He's always done what he said he would do and given his time and energy willingly."