A pleasant shock to the world of humanitarian relief came, when Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were announced as winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, marking it the first occasion in decades where an economist has earned the humanitarian award for combating poverty.

Muhammad Yunus is the architect of “microlending,” an innovative banking loan program that helps the poor and needy of his native Bangladesh afford everyday tools— like cell phones or sewing machines to better their welfare.

The announcement by the Nobel foundation, made on October 13th said; “Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries.”

Interest free loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea and so from modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of microcredit that have sprung up around the world.

Speaking to the Nobel Foundation, Muhammad Yunus said; “The one message that we are trying to promote all the time, is that poverty in the world is an artificial creation. It doesn’t belong to human civilisation, and we can change that, we can make people come out of poverty and have the real state of affairs.”

Muhammad Yunus has received a number of international awards in recognition of his work to combat poverty, but little is known of his work to the ordinary person outside of Bangladesh.

Upon hearing the announcement, the 65-year old said he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor.

The rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh. “I would hope that this award will make this message heard many times, and in a kind of forceful way, so that people start believing that we can create a poverty-free world. That’s what I would like to do.”