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| | Location: Home » Loans » Economic Conditions » Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World | November 21, 2008 |
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| Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World | 
 enlarge | Author: Alex Counts
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $15.81
You Save: $14.14 (47%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 181921
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 410
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0470196327
Dewey Decimal Number: 332
EAN: 9780470196328
ASIN: 0470196327
Publication Date: April 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Microfinancing is considered one of the most effective strategies in the fight against global poverty. And now, in Small Loans, Big Changes, author Alex Counts reveals how Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus revolutionized global antipoverty efforts through the development of this approach. This book presents compelling stories of women benefiting from Yunus?s microcredit in rural Bangladesh and urban Chicago, and recounts the experiences of different borrowers in each country, interspersing them with stories of Yunus, his colleagues, and their counterparts in Chicago.
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| Customer Reviews:
WARNING: This Book Might Encourage You To Change The World October 2, 2008
Alex Counts is one of those rare visionaries who also has the gift of storytelling. As you read the histories of the women in this book, you'll be captivated both by Counts' empathetic connection with them and his passion for the work of Grameen. The author is straightforward about the struggles and successes of a movement which has become one of the most powerful weapons against poverty in our time. After reading it, don't be surprised if you start chasing harder after your own big dreams.
What a story! September 5, 2008
I've been interested in microlending since I first heard to Muhammad Yunus 20 years ago. This is a great story of a great breakthrough by an author who was actually there with Yunus when they rolled this out. If you read the earlier Give Us Credit, this is updated in the personal stories and the worldwide spread of this idea. I loved it.
Critical Issue, Great Read May 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Until recently I considered foreign aid, The World Bank or big private foundations as the ways to assist the world's poor, but Alex Counts changed that. Counts describes an idea too often overlooked by those who are bound by traditional models or who want to hold tight control, but it is an idea too important to miss. An expert in the history and process of providing microfinance loans to the poorest of the world's poor, Counts describes a solution that has been proven to work because it empowers loan recipients rather than makes them dependent on others. The poor as entrepreneurs ... an exciting idea.
In a book about serving the poor, stories alone can be manipulative and facts alone can be lifeless, but Counts combines the two in his engaging, clear description of the history and impact of microfinance. I came away with high respect for Dr. Yunus, the work of the Grameen Bank, and the resourcefulness and courage of the women whose stories he tells. I also finished with new hope that there really are effective ways to break the cycle of poverty for millions.
 Small Loans Fulfill Big Dreams May 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
You might not think that Chicago, U.S.A. and Chittagong, Bangladesh have much in common, but in his book, Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World, Grameen Foundation Director Alex Counts shows that they do. Each region has determined women of strong spirit struggling for their family's survival. Sometimes, all it takes to set them on the path to entrepreneurship is a small bank loan and a small group of like-minded others to support them and hold them accountable.
This idea is the genius of microcredit: banking for people too impoverished to provide the required collateral for a regular bank account. After achieving remarkable success in Bangladesh, where the Grameen Bank is now sustainable, founder Muhammad Yunus turned his attention to developing the system in other countries, including U.S.A. Alex Counts strings the continuing story of Mohammad Yunus's life and work together with fascinating accounts of women in Chicago and Bangladesh, along with brief histories of the two regions. Development professionals and all good-hearted people will be challenged by the stories of government cowardice in attacking poverty and individual courage in overcoming it. Above all, the book sets forth the larger vision of the common good that is so often lost in today's global society.
--Anna H. Bedford
Little Rock, AR
Small Loans, Big Dreams April 15, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dear Friends,
I have just finished an amazing and inspiring book that I'd like to make you aware of - Small Loans, Big Dreams - by my good friend, colleague, and advisor Alex Counts, President and CEO of the Grameen Foundation. For those of you who may have read his other book - Give Us Credit - you will love catching up with some of those women from Bangladesh and from Chicago he brought alive in 1996. Women like Shandha, the "mother hen" of her credit center whose son became one of the first recipients of Grameen's high education loan and has now completed his master's degree. Or Omiyale and Queenesta, two African-American woman living in Chicago who were part of a solidarity group called Les Papillons (The Butterflies). You'll love getting caught up with how their lives have been evolving as they continue to face the obstacles and bumps in the road that the poor all over the world face.
Even if you didn't read Give Us Credit, you'll love reading about these women and their struggles now. Alex is an amazing storyteller and you quickly get caught up in their lives as they participate in microfinance programs half way around the world from each other. You see so quickly just how microfinance transforms lives, although not always in the nice, neat way we would like to see it function. Alex is nothing if not honest as he lets his subjects' stories unfold. It is fascinating to see the intertwining of the modifications the Grameen Bank and other microfinance institutions have made over time and the lives of real people as those changes affect their lives and their choices. As Alex says, ". . . their uneven but steady progress has reaffirmed my belief in microfinance, and also my desire to ensure that the model continues to improve and serve the poor better through more responsive products."
At the same time, this book is not just about these women. Rather, it is fundamentally a book about how Professor Muhammad Yunus and the microfinance movement are changing the world. Throughout the book, Alex provides his own insights into microfinance as it has evolved from the origins of the Grameen Bank to that of a broader social and business movement. After reading the book, you will understand much better why microfinance is today at a crossroads, what the divisions are about, and why Fonkoze in Haiti keeps its focus on the core business of microfinance - reducing poverty - by refining and extending the tools (whether financial, educational or health care related) that it makes available to the poor, wherever they are on their journey out of poverty. This is a big book about small loans that will help you understand the gigantic movement they have spawned. When you get the time, do pick it up and take a peek inside . . . it won't be easy to put it back down.
Enjoy!
Anne Hastings
Fonkoze Haiti
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