The 12th International Federation on Ageing conference in Hyderabad is underway. In welcoming delegates the Secretary General of the International Federation of Ageing Dr Jane Barrett explained that from years of working in India flexibility was often called for. That was the case as the conference got under way.
The first keynote speaker was Professor Muhammad Yunnis, Nobel Laureate and the founder of the micro finance movement. Five minutes into his speech he was interrupted by the arrival of a new Deputy Minister and the focus shifted onto the ceremonial and political. That out of the way Professor Yunnis resumed. What an amassing man as in a gentle and warm manner he told the story of his vision, the total eradication of poverty from the world. This excerpt from his website
“It is a message of hope, a programme for putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long’. This work is a fundamental rethink on the economic relationship between the rich and the poor, their rights and their obligations. The World Bank recently acknowledged that ‘this business approach to the alleviation of poverty has allowed millions of individuals to work their way out of poverty with dignity. Credit is the last hope left to those faced with absolute poverty.”
He told of how they now have 8.5 million borrowers of, not micro credit, but what he now calls “nano credit”. Using the same principles that started his work they have now established pension funds, health funds, eye care hospitals, small business start ups etc. He talked about 2 kinds of business, those that exist to make money and those that exist to solve problems. “Making money may make you happy but making other people happy will make you super happy.” Such is the essence of creating a social business.
His message to older people is, banish the word retirement, when you become free of the constraints of an employer, use your freedom to “rediscover yourself as a human being” and find problems to be solved using all your accumulated knowledge and skill.
It was a privilege to listen to and be moved by Professor Yunnis’ humility, insight and profound wisdom.