Yoga and Grameen

Here's a post that combines my reading with yoga.

Muhammad Yunus's Banker to the Poor is one of the titles I have shortlisted for the World Citizen Challenge.

In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in using micro-credit to battle poverty. The idea of micro-credit is simple: lend small loans to the very poor (usually around USD 200 or lesser) and allow them to start their own business as a means of sustaining themselves. Each loan is usually repaid within 6 months to a year - yet it offers a proven hope against poverty. In fact, the repayment rate is about 95% - and specifically, results have shown that women are more likely to put the profits from their business back into the family: for the children, for education, better nutrition, to improve the standard of living etc.

What has this got to do with yoga? Some yoga teachers and practitioners have come together to found Yoga Gives Back, an organization to help support the Grameen Foundations. Real yoga is about the practice off the mat. You practice, and something within yourself changes, expands. You see more clearly. You feel more. That is when you recognize that you are connected to this world - and you have a duty to try to be a positive force in this world.

Here's the link, if you would like to contribute to the Grameen Foundation. Or you can help spread the word on your blog.

I leave you with this quote:

Poverty does not belong in civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. That's where it will be. When schoolchildren go with their teachers and tour the poverty museums, they will be horrified to see the misery and indignity of human beings. They will blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhumane condition and for allowing it to continue in such a large segment of the population until the early part of the twenty-first century.

~Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus