Professor Muhammad Yunus:
In the mid-seventies, I was back in newborn Bangladesh, and out of frustration with the terrible economic situation in my country, I decided to see if I could make myself useful to one poor person a day in the village next door to the university campus where I was teaching. Since I did not have a road-map or a mentor, I had to fall back on my basic instinct to do that. I stubbornly went out to find my own way. Luckily, at the end, I found it. That was microcredit, Grameen Bank, and most recently, “social business.”

The social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated entirely to achieving a social goal. It is a business where an investor aims to help others without taking any financial gain himself. At the same time, the social business generates enough income to cover its own costs. Any surplus is invested in expansion of the business or for increased benefits to society. Take a look around you; there is no dearth of problems in this world.

Focus on a social issue. Build a social business around it.
I encourage today’s young people to take a pledge that they will never enter a/the job market to seek jobs from anybody. They’ll be job-givers, not job seekers. Every single human being is capable of changing the world. It can start as a tiny little action. Even the biggest problem can be cracked by a small well-designed intervention. That’s where you and your creativity come in. You are born in the age of ideas.

You will take your grandchildren to the poverty museums that you helped create. [Poverty will be history.]

Roshaneh Zafar:
Dr. Yunus told me 15 years ago, “Roshaneh if you make a mistake and you don’t succeed, just tell the world it was Dr. Yunus’s fault.” I reckon if Dr. Yunus had not given me the confidence, I would have never had the courage!

I often remember Dr. Muhammad Yunus’ words that if we were to wait for the ideal circumstances we would never bring about change. When one is in the business of transforming lives our greatest challenge relates to changing mindsets.

Low-income households and particularly women are often cowed down by daily survival. Our biggest challenge at Kashf Foundation has been to instill a belief that tomorrow will be different, that poor families too can hope and plan for a better future. Women at first resist taking loans and investing in their businesses, after years or perhaps centuries of patriarchal thinking. Yet once they get convinced of the idea of microfinance, women are unstoppable.

The next challenge for the microfinance industry is to embrace responsible finance. Many markets in the world are now reaching maturation while economic circumstances for the bottom of the pyramid have become extremely straitened. Against this backdrop, microfinance institutions need to practice truth in lending and establish a sound eco-system for the sector as a whole.

The most rewarding part of my work is seeing real-life changes. Only a few weeks ago I was visiting a long-time client in Kasur whose name is Baji Sharifan. Six years ago, Sharifan bought a small spindle machine second hand for U.S. $150. Now she has four such spindles working simultaneously, with 10 women packaging the thread. Her husband, Masood, left his job as a small time-clerk to work for her.

I was lucky for I had a range of teachers – my father who taught me about social justice; Dr. Yunus, who taught me that poverty is created by institutions and that the poor are not poor not because they are inherently weak;, my board members, who have guided me throughout the careening turns as we grew our institutions; and my clients, who have taught me to laugh even in the worst of situations. I have learnt from so many people to learn from my successes and, most important, from my mistakes.