Nobel prize for anti-poverty work

13 October, 2006 - Published 11:43 GMT

Nobel prize for anti-poverty work

The Nobel peace prize has been jointly awarded to Professor Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank he started. The prize was given for their work in lending very small amounts of money to poor people to set up businesses, especially women in the countryside. Lars Bevanger reports from Oslo:

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in Oslo to the Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. Announcing the winner, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Muhammad Yunus had shown himself to be a leader who had managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people. Mr Yunus is credited as the founder of the concept of 'micro credit', which is the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans.

The award came as a surprise to many here who had tipped someone involved in peace talks as winner this year. Mr Yunus himself told national Norwegian television he was delighted with the prize soon after the announcement was made. The winner is expected to receive the award and 1.4 million dollars in prize money during a ceremony here in December.

Lars Bevanger, BBC News, Oslo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2006/10/061013_yunus.shtml

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to translate visions into practical action: to take action so that dreams or big ideas for the future become a reality

credited as: recognised, acknowledged as, accepted as

the extension of small loans: the giving of, here, making an extra effort to provide loans for very poor people who want to start businesses

qualify for: meet the requirements to be allowed to do something

tipped: make a prediction based on useful information about who would be the winner