One of the four books I read during my two week stay in Masca, Honduras last March was Dr. Muhammad Yunus' Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. An autobiography published in 2003, the book details how Yunus developed the idea of microcredit in his native country of Bangladesh.

Within the first few chapters of this book, I was immediately humbled by Yunus' simple solution to help the disenfranchised of Jobra, a small village just north of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

In 1976, Yunus, an economist with a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and a professor at Chittagong University, started down the road that would lead to the founding of his microcredit institution Grameen Bank by loaning, from his own pocket, what amounted to a meager $27 to local crafts people.

I wanted to help these forty-two able-bodied, hard-working people. I kept going around and around the problem, like a dog worrying a bone. People like Sufiya were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institutions in the country did not help them widen their economic base. No formal financial structure was available to cater to the credit needs of the poor. This credit market, by default of the formal institutions, had been taken over by the local moneylenders. It was an efficient vehicle; it created a heavy rush of one-way traffic on the road to poverty. But if I could just lend the Jobra villagers the twenty-seven dollars, they could sell their products to anyone. They would then get the highest possible return for their labor and would not be limited by the usurious practices of the traders and moneylenders.

It was all so easy. I handed Maimuna the twenty-seven dollars and told her, “Here, lend this money to the forty-two villagers on our list. They can repay the traders what they owe them and sell their products at a good price.”

“When should they repay you?” she asked.

“Whenever they can,” I said. “Whenever it is advantageous for them to sell their products. They don’t have to pay any interest. I am not in the money business.”

Maimuna left, puzzled by this turn of events.

Often we think we can only contribute to the greater good through large initiatives that require great amounts of money.  However, Yunus' book gives proof to how a small gesture can easily change the life course of many.  A minute gesture can lend itself to another.  Thus becoming the key that creates the domino effect that becomes global transformation.

Read a chapter from Banker to Poor at www.bankertothepoor.com.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
Muhammad Yunus
Published by PublicAffairs, 2003
312 pages

The next book from my Masca reading list will be Kindred, a deeply emotional, beautifully written historical novel, considered to be science fiction author Octavia Butler's masterpiece.

A summary from eNotes:

On her twenty-sixth birthday, Dana, the protagonist of Kindred, is overcome by nausea and finds herself on the bank of a river. When she sees a young boy drowning in the river, she jumps in and saves him. She is shocked when the boy's father points a gun at her head; it is clear that he is suspicious of Dana, a young black woman. Suddenly, she finds herself back in her living room. Although she was by the river for minutes, she has been away from home for only a few seconds.

Traumatized by the event, she calms down and begins to recover her wits. Suddenly she finds herself next to the same boy, named Rufus, in a burning bedroom. As she saves him again, Dana realizes that Rufus is calling her when his life is in danger. She discovers that the year is 1815, and although he is a white, Southern slave-owner, he is the future father of the first woman listed in her family records—Hagar Weylin. The woman listed as Hagar's mother, Alice Greenwood, is a free black child and Rufus' friend. Dana realizes that she has just saved the life of her ancestor.

Dana decides to visit Alice, but ends up watching as patrollers drag Alice's father out and whip him. He is a slave, and has come to visit his family without permission. A patroller grabs Dana and tries to rape her. She hits him and returns to her life in 1976. When she shares her experiences with her husband, Kevin, he has a hard time believing her. He realizes that Dana can only come back to the present when her life is in danger.

I had been holding on to Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time for several months. Due to a busy schedule and a lack of concentration, I kept putting it off reading the book. But this was the first book I decided to dive into during my stay in Masca.

The biography of a ordinary man who was divinely lead to his purpose, Three Cups of Tea tells the story of how Mortenson built more than fifty schools for girls in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.

While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time.

Three Cups of Tea is an unforgettable adventure and inspiring story of how one person can change the world. Don't believe it can happen? I challenge you to read the book and not feel motivated to take on any form of global injustice.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Published by Penguin, 2007
368 pages

Next up from my March 2009 reading list is Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Grameen founder Dr. Muhammed Yunus.