Muhammad Yunus is establishing the first European branch of the Grameen model of microfinance in Scotland. Yunus plans to raise £1 million through the newly established Grameen Scotland Foundation to set up the organization. So far, more than £100,000 have been raised.
In an article with The Scotsman, Yunus outlines the need for support.
“In Scotland, and in the rest of the UK, there are pockets of poverty and welfare dependency which have not changed in the last 40 years. In the West of Scotland, around 300,000 people live in the poorest category of household income. Too many families are blighted by third or even fourth generation unemployment. More than half of the poorest households do not make savings of £10 a month or more.”
Yunus is working with the Glasgow Caledonian University on this project. They will host a central administration office and serve local authority areas of Glasgow, North Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire, and Inverclyde.
The project will have two goals: to encourage and support individual effort to get out of a welfare-dependent, jobless, low income situation, and thus to encourage economic and personal development. The second is to ensure that the Grameen branch reaches sustainability as a social business in its own right.