VietNam Net Bridge - As news agencies reported that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize 2006 to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, though it was midnight, many people who are working for hunger eradication and poverty alleviation organisations in Vietnam, informed each other about the good news. That's because Muhammad Yunus has had a strong emotional attachment to Vietnam for more than a decade.

It was very hard for Dr. Muhammad Yunus, trying to establish the Grameen Bank with only $27 from his own pocket. We visited many branches of Grameen Bank in various regions in Bangladesh. We had meetings with many families. At that time, Grameen gave us surprise after surprise. Clients of this bank are poor and very poor women. We didn't believe our eyes when we visited their houses, which were huts roofed by the leaves of a tree like sugarcane in Vietnam. Those houses were totally empty, without beds, clothes, and even bowls and plates.

One special thing that we learnt from Prof. Muhammad, the founder of the Grameen Bank, the father of "microcredit", is the theory of hunger and poverty and the solution to this problem. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

Returning to Vietnam with knowledge and skills in microcredit management under Grameen Bank Approach and the images of the bank's talented and honest leader, we contributed to the establishment of the Fund of Affection for Poor Women in Vietnam.

The fund was founded in 1992 by the Vietnam Women's Union Central Committee with the assistance from the Japan Community Development Fund, the Asia Pacific Development Centre (APDC, 1993). The Secretary General of APDC at that time, Dr. Getubig, encouraged us to apply the model of Grameen Bank in Vietnam.
Grameen Trust also loaned this project $21,000 on soft terms, including a commitment: "if this model is successful in Vietnam, the Grameen Trust will reinvest the loan and interest money in the project in Vietnam".

At the invitation of the Vietnam Women's Union, Professor Yunus paid his first visit to Vietnam in 1995. During this visit, he met Vietnamese leaders like former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women, Truong My Hoa, officials from the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs. At those meetings, Professor Yunus highly praised Vietnam's resistance wars for independenceand unity and expressed the belief that Vietnam could successfully fight hunger and poverty. He was also ready to share his experience in hunger eradication and poverty reduction with Vietnam.

After this visit, Vietnamese leaders like Phan Van Khai, Truong My Hoa and Vo Thi Thang paid a visit to Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank. Officials of the SBV also studied the model and experiences of the Grameen Bank.

Two big organisations in Vietnam that apply the Grameen method, the 'CEP Fund' in HCM City and the 'Fund for Affection' of the Vietnam Women's Union Central Committee, have become members of the Global Grameen System. Former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet visited the branch of the 'Fund for Affection' in Soc Son District and encouraged the development of this model in Vietnam. After that, US First Lady Hillary Clinton also paid a visit to this branch. Prof. Muhammad Yunus came to HCM City in May 2005 and June 2005, after his first visit to Vietnam in 1995.

His Vietnamese students have applied and developed the Grameen method in Vietnam effectively. The three organisations that officially use the Grameen Bank model in Vietnam, the Fund of Affection, CEP Fund, and the M7 Microcredit Network, cover 16 provinces and 130,000 poor and very poor families. Those organisations can now become microcredit institutions under the Decree 28/2005/ND-CP of the government. The impact of the Grameen method on the operations of the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) and the Policy Bank in Vietnam are also clear as those banks have used the method of lending in groups.

Hundreds of thousands of poor people in Vietnam who benefit from the Grameen method know Muhammd Yunus as the founder and developer of the method of lending to the poor effectively. Thanks to his method their lives have changed for the better.