Bulletin Board

Good afternoon.

I'm Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh. I'm honored to be invited by XiAn Musical Radio Station to attend this very special event in memory of our dear friend, Xiong Ning.

Xiong Ning is a visionary Chinese girl who made a commitment to devote herself to help the poor people in China. The traffic accident clearly stopped her young life. But, she leaves the most beautiful story and the most precious spirit for all of us, for you, for me, for the rest of the world.

Juliet Wu's translation of my book, Banker To The Poor, somehow inspired her. I had no idea that the book would inspire to the extent she has expressed herself through her letter. Juliet Wu translated her letter and sent it to me. I was amazed by the passion she has expressed, the commitment she has demonstrated in her letter. We're all touched by the determination she has expressed in bringing end to the poverty in the whole of China. Her deep thought over the cause of poverty and the solutions to fight against it will touch everybody all over the world.

How much I wish that I could work with her to make her dream come true. It's so unfortunate at such an early age she had to leave this world, leaving her dream unfulfilled. Now it is our turn, on this particular day, to commit ourselves to promise that we'll carry the spirit of Xiong Ning and fulfill her dream and make sure we end poverty on this planet.

With Xiong Ning we promise nobody in this world will remain a poor person. We'll create museums for poverty; the only place people can see poverty will be the museums, poverty museums. We'll introduce an award, the Xiong Ning award for helping poor people. And it will be named as Xiong Ning Yunus Award to female volunteers. This award will be given every year to remember Xiong Ning and also remember our commitment and recognize the person who contributed the most in bringing end to poverty. And I'm sure Xiong Ning will be very happy from the other world that her effort will not go in vain, will carry the torch and make sure the work she left incomplete, we'll complete it on her behalf.

Today, Xiong Ning has brought us together. Her memory will inspire us and we'll make a commitment to fulfill the dream of Xiong Ning. And we'll revisit every year what she hoped, what she wanted to see this world to be, and see how much success we bring to it, how much contribution we could make in making this dream come true.

I express my heartfelt condolences to the family of Xiong Ning and all her friends. Today, the only thing I can tell the members of the family, we're all Xiong Ning. We are your family members. All the people in China and all the people who commit themselves to ending poverty in the world are members of your family. And we'll work together and keep the memory of Xiong Ning alive. She will inspire us to move forward.

Thank you very much.

The video message can be seen at:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/grameenamerica/videos/11/

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