Salam alaikum, hero of the poor.

Soft knee in Dhaka: Kerstin Humberg meets the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. She has many questions. Benefit large corporations Social Business only to new markets? And equally important: what I just put on? Black consultants divide is not on.

 

Silently I mustered the young Bengal behind the sales counter. His face - a single question mark. Behind him are stacked meters high note pads, stapler, and envelopes. In a mixture of sign language, English and Bengali, I explain to him what I need: cards to learn vocabulary. At the end of next week we have our final examination in Bengali.

Checkered board is still before me, when my phone rings: unknown participants. Again. Almost daily I get anonymous calls. Choosing a random number combinations seem to be popular here, and have the third one hand caller identified as a foreigner, can not conform to a more calm. "I want to be your friend!", Then it sounds from the phone. My classmates in the school experience. Mostly we ignore therefore unknown numbers immediately.

20 hours until the meeting - the countdown has started

Because I'm expecting an important call, I still ran. Outside, the traffic noise, in the store schallt Bengali pop music. I hardly understand a word. Only so much: "Yunus ... tomorrow ... 16 clock." A joke? "Ke Bolch?" - He that saith, I know. Indeed, it is the office of Muhammad Yunus, the inventor of microcredit, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and "Social Business" visionary. Tomorrow he could meet with me, he gives me half an hour. A week ago until his office manager had me an appointment in prospect. That would work so quickly, I would have never imagined. For a moment, my heart slips into the trousers. Then I have to say.

FOR SERIES

Private

A counselor sets of: Kerstin Humberg flew from Hamburg two years as a consultant to the World. Now doctorate the 31 - year-old graduate geographer and wants for two months in Bangladesh entrepreneurial ideas to explore poverty reduction. They reported in Uniblogs of her life in the land of Bengal.

The countdown is running. Still 20 hours to our first meeting. What are the main points? How does the recording device? And what do I move on? My adviser's suits and blouses, I left home. In black Cordblazer I would perish from heat. My American Mitschülerin Liz pleads for a Traditional Salwar Kameez. Not a bad idea. Meanwhile, I have to these pajama-like combination of continued substance pants, long shirt and scarf accustomed. Furthermore, even Yunus himself prefers clothes "Made in Bangladesh".

The next afternoon I shower in the green moto-taxi through Dhaka. The traffic is unpredictable. Hopefully I am not too late. It goes well, a little later I stand in front of the Grameen Bank - with dusty clothes and zersausten hair. The Grameen Bank provides development assistance with no large sums of money, but awards for 25 years microcredit. One idea that its inventor Muhammad Yunus the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in revenue. Yunus office manager, a young lady in pale blue sari, leads me to his office on the fourth floor. The door is open. We are alone.

"Salam alaikum," I say. The friendly man with the silver-gray hair behind the desk smiles. Where I learn Bengali, he asks. What I like Bangladesh and how long I will remain. I answer obediently and see myself in his office. A wooden desk, a telephone, shelves that are under the weight of the collected books turn.

He has given notes on my concept paper made?

Much work in Yunus room reminds me of the office of my old geography professor in Hamburg. Not least of the missing computer. Almost trust my eyes when I make a printout of my promotional approach is directly in front Yunus see. Has some ER markers and comments made it?

PERSONAL

REUTERS

Muhammad Yunus was in 1940 in the port city of Chittagong in Bangladesh was born. He grew up as a third of a total of 14 children of a wealthy family, his father was a jeweler and goldsmith. Yunus studied economics in Bangladesh and the USA. In 2006, he and his Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel Peace Prize. "Previously, I had to scream, so few people listen to me," he said blogs ONLINE. "Now it is when I whisper, and the whole world listens to me."

About half an hour we will discuss about the "Social Business" approach - through entrepreneurial solutions to social problems, where the investors voluntarily to refrain from distribution of profits. Especially in the context of the current economic crisis were the reactions to his work is extremely positive, says Yunus. "Many people now have the feeling that the traditional profit-oriented economies is not the answer." At the same time growing the overall readiness, one's own knowledge, their creativity, contribute more to solving social and environmental challenges.

Yunus has cyclical approach: "In the future, 'Social Business' is an integral part of the World Economic Forum in Davos," explains the economist. The aim was to develop entrepreneurial prototypes. "It's about tiny seeds to develop. The rest is only a matter of replication - as we are in the micro-credits have seen." The first did it in a small village, then spread them in the whole world.

States and foundations could be with the "Social Business" approach to get away from mere charity towards social investment, says Yunus. Even though it often remains in the correct understanding of his approach the problem, set the recognition that "Social Business" profit-oriented companies do not replace but can complement it, where they are currently inactive, says the Nobel Peace Prize.

And the critic behind the social engagement of international companies only medium-term growth strategies suggest? What if the ultimate goal of these companies only the placement of its own brand in the living environment of the poor? Yunus smiles. "That perhaps the strategy of the company. My strategy is to establish the company for the solution of societal challenges to win. We use ourselves."