Poverty is not created by poor people, but by the system we live in, said 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. His pioneering work in international microcredit programs have brought thousands of people out of dead-end poverty and into the economy as self-supporting entrepreneurs.

On Monday, Jan. 14 Yunus met with members of UST’s Center for International Studies Micro-Credit Program during a private gathering that preceded his address to the World Affairs Council at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston.

Working with the nonprofit organization Kiva.org, the UST program used its microcredit fund to disperse loans to two women in Benin City, Nigeria and Cape Coast, Ghana.

UST’s Micro-Credit Program is dedicated to assisting aspiring entrepreneurs who are living below the poverty threshold by financing their small businesses.

In 1983, Yunus established the Grameen Bank in an effort to fight poverty in rural Bangladesh. The bank lends small amounts of money to poor individuals, mostly women, thereby aiding in poverty reduction by giving people the opportunity to support themselves.