Photo in the News: New Bird Discovered in Colombia: "Photo in the News: New Bird Discovered in Colombia
October 10, 2006—This is one rebel that's been tied to a very serious cause.
The fist-size bird with punk-rock plumage is a new—and possibly threatened—avian species that makes its home in the last remnants of a remote Colombian cloud forest.
Dubbed the Yariguíes brush finch, the small bird was first found in 2004 in an isolated region of the eastern Andes mountain range known as the Serranía de los Yariguíes. The region and the finch are both named for the Yariguíes, an indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountain forests and reportedly committed mass suicide rather than submit to Spanish colonial rule in the 1500s.
Over the past three years researchers Thomas Donegan and Blanca Huertas have regularly hiked into the remote Andes forests to help document avian species diversity. In a paper submitted in February to the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, Donegan and Huertas describe finding a bird that differs from other known brush finches because it has a solid black back and no white markings on its wings.
During further fieldwork in 2005 the scientists were able to capture one of the birds and take photographs and a blood sample before releasing it back to the wild. The images and DNA analysis cemented the finch's status as a new species.
'There are about two to three new birds found in the world every year,' Donegan told the Associated Press. 'It's a very rare event.'
And the d"
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers
Stefan Lovgrenfor National Geographic News
October 13, 2006
They call him the "banker of the poor." Now Muhammad Yunus can add Nobel Peace Prize winner to his resume.
The Bangladeshi economist and his Grameen Bank won the 1.4-million-U.S.-dollar prize on Friday for pioneering a new category of banking known as micro-credit, which grants small loans to poor people who have no collateral and who do not qualify for conventional bank loans. (Related: Nobel winners in medicine, physics, and chemistry.)
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The program has enabled millions of Bangladeshis, almost all women, to buy everything from cows to cell phones in order to start and run their own businesses.
Similar micro-credit projects have helped millions around the world lift themselves out of poverty.
In 1997 fewer than eight million families had been served by micro-credit worldwide, according to the 2005 State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report. By the end of 2004 some 3,200 micro-credit institutions reported reaching more than 92 million clients, according to the report.
"Muhammad Yunus is a revolutionary in the best sense of the word," said Sam Daley-Harris, director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign in Washington, D.C. "He has promoted independence, not dependence, among millions of poor people."
Seed Money
Yunus, 65, founded the Grameen Bank, which means "rural bank" in Bengali, in 1976.
The idea was kindled two years earlier, as the South Asian country was suffering from a famine. (Related photos: Bangladesh's deadly monsoons.)
Working as a young economics professor at Bangladesh's University of Chittagong, Yunus lent the equivalent of U.S. $27 from his own pocket to 42 women in the village of Jobra who had a small business making bamboo furniture (Bangladesh map).
Since then, the bank he founded has made an estimated 5.7 billion dollars in loans to more than six million people in Bangladesh, 96 percent of them women.
Anyone can qualify for the loans, which average about U.S. $200.
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers
nobel peace prize orginal copy Page 2 of 2
One of the bank's most notable success stories has been its so-called "village phone program."
Women obtain loans to acquire phone systems built from simple handsets and solar chargers, which function as pay phones in rural areas.
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Email to a Friend
RELATED
Africa Farms Get Massive Pledge to Spur "Green Revolution" (September 15, 2006)
Bangladesh: Photos, Map, Facts, and More
U.S. Forgives Multimillion-Dollar Debt to Aid Guatemala Forests (October 10, 2006)
The concept of "village phone lady" is now known throughout Bangladesh and has spread to other parts of Asia and Africa.
Repayment is driven by social pressure. Loan recipients are placed in groups of five. Members can only apply for future loans once the group catches up on some of its outstanding debts.
That system encourages social responsibility and has a repayment rate in excess of 98 percent, the bank says.
"No one is more motivated than the poor to get out of poverty," said Alex Counts, who worked with Yunus in Bangladesh for six years and now heads the Grameen Foundation USA in Washington, D.C.
"A hundred dollars in capital may be the only thing that stands between them" and getting out of poverty, he said.
"You give them a fair deal—not a subsidized loan but a market-interest loan—and they're able to put their motivation, skills, and business savvy to work."
Preventing War
Yunus's strategy has been to do the opposite as conventional banks, says Daley-Harris of the Microcredit Summit Campaign.
Accordint to Daley-Harris, Yunus "would say: 'If the banks lent to the rich, I lent to the poor. If banks lent to men, I lent to women. If banks required collateral, my loans were collateral free. If banks required a lot of paperwork, my loans were illiterate friendly. If you had to go to the bank, my bank went to the village."
The bank even runs a project called the Struggling Members Program, which works with up to 80,000 beggars in Bangladesh.
Many people had expected that the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to someone involved in peace negotiations.
However, in its citation, the Nobel Peace Prize committee, which is based in Oslo, Norway, said, "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty."
Daley-Harris agrees, saying achieving peace is about more than stopping war.
"A key part of preventing strife is that people have a stake in their communities and are empowered to care for their children," he said. "This is what micro-credit programs have been able to provide."
Stefan Lovgrenfor National Geographic News
October 13, 2006
They call him the "banker of the poor." Now Muhammad Yunus can add Nobel Peace Prize winner to his resume.
The Bangladeshi economist and his Grameen Bank won the 1.4-million-U.S.-dollar prize on Friday for pioneering a new category of banking known as micro-credit, which grants small loans to poor people who have no collateral and who do not qualify for conventional bank loans. (Related: Nobel winners in medicine, physics, and chemistry.)
Enlarge Photo
Email to a Friend
RELATED
Africa Farms Get Massive Pledge to Spur "Green Revolution" (September 15, 2006)
Bangladesh: Photos, Map, Facts, and More
U.S. Forgives Multimillion-Dollar Debt to Aid Guatemala Forests (October 10, 2006)
The program has enabled millions of Bangladeshis, almost all women, to buy everything from cows to cell phones in order to start and run their own businesses.
Similar micro-credit projects have helped millions around the world lift themselves out of poverty.
In 1997 fewer than eight million families had been served by micro-credit worldwide, according to the 2005 State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report. By the end of 2004 some 3,200 micro-credit institutions reported reaching more than 92 million clients, according to the report.
"Muhammad Yunus is a revolutionary in the best sense of the word," said Sam Daley-Harris, director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign in Washington, D.C. "He has promoted independence, not dependence, among millions of poor people."
Seed Money
Yunus, 65, founded the Grameen Bank, which means "rural bank" in Bengali, in 1976.
The idea was kindled two years earlier, as the South Asian country was suffering from a famine. (Related photos: Bangladesh's deadly monsoons.)
Working as a young economics professor at Bangladesh's University of Chittagong, Yunus lent the equivalent of U.S. $27 from his own pocket to 42 women in the village of Jobra who had a small business making bamboo furniture (Bangladesh map).
Since then, the bank he founded has made an estimated 5.7 billion dollars in loans to more than six million people in Bangladesh, 96 percent of them women.
Anyone can qualify for the loans, which average about U.S. $200.
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers
nobel peace prize orginal copy Page 2 of 2
One of the bank's most notable success stories has been its so-called "village phone program."
Women obtain loans to acquire phone systems built from simple handsets and solar chargers, which function as pay phones in rural areas.
Enlarge Photo
Email to a Friend
RELATED
Africa Farms Get Massive Pledge to Spur "Green Revolution" (September 15, 2006)
Bangladesh: Photos, Map, Facts, and More
U.S. Forgives Multimillion-Dollar Debt to Aid Guatemala Forests (October 10, 2006)
The concept of "village phone lady" is now known throughout Bangladesh and has spread to other parts of Asia and Africa.
Repayment is driven by social pressure. Loan recipients are placed in groups of five. Members can only apply for future loans once the group catches up on some of its outstanding debts.
That system encourages social responsibility and has a repayment rate in excess of 98 percent, the bank says.
"No one is more motivated than the poor to get out of poverty," said Alex Counts, who worked with Yunus in Bangladesh for six years and now heads the Grameen Foundation USA in Washington, D.C.
"A hundred dollars in capital may be the only thing that stands between them" and getting out of poverty, he said.
"You give them a fair deal—not a subsidized loan but a market-interest loan—and they're able to put their motivation, skills, and business savvy to work."
Preventing War
Yunus's strategy has been to do the opposite as conventional banks, says Daley-Harris of the Microcredit Summit Campaign.
Accordint to Daley-Harris, Yunus "would say: 'If the banks lent to the rich, I lent to the poor. If banks lent to men, I lent to women. If banks required collateral, my loans were collateral free. If banks required a lot of paperwork, my loans were illiterate friendly. If you had to go to the bank, my bank went to the village."
The bank even runs a project called the Struggling Members Program, which works with up to 80,000 beggars in Bangladesh.
Many people had expected that the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to someone involved in peace negotiations.
However, in its citation, the Nobel Peace Prize committee, which is based in Oslo, Norway, said, "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty."
Daley-Harris agrees, saying achieving peace is about more than stopping war.
"A key part of preventing strife is that people have a stake in their communities and are empowered to care for their children," he said. "This is what micro-credit programs have been able to provide."
Standing Tall
UPLIFTING: In July, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, once presented to Muhammad Ali.
Standing Tall
By Mary Anne Potts
UPLIFTING: In July, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, once presented to Muhammad Ali.
When a letter from Ghana landed on the desk of Bob Babbitt, 53, co-founder of the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), he was moved. Born without a right tibia, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, 29, was writing to ask the CAF for a bike to pedal 370 miles (595 kilometers) across his country in order to dispel the stigma that Ghana's disabled are incapable of more than begging. When Yeboah's 2002 ride stirred a media frenzy, Babbitt contacted Lookalike Productions about the remarkable story starting to unfold. The new documentary, Emmanuel's Gift, narrated by Oprah Winfrey, has won over audiences at screenings across the country. Here Babbitt—who is also co-founder of the Muddy Buddy Ride and Run Series, a seven-city, Adventure-sponsored event benefiting the CAF—talks about Yeboah's impact.
Yeboah received a $25,000 grant from Nike (matched by the CAF) and won the attention of Oprah Winfrey and fellow Ghanaian Kofi Annan. Did you foresee such a reaction?
Not at all. But the difference between hearing someone's story and seeing it on film is immense. With his grant money, Emmanuel is sending disabled kids in Ghana to school and providing them with opportunities. Those kids will start to change the Ghanaian perception of disabled people. Even though no one would question it if Emmanuel stayed in the U.S., he wants to be in Ghana. He's galvanized the disabled individuals of his country.
How did Yeboah get his prosthetic leg?
After his cross-country ride, we invited Emmanuel to do the 56-mile (90-kilometer) biking portion of the CAF triathlon in San Diego. He'd never left Ghana before. We then explored whether he was a candidate for a prosthetic leg. In Ghana, people who have amputations don't live, or they get a useless prosthetic. After Emmanuel had the operation in the U.S., he did the CAF race again, cutting his time from seven to four hours. He also did the Muddy Buddy in 2003.
Disabled athletes are encouraged to enter the Muddy Buddy race, which kicks off in San Jose, California, in June. Do they inspire other racers?
The impact is remarkable. Sandy Dukat, a skier sponsored by the CAF, came out to the Chicago Muddy Buddy in 2003. Just before she got to the mud pit at the end of the race, she pulled out an Allen wrench, unscrewed her $36,000 prosthetic leg, held it above her head for the racers at the finish line, and dove in. The crowd went wild.
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