Social business centre launched at US college
The first Yunus Social Business Centre at an American institution of higher education was launched at Becker College at Worcester in Massachusetts on April 5.
Dr Robert Johnson, the president of the 230-year-old college, made the announcement at the historical Mechanics Hall in the presence of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Prof Yunus delivered the college's presidential speech on the occasion, Yunus Centre in Dhaka said in a statement yesterday.
The Centre will work on creating sustainable solutions to problems the society now faces, focusing on many areas, including healthcare for which Massachusetts is a hub of global excellence.
Yunus asked the young people to think differently, to use their creativity to create the world they want to live in and not to seek jobs.
He congratulated Becker College for the establishment of the Centre which would work to create transformational change in the US but also beyond.
The speech by Yunus attended by leading businesspeople, representatives from banking and finance, members of academic community, was met with standing ovations.
Long time Congressman from Massachusetts Jim McGovern attended the event and had a meeting with Yunus after the speech.
Johnson conferred the highest honour of the college, the Presidential Medal, on Yunus at the event.
Yunus attended special meetings on April 5-6 with members of business community, policymakers and healthcare leaders in Boston to discuss possible collaboration on social business in healthcare for Bangladesh and the rest of the developing world.
He delivered speeches at each of these events which were held in Boston at UMass Memorial Medical Centre, at Bank of America, at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and at an event organised by Bain Capital, an investment fund, and New Profit, a fund for philanthropy.
During his visit, Yunus had a lunch meeting with the senior students of Becker College and carried out field visits to Summit ElderCare, a healthcare centre taking care of frail elders in Worcester.
He also visited East Boston Neighbourhood Health Centre which provides primary healthcare to the community in East Boston.
Yunus, Johnson and David Jordan, the new director of Yunus Social Business Centre at Becker College, were present in the meetings.
US Representative Michael Capuano and State Representative Jeffrey Sanchez attended the discussion on healthcare access for all in Boston where Yunus delivered the keynote speech.
On the final day of his visit, Yunus met renowned medical oncologist Paul Goss, founder of Global Cancer Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to discuss collaboration in field of cancer care in Bangladesh.
He later visited the Boston branch of Grameen America Inc with GAI President Andrea Jung, which is providing collateral-free loans to members of the Latino community, all women, in Boston to invest in their small businesses.
The branch has reached the milestone of $1 million in loans outstanding in March 2016, according to the statement.
Yunus interacted with the borrowers who originally came from Brazil, Colombia and Dominican Republic, and with the staff of the branch.
Grameen America now operates 18 branches in 11 US cities, with the number of borrowers -- all low-income women -- exceeding 65,000.
Comments