An exposure visit to Yunus Centre may be organized at any time and for a duration of one or two weeks. It will start with a briefing at Yunus Centre about its functions and organization goals. Exposure visit candidates can be arranged to meet the executive director, CFO, etc, if they wish. A field trip can also be arranged ranging from a day trip, to five days trip, according to the length of the exposure visit one wishes to attain. Candidates who are really interested to know how social business’ can function in our world today should do this exposure visit. For the candidate, this visit can serve as an eye-opener to the innovations and ideas that can lead to social benefit.
About Yunus Centre and Grameen Social Business
Since October 2006, when Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize, local and international interest in Professor Yunus' work has continuously increased. In order to address this ever-growing attention, an organization aimed primarily at promoting and disseminating Professor Yunus' philosophy, with a special focus on social business, was created in the form of the Yunus Secretariat. In July 2008, the Yunus Secretariat was renamed the Yunus Centre. The Yunus Centre has since been the one-stop resource centre for all Grameen social business related activities both globally and in Bangladesh. It keeps the spirit of the global social business movement high through various events, social media, publications, and websites. The Yunus Centre also helps forge lasting productive relationships among all social business institutions around the world. The Centre is chaired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and its Executive Director is Ms. Lamiya Morshed.
Professor Yunus has long been promoting the creation of Grameen social businesses, which he believes will address the problems still left unsolved in the world and not addressed within the present capitalist system. In simple terms, a Grameen social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated entirely to achieve a social goal. In social business, the investor gets his/her invested money back over time, but does not receive any dividend beyond that amount. The Grameen Bank is a prime example of social business, with poor people being its shareholders! The ultimate goal of the Yunus Centre is to create “poverty museums”, after bringing a total end to poverty. The Centre strives to engage individuals and organizations in creating, promoting, and maintaining social business by spreading the concept through workshops, internships, projects etc.