Bringing peace to our planet

Jianin & Shannon
Balwyn High School
Australia

I sat at the couch looking at the firm woman who sat in front of me. She didn't look like how I imagined she would be. The outline of her wrinkles showed me the lady who worked hard for the past 30 years to support her children. The door opened and the translator walked in. He exchanged a few words with the lady. She then passed the translator an old notebook. The translator nodded and told me that it was her diary. I held the diary in my hands, and opened it to look inside the 30 year old notebook. Here is a translation of the diary:

1/12/1976
Today is Ali's birthday; I can't give him a present. I know he is very disappointed but he doesn't show it.

I am working very hard to make the bamboo tools to earn some money, but no matter how hard I try, the buyer still doesn't give me enough. I feel very helpless, but there is no other way for me to earn money.

3/12/76
I have heard of a bank that lends money to people like me. The bank will charge interest. I worry that I will not be able to pay back the money so I am still thinking if I want to borrow or not. Siti and Baba were crying for food. I tried to explain that the food was to be kept for tomorrow, but they wouldn't stop crying. Then I started to scold them, still they wouldn't stop crying. I got so frustrated with myself that I hit them. I feel really bad for doing so. I don't blame them for not understanding the state that we are in; I only blame myself for not being able to give them a good life.

4/12/76
A man named Mohammed Yunus approached me today. He offered to lend me money to buy the bamboo. I wasn't sure how to react, but the man explained the process to me in detail. He looks like a nice man; but from what I had experienced, this world is not a nice place; people in this world are very self- fish, then I turned down his offer.

6/12/76
I went down to the bank today, hoping that they will give me a loan. As I went through the door, I saw the man from yesterday. He offered me a drink with a kind smile, and then told me how he went through to convince the bank to give people like us loans. He told me that he started this since 1964 in Bangladesh. In the beginning, the bank told him that poor people like us are not creditworthy so he then told the bank that he would sign the loan papers and take the risk of paying the loans if the people didn't return it. To his surprise, the people returned the money.

After hearing what he had said, I decided to take up what he had offered me yesterday. I couldn't believe it when he passed me the money on my hand. I will work extra hard from now on to pay him the money.

END OF DIARY.

I looked up at the woman and she smiled at me. I was amazed by how much one person can put a smile on someone's face because of their determination to do so.

Mohammad Yunus is the winner of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize

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