WASHINGTON, DC - When 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Sunday, December 10, what is expected to be one of the largest global viewing audiences in the ceremony's history will watch via satellite and the Internet.

Friends and supporters of Dr. Yunus will gather to view the ceremony in cities and villages in more than 20 countries.

In the United States, events will be held in communities in Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Washington, DC.

Other gatherings will be held in cities throughout Europe, where Eurovision will carry a live feed, as well as in Angola, Argentina, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, India, Kenya, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, and in Bangladesh, home to Prof. Yunus, who is known as "the father of microcredit" and "banker to the poor."

Microcredit Summit Director and RESULTS Founder Sam Daley-Harris, who is organizing online viewing events globally, said, "Many of us have been involved with microcredit from just after Muhammad Yunus launched Grameen Bank in 1983. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee's recognition of microcredit as a key tool in helping people break out of poverty and enhancing prospects for lasting peace has elevated small, collateral-free loans to a new level of international recognition. We are celebrating their wisdom and Professor Yunus' vision."

The official award ceremony will be carried live online at the Nobel Committee's site, www.nobelprize.org, beginning at 1:00 PM in Oslo (7:00 AM EST) and will be available on-demand at the site within two hours after the ceremony ends, approximately 4:15 PM Oslo time.

Alex Counts, president of the Grameen Foundation, on whose board of directors Dr. Yunus serves, is helping organize the gatherings to view the online feed from Europe, plus a live television viewing in Norway.

Counts said, "Muhammad Yunus is a leader whose practical actions benefit millions of people not only in Bangladesh but in many other countries. As people gather all over the world to celebrate his remarkable accomplishments, we hope it inspires them to take real action to support microcredit and its mission of empowering the poor, especially women, to build new lives for their families."

In Bangladesh, Channel I will carry the ceremony live and retransmit it, enabling viewers with satellite access to the network in many nations to see the presentation. Bangladeshis are expected to watch the ceremony in large numbers as Professor Yunus becomes their first countryman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

People from more than 80 countries have sent messages and support to Professor Yunus via the Grameen Foundation Web site, www.grameenfoundation.org/nobelprize. Messages include thanks to Yunus from Kenya for "a victory for the world's poor," from Malaysia for moving us "one big step forward towards peace," from Peru, where a group "will be giving women we work with in the Peruvian Amazon money for microloans," from a New Zealander who accepted Yunus' "challenge to create a Social Business Model to create a Social Entrepreneurs Business Centre," from a Somalian who wants to start a microloan program "when the war is over" there, from an Italian who said Yunus' best-selling autobiography, Banker to the Poor, "really changed my life," and from an American pastor for inspiring "the rest of us to turn our thoughts into actions."

Volunteers with the grassroots organization RESULTS - who have lobbied on microcredit for two decades - will use their house parties to write letters to the Senators asking for increased support for microcredit.

"Winning the Nobel Peace Prize is an absolutely amazing achievement, but much more is needed," said Joanne Carter, Director of Global Initiatives at RESULTS. "Poverty measurement tools must be used around the world to ensure that microcredit programs are reaching the poorest people. We will ask the U.S. Congress to ensure a law requiring USAID to certify these tools is enforced so the life-changing potential of microcredit reaches those most in need."

In addition to the official online video, Nobel Peace Prize-related programming will be available via television over a period of several days. In the United States, CSPAN is expected to air a feed of the ceremony.

On December 10, CNN International will air a one-hour special on Professor Yunus and microcredit programs at 11:00 AM EST live in North America (available on DirectTV in the United States), Europe, Asia, South America, and Latin America. CNNI will replay the program on those networks throughout the day at 5:00 PM EST and 10:00 PM EST.

CNNI will rebroadcast the special program on Monday, December 11, at 5:00 AM EST and on Tuesday, December 12, at 11:00 PM EST.

In announcing its decision to award the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize jointly to Muhammad Yunus and to Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below," the Nobel Peace Prize Committee said, "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," cited microcredit as "one such means," and credited Yunus and Grameen Bank for showing "that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development."

Grameen Foundation USA

Grameen Foundation USA

Based in Washington, D.C., Grameen Foundation is a global non-profit organization that combines microfinance, technology, and innovation to empower the world's poorest people to escape poverty. It has established a global network of 52 partners in 22 countries that has impacted an estimated 11 million lives in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East. The Foundation was created in 1997, inspired by the work of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. Its Growth Guarantee Program, initially capitalized at $31 million when it was launched in late 2005, is a collaboration with Citigroup that projects leveraging more than $180 million in local currency financing for MFIs globally over the next five years.

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