Professor Muhammad Yunus and The Green Children to Open First Grameen Eye Hospital...

Professor Muhammad Yunus and The Green Children to Open First Grameen Eye
Hospital in Bangladesh on May 12, 2008
Structured as a Social Business Enterprise, Facility Can Potentially Grow To
Perform 50,000 Examinations, 10,000 Cataract Operations Annually

DHAKA, Bangladesh, May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The first Grameen Green Children
Eye Hospital, projected to perform 50,000 eye examinations and 10,000 cataract
operations annually, will be opened by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Hon'ble Adviser, Incharge of Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh at 4:00 PM on Monday, May 12.
The international pop music duo Milla Sunde and Tom Bevan of The Green
Children raised $500,000 from donations and CD/DVD sales for the first eye
hospital in Bangladesh. The two highly talented musicians are committed to
working to raise funds for a second eye hospital that will require a total of
about $1 million to complete.
The Grameen Green Children Eye Hospitals, modeled after the highly
successful Aravind eye hospitals in India, will be structured as social
business enterprises described in the new book by Professor Yunus, Creating a
World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. The
Aravind system in India currently does 1.7 million examinations and 250,000
operations a year.
Once the first eye hospital fully operational, it will work to become
self-sustaining gradually and perform a projected 50,000 eye examinations and
10,000 cataract operations per year.
Both hospitals will charge patients based on their ability to pay, with
wealthier clients charged at a normal rate and the poor at subsidized.
Everyone will receive the same high-quality treatment. While all patients will
be expected to pay something, no one will be denied care. Those with no funds
will be asked to pay later, when they can and at free of charge in extreme
cases.
The key to the success of the model is a system that delivers very high
quality and standard eye care services at an affordable cost by using high
volume and having highly trained technicians doing most of the examination and
preparation work so that ophthalmologists can focus on the operations. The
model has been so successful in India that representatives of some of the
leading medical schools in the United States have visited Aravind to bring
some of the lessons learned back home.
A rising international band, The Green Children recently signed to the
world's largest music label, Universal Music Group. The duo comprises Milla
Sunde from Norway and Tom Bevan from England. Their debut record with
Universal Records will be launched later this year. In addition to their
flourishing music career, Tom and Milla have been working for several years
with the foundation they jointly established.
The Green Children Foundation supports microcredit, education and
healthcare and is focused on engaging young people in supporting positive and
effective solutions to conquer world poverty. For further information, please
visit http://www.thegreenchildren.org.
In 2006, The Green Children made their second trip to Bangladesh to film a
music video for their song "Hear Me Now," which tells the story of a
successful women borrower of Grameen Bank. This video has been used in
fundraising for the eye hospitals and will receive a world wide release later
this year.
Grameen Bank, and the concept and methodology of microcredit that it has
elaborated through its 30 years of work, have contributed to enhancing the
chances of peace by reducing poverty. Grameen Bank Project was founded by
Professor Yunus in the village of Jobra, Bangladesh, in 1976. In 1983 it was
transformed into a formal bank under a special law passed for its creation. It
is owned by the poor borrowers of the bank who are mostly women. It works
exclusively for them. Borrowers of Grameen Bank at present own 94 per cent of
the total equity of the bank. Remaining 6 percent is owned by the government.
Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo,
Norway, in December 2006.
SOURCE The Green Children Foundation

Ginger Greager of Greager Public Relations for The Green Children,
+1-212-896-3833, ginger@ggpublicrelations.com; Jim Lewis, Executive Director
of The Green Children, +1-310-459-5400, M: +1-310-428-6862,
jim@thegreenchildren.com