Global Grameen Meeting 2009

At Global Grameen Meeting 2009 the worldwide social business community came together in the Autostadt Wolfsburg for the first time.

Today, we look back to an unforgettable event, which not only created a long lasting platform for exchanging experience and knowledge among social business but also led to important decisions and commitments that are now in the phase of realization.



Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Frank A. Dassler from adidas AG
During the Global Grameen Meeting 2009, Grameen Trust and the adidas Group officially agreed on jointly developing a social business solution to offer affordable footwear to the poor. This footwear will also provide reliable protection against the widespread worm infections which are hazardous to health. Today, the Reebok Brand and The Grameen Creative Lab move forward with the next phase of the project: a pilot test in various villages in Bangladesh in the fall of 2010.



Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the first Holistic Social Business Summit with the region of Caldas/ Colombia
Mario Aristizábal Muñoz, the Governor of Caldas, and Prof. Muhammad Yunus decided to launch the first social business movement that aims at bringing an entire region out of poverty – the region of Caldas in Columbia, in which 70% of the population lives under the poverty line. Since last year’s Global Grameen Meeting, The Grameen Creative Lab and the Grameen Trust started operations in Manizales, Caldas, in collaboration with the Poverty Reduction Department of the Government of Caldas with five employees of GCL (three in Caldas and two in Wiesbaden).



Proclamation of Autostadt to host the Global Social Business Summit in 2010 once again in Wolfsburg
Otto Ferdinand Wachs, CEO of Autostadt GmbH, the Service- and Communication platform of Volkswagen Group invited Prof. Yunus to realize the Global Social Business Summit 2010 again in the Autostadt. Prof. Muhammad Yunus has a special relation with the Autostadt. In 1955, together with 26 friends, he traveled by land from Canada to Wolfsburg to buy 3 VW Transporter and travel to Bangladesh. Once arrived there, they sold the transporters and thus financed their trip.

Pictures: The Global Grameen Meeting