As emergencies do not allow for such luxuries, these people simply started helping where they saw a real need; sometimes with or without training - without asking those who say it cannot be done - they just started making a real difference in people's lives and in the environment. In essence, these people all saw structures that were broken, and rather than just donating money to inadequate organizations, set about restructuring the systems at the root level.

Furthermore, the results validate views from both sides of political spectrums, and offer a working relationship with governments and organizations, rather than contributing to the all-too-common 'us-or-them' mentality. These leaders or transformers of new approaches to true change all saw the prevailing theories of life weren't working, and further saw an opportunity to try something new and different - having a 'think-and-do out of the box' spirit.

Banker to the Poor (by Mohammed Yunus - publisher: Public Affairs 2003)- discusses the journey of Mohammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and father of what has been termed 'micro-credit' or 'micro-lending', who began his ground-breaking discoveries in 1976. Yunus was a college economics professor in Bangladesh when he questioned why much of natural land left untilled while so many starving people were living in the village.

His curiosity grew to question why the people were poor and to learn what their life situations were. In his review of prevailing economic research, he found that studies asked why countries are poor, but did not specifically target the people living below the poverty level. In short, he found no research into the origin and development of poverty - rather only unworkable recommendations to increase development and prosperity for the country and it was assumed all people would be raised up.

Due to his witnessing the famines that visited his country in the aftermath of monsoons and other natural disasters, he was moved to try to end famine in his country. He began to visit the poorest people in his village to see if he could help in some way. He met a 21-year-old woman weaving baskets for a living. She had to borrow the equivalent of 22 cents from a middleman to buy the bamboo to weave her baskets, and in return had to sell the finished baskets to the lender for only a 2-cent profit.

How could she ever break out of the cycle of poverty under this arrangement? She was not lazy or stupid (as is commonly thought about poor people); she was working; but the system had her enslaved. If she had only 22 cents, she could buy her own materials and sell them herself at a fair price in the market. To break her cycle of poverty only required 22 cents. This was Yunus' first stunning revelation.

He and his students met with the 42 poorest people of the village and found that the total moneys needed for them to buy their own initial goods (i.e. bamboo, rice, etc.) was $27.This was his next earth shattering revelation; with $27, 42 people could break out of their cycle of poverty. How simple, yet no one else saw this opportunity. In an instant he loaned these people the money and told them to repay him whenever they could - and without interest.

These people did break their poverty cycle, and they also repaid their loans (so they were also honest - contrary to another common misconception about the poor).

While Yunus felt a bit of relief, he was still ashamed that he was a part of a society that could not give $27 directly to a handful of skilled workers to earn a living. He eventually got a guaranteed loan from the bank to lend money to many more of the poor, and all began to come out of poverty, and with 98% repayment of all loans.

Throughout the decades, Yunus constantly met with cynicism and doubters, but eventually he convinced even the World Bank and the UN of the efficacy of his ideas.

He opened a bank just for poor people, the Grameen bank (village bank) - called micro-credit banks; at first one bank, then expanding to many more banks throughout the country. Eventually, other countries asked for his help in opening similar banks. Even his banks and their system of lending are unique, including notions such as lenders as bank owners.

Over time the banks and their offshoot organizations sponsor education, health, investment, retirement savings, life insurance and other astonishing ideas for the poor to take advantage. For example, they are helping the borrowers register to vote, and they are voting for politicians that help them. We see a recent example in June of 2004, India's poor population surprised the ruling party who ignored them during the current technology boom, by voting them out of power in favor of party that promises help to the poor.

The overall findings from the success of micro-credit banks showed that the only cause of poverty was the lack of ability for poor people to receive credit. Another old theory that was disproved was that poor people needed training before they could work.

Yunus argued, and then proved with results, that if the poorest people had skills to survive all these years, they had inherent skills to earn a living. Another myth was laid to rest; the majority of the successful, honest, hard-working, intelligent borrowers are women.

Beginning in the mid 1980's Yunus was tagged to create banks for the poor in the US. Then Governor Bill Clinton successfully set one up in Arkansas. From Chicago's poorest neighborhoods to South Dakota's Lakota Indian tribes, micro-credit banks began offer true help to the most needy of the country by offering them loans to start up their own businesses.

Yunus says in his book, "Like food, credit is a human right'. (Credit is ending poverty by the) "freeing of credit from the bondage of collateral... (to end) a long era of financial apartheid."

To date micro-credit banks have helped bring 50 million families out of poverty. His aim is to have helped 100 million by 2005. By 2015 he projects that half the world's poverty will be eradicated. After a few moments of benumbed shock and awe over this realization, truly this is the best news the world has had in millennia.

When you come out of shock, read the book and then help the world.

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas the laws of the country and in some cases the world. Bill Drayton revolutionized the EPA starting in the late 1970's by developing an umbrella method to control pollution and offer economic incentives (rather than fines).

Like Yunus and all the 'social entrepreneurs', Drayton met with fierce resistance, but with the use of the media and other like-minded people, he achieved landmark laws to protect the earth on an international level.