Before venturing to Bangladesh at the age of 18, Mitsuru Izumo had believed that many people in the impoverished country were dying of starvation.
But with an internship at Grameen Bank, a nonprofit organization founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus that offers microloans to the poor, he came to a realization: Malnutrition — not starvation — was rampant.
"Until visiting Bangladesh, I thought that the country was short on food," Izumo said. "But instead, I found they had plenty of rice."