Empowered Women; One day Field Visit

If you want to meet an empowered woman, a woman who has built herself up from the bottom, if you want to meet a woman that will inspire you with her story, then go to the Grameen Bank villages of Bangladesh.

Photos with Permission by author (KOF)

The women greeted us with standing up in a group, inside the little self made shelter building, placing their hand to their hand to greet. This was actually developed as a way to get the women to look up and build up their confidence. Then they ask permission to start the meeting and sit down on the benches. They all look at us, and some of them meet my smile with theirs. I wonder if they were excited to share, or if many come here to their village, about two hours outside of Dhaka, to learn their stories.

Despite the language barrier and being dependent on a translator, it is very evident that the Grameen loans the women has taken up has helped them build better lives for themselves and their children.

The first group in this village, was initiated by the woman in the picture to the left. She found out about Grameen Bank about 22 years ago at the market and soon became interested. She went to the Branch that was located closest to request becoming a member. The people at the Branch replied that she lived too far away from that Branch office area, and therefore they could not take her as a member. Then they added, if you're interested we will come to your village and requested her to form a group of five people. Five groups was formed shortly after and they all participated in the then one month long orientation. Since the first groups were formed, several improvements to the village conditions have occurred. Some of these signs are that the children attend school, sanitary conditions have improved, some are phoneladies, half of the group have TVs, five have fridges and everyone have Grameen Saving Pensions.

Loans used for various income generating activities The most common things the loans are used for in that village is: for cultivation purposes, vegetable buying and selling, cows, sand & bricks, rice and waterpumps, as well as starting a grocery    store and bamboo to create furniture. 

No End to Hope 
They said there is no end to hope, and therefore they continue to take up Grameen Bank loans to expand on their businesses and better themselves.













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Impressions of the day

Some days I notice things clearer than other days, today I think was one of those days. Perhaps it's not that I saw things clearer maybe it was the rain or  that I couldn't let myself dehumanize the things around me when walking down the streets. I caught myself smiling, thinking of the women from the village visit earlier in this morning. Thinking of how they have empowered themselves through microcredit. I did not smile directly at people, because I'm not supposed to here, which smiling on the streets in various countries is a another story. But certain encounters made me think of how we dehumanize situations in order to cope with it. What are you supposed to do when children swirl around you, with big brown eyes, begging for money? But you know that if you give them anything, especially money, they might not be the one receiving it anyways and that you're actually contributing to a negative situation for the children. But then again, what do I know? I'm just trying to avoid unsafe situations. It tears wholes in my heart when I see people without legs or hands, just laying on the ground with a begging tray.. I want to do something, but what can I really do? I feel weird thinking this way, knowing I'm from a fortunate background.

When leaving to go home today, the rain was coming down so heavily the roads flooded. I've learned to enjoy the traffic jams as rest time, and today several things happened during one. When the car stopped only the main road was flooded, but within 5-10 min the sidewalks were also flooded. I guess I'm learning about what the Monsoons really are.

Perhaps the sun will be out again tomorrow, which hopefully means that I will continue to see things as they are, without anything in between, but that perhaps I learn to find a way to deal with it.
I think going out in the villages on Saturday for a five day field visit with the Grameen Bank will.




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Social Business Day Conference 2011

Lucky me, who happen to have my Grameen Bank internship start in the same week as the 2nd annual Social Business Day Conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The theme this year was Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through Social Business.  As Social Business is on the rise and growing, attending was a unique opportunity. The Yunus Centre, A Hub for Social Business, defines Social Business as such:
"A Social Business is a non-loss divided company. It aims to achieve a social, ethical, and/or environmental goal while being financially self-sufficient"(Yunus Centre pamphlet received at conference).
There are two types of social business as defined by the Yunus Centre:

Dr. Yunus and First Session Panel,Taken by Author (KOF)

Type I:
"Type I refers to social businesses that create a product or provides a service that has a direct social impact. For example, Grameen Danone produces fortified yogurt, Shakti doi, which directly fights childhood malnutrition".
Type II:
"A type II social business functions as a profit-oriented business of which the net profits go towards a trust for the benefit of disadvantaged groups or as shareholder dividends to poor people. Grameen Bank is an example of a Type II social business".
Social Business applied as a way of achieving the MDGs
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus introduced the conference by discussing how the MDGs can be achieved through Social Business. It's simple and transparent, and there is no complex theories behind Social Business, anyone can start a social business. The first step is to find and identify a problem, and then create a social business to solve the problem. As I understand it, that means that the method of solving the problem, or how you solve it can be the social business itself. It's not about making money, nor is it about investing money. If someone is to invest money into a social business, they would only get back what they invested. The Essence behind it is innovation and creativity. It's not about how many people you help, if you help five that is great, it's about taking a step in the right direction to solving a problem. We have the capacity to create a poverty-free world.

Thomas Stelzer,
Taken by author (KOF)

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Thomas Stelzer was also present at the conference as a link between the Social Business Day and the United Nations. Stelzer was on the panel during both session 1 and 2. He addressed that in order to achieve the MDGs there must be political will, development of strategies which are tailored to and implemented in terms of each country's needs, then finally there is a need for financing. His attitudes towards Social Business seemed to be very positive according to my observation and listening.

There was several sistercompanies of Grameen present at both the morning and afternoon sessions. Project Director of Veolia Water talked about the need for safe water, and how social business could be used to solve the drinking water problems in Bangladesh. There is plenty of water here, but not much safe water. Corinne Bazinat the CEO of  Grameen Danone, the affordable nutritious yogurt(shokti). Not only does it provide children with a yogurt to combat malnutrition, but it also employs 179 people, 370 farmers and 820 shokti ladies.


Conversation between Dr.Yunus and local and International students

Social Business is selfless business, and it is business to change the world, with its essence being creativity. It's powerful because one individual can do it on their own. 

Do you see a problem? Do you know of a problem in your society? Be it, health, education, equality, you name it... If you can identify it, then create a solution, and make a social business. 

Among the people present in the sessions
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Thomas Stelzer, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs,Saori Dubourg, President, Regional Functions and Country Management, Asia Pacific, BASF( Malaria nets), Corinne Bazinat the CEO of  Grameen Danone, Masaharu Okada, Executive Director, Grameen Creative Lab at Kyushu University, Hans Reitz, Founder, Grameen Creative Lab, Prof, Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Dean, Business School at North South University (Bangladesh), Shahid Ahmed, Founder of Grameen Fiberglass, Rokia Rahman, President of Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs, Sadeq Khan, Contributing Editor at Weekly Holiday, Riaz Khan, Director of Yunus Centre at A.I.T.

Newspaper article about the Social Business Day.

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Microcredit as Tool Resolving Poverty

The Second day of the internship we learned about the different loan and saving types. I will write about it this weekend in more depth after I have been out in the field and seen it again for myself. 

Social Commitment 

There must be social commitment present to resolve poverty. Without social commitment, poverty will not be resolved. Rich people are called businessmen when they get credit from a bank, but when poor people get credit the term is that they are caught in debt. This is not necessarily the case, and it is claimed that this view must change to resolve the issue of poverty.. Before Grameen Bank microcredit there was no opportunity to get a loan for poor people. They were dependent on loansharks to get loans. With the Grameen Bank opportunity, they can become independent. Before, grandfather was poor, father was poor, self is poor, children will be poor, and grandchildren will be poor. Now, self can be employed, child can get university education and grandchildren parents are a doctor and they can also go to school. The Grameen Bank does not caught people in debt, rather they give people an opportunity for a better life by providing loans for income generating activities. The loan taker can when the loan is paid back stop being with the Grameen Bank at any time. Keep in mind that there is other organizations out there who use the term microcredit, but it might not be the same type of microcredit as Grameen Bank. Microcredit is supposed to have an positive impact on poor people's lives by providing loans for income generating activities. The loans are not provided for the Grameen Bank to generate an income.

Another Perspective

To add another perspective to this, about loantakers being caught in debt or not. When I myself, get a loan for higher education with the Norwegian Loan Government, I consider myself lucky, not caught in debt. I’m lucky because I can get a higher education and create a good life for myself even when paying back the loan. Therefore, think about it again if you think Grameen Bank are keeping poor people caught in debt - the alternative is loansharks, and we all know what loansharks does to people. 

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Grameen Bank Internship: Day One

Taken by author with permission.
Grameen meeting in field 

Grameen Bank Internship.
The rain was coming down when riding in the CNG Rickshaw to the Grameen Bank Headquarters this morning. It was a crazy ride there.  It felt as how it might be to be in a fenced in area, with green fences, while moving. Children were playing in the water filled gutters, and people had covered their stands with plastic to shelter it from the monsoon rain.  When we finally arrived the Headquarters for the first day of the internship, one side of my green and yellow colored Bangladeshi clothing was wet from the temporarily half flooded roads.

I was very excited when entering the building for the internship. We met all the other interns from different countries from around the world. It certainly will be exciting to get to know them all! After receiving the internship schedule, we learned about what to wear, what to eat and drink and other practical information.
The Grameen Bank structure was explained and laid out.

Introduction of Grameen Bank. 

The Beginning of the Grameen Bank.
Before Grameen Bank existed there was no opportunity for poor people to lend money from an institution. When loaning money from an institution/ bank, a person must have collateral such as property to be an acceptable loan-taker.  Poor people could borrow money from non-institutions such as loan-lenders/loan-sharks, that charged very high interest rates. However this system often exploited the borrowers rather than benefitted them.  Some of the important features of Grameen is that the members (borrowers) are owners of the bank. The members own over 95% of the Bank.

Taken by author with permission.
Grameen meeting in field.

Structure of Grameen Bank. 

Head Office
Field Offices:
Zone Office (40) 
6-8 Area Office
1. Zonal manager: management and monitoring
2. Departments
Area Office (268) 
6-8 Branches
1. Area Manager: Boss of branch manager. Approve members and loan proposals
2. P.O
Branch Office (2563) 
1. One Branch Manager
2. One 2nd Officer (accounting)
3. (4-8) Centre manager: conduct centre meetings
4. One messenger: delivers documents
Big Branch Office has around 30-40 villages.
Small Branch Office has around 15-20 villages.
Centre (3-10 groups) 
Standard is 60 members, meaning 10 groups.
1. Centre leader
2. Associate Centre Leader
Group (5-10 members) 
Criteria for members: 
1. Permanent resident in village
2. Landless and Assetless --> Landless means that a person has less than half an acre of cultivative land
Assetsless means that the marketvalue of all items (belonging) less than equivalent of half an acre of land.
Another criteria is that the members must be in the same economic group. There must be no blood relation, such as mothers, sisters or mother-in law, in the same groups.

There is around 8 Million members.

Grameen Bank mentally connect with its members. Money is not everything, moral encouragement is very essential for success.

Meeting Dr. Muhammad Yunus - An extraordinary experience

Today, I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Dr.Yunus, the Founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2006. I have been looking forward to this for a long time, as he is a very inspiring person.

It was myself and six other people from the field study group that meet with him in a small meeting. When he came into the Conference room in the Yunus Centre we stood up and he walked around the room, smiling and shaking our hands. He was dressed simple and started with asking us questions about what we study to get the conversation going. This was a good idea, as we were all nervous and overly excited about this unique opportunity. We asked him a few questions. He talked about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and Bangladesh track on it. The hope is that Bangladesh will reach 6 out of the 8 goals by 2015.

Microfinance is not there to make money, it is to give the poor opportunities to succeed. If it is used to make a profit, it is not Microfinance. An example is, you cannot give a loan for someone to buy a TV, because a TV is not a need.

INSPIRATION 
I asked him what gives him the inspiration to work in his field. Impact and Results was his reply. Seeing the impact of ones actions in people around you. In addition the results are measurable.
Dr. Yunus is a true inspiration, and his presence and charisma is very strong.

Pass the Peace. 

Meetings with a Special Impact

Wednesday and Thursday was filled with important meetings with incredible people who have dedicated their lives to helping the poor escape poverty. These meetings gave me tremendous encouragement, hope and belief in the ending of poverty and the possibility in equality for all. I'm sharing my reflections, notes and memories of these meetings. It must be mentioned that there is no direct quotes.

Managing Director of Grameen Bank, Ms. Nurjahan Begum

The meeting with Ms. Nurjahan Begum, the Managing Director of the Grameen Bank was filled with enthusiasm and encouragement. Ms. Begum has been a part of the Grameen Bank from day one, when the initial research and building up of the organization happened in the 1970s. She talked about how Dr.Yunus taught how to understand others, and this has been very important in the creation of Grameen Bank. In every decision made, the borrowers have been a part of the creation. The borrowers discussed and shared their opinion and ideas, and helped shape the 16 decisions.

View of Dhaka from Grameen Bank Headquarters

In a beautifully colorful outfit, Ms. Nurjahan Begum showed compassion in every word she said. The workers of the Grameen Bank gets their encouragement and strength through village visits, therefore every position is required to go out in the field at least once a year. She shared one of the ways Grameen helped women gain confidence, because now women will look you in the eyes, instead of staring at your feet. Women are not supposed to talk too much, hear too much, or see to much. When asked their husbands name they would not answer, because they are not supposed to say their husbands name as I understood it. They would instead look at the woman next to them and say, tell my husbands name. Therefore one question was asked; can you mention the name of God? And the women would say Allah, Braham or an other God they believe in. The women were then asked a question in the direction of; do you think your husbands name is more important than God's name?

Ms. Nurjahan Begum shared with us her hope and belief in people. Because if you give people the opportunity, they will succeed. As she was part of Grameen from the very beginning she must have truly seen that when people are given the opportunity they do succeed. At the end of 2010 68% of Grameen Bank members crossed the poverty line.

President and Founder ASA, Md.Shafiqual Haque Choudhury
- To establish a poverty free society (Vision of ASA) 


The President of ASA, Md.Shafiqual Haque Choudhury came into the room with a big smile on his face and excitement. Wearing a blue shirt, he went around the room shaking everyone's hand asking our names. He started the meeting by explaining that ASA is a speciality organization, and therefore only does Microfinance. (As I want to capture his vision and ideas, I will not share information about ASA at this point, but look for a blog post at a later date when I will go more into detail of each organization.) 


Not everyone can be creative, but we can use what is invented by others. An example is the internet, one person invented it, but many people use it. This means that not everyone may create something new, but they can still contribute and work. Md.Shafiqual Haque Choudhury shared four principles on how to succeed with us:
1. I will do, or die
2. Leadership (and determination) -- you can reach goals you set for yourself
3. Consider the people you work for. If you work with the poor; be PRO poor. If you work as a teacher; be PRO student.
4. Enabling environment- the environment may be bad, but by your work and what you do you can enable the environment.
This is the recipe to success in life, and you can achieve anything.
As Md.Shafiqual Haque Choudhury only had 10 Taka when he started there might be more within these four principles than first reflection may indicate. Read it again.

His sense of optimism and positive thinking came through very clearly with the words: ALWAYS think POSITIVELY. when there is a traffic jam - take some rest. If it's too hot, you will have good blood circulation.


BRAC Chairperson and Founder, Fazle Hasan Abed 
- A world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential (BRAC vision) 


Mr. Abed arrived the room, and I felt a sense of calm. He smiled sincerely and walked around the room shaking all of our hands. Down to earth it the thought that comes to mind when reflecting on this meeting, Mr.Adeb is down to earth and kind. As he sat down he started to share with us the development of Bangladesh and and the improvement of women health and maternity in the country. He shared a lot of information about the improvement in people's lives. Then the focus went onto the internationalization of BRAC. It's now one of the worlds biggest NGO's, if not the biggest. One of the things that is essential for success in other countries is that cultural adjustments are made when implementing programs in other countries. 'Poor people need financial help in every country'.

Even though the focus of this meeting was to share information about BRAC's impact, his humble nature gave such encouragement to want to work in development. If there is committed people you can get what is needed to get done done.

Tomorrow, I will meet the Founder of Grameen Bank, Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

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Eye – opening experiences with BRAC

In addition to sitting in and observing Microfinance loan recipient meetings with BRAC,  a visit to a BRAC School and a Human rights and law program was visited. The human rights and law program was just outstanding. The women learned that they have actual tangible rights. Their husbands cannot say “I divorce you” three times for them to be divorced. The women learn that they can go to court and must go through a legal process to get a divorce. On that same note, they learn that they should register their marriage, so that if something happens they are entitled to things. They learn that they have a position in society that matters, and that they have rights. This is part of the empowerment of the women, which is beneficial for the Microfinance loan success after my opinion.
Picture on the left is taken by Author with Permission. BRAC Human rights and Law program.

Taken by Author with Permission.
BRAC Health program. 

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Microfinance loans creating opportunities to escape poverty

There are over 200 NGO’s in Bangladesh and BRAC and ASA are two other organizations other than Grameen Bank that I first handedly learned about while outside of Dhaka. In two days, I sat in on meetings with Grameen Bank Microfinance loan recipients, BRAC MF loan recipients as well as ASA MF loan recipients.  During these meetings you could feel the hope and excitement of the women receiving the loans. I listened to how their lives have improved, and how they are now able to send their children to school, that they boil the water, and that they have more than one sari. This indicates improvements and development, as a result of microfinance loans that the women use to create an income generating activity. These varies from rise husking, fattening goats or cows to opening a grocery store.          


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First Encounter with the Grameen Bank

The first couple of days were spent in a rural area outside of Dhaka. Driving out there reminded me of South Africa because of the driving, even though it was wilder, the colors of the cars reminded me of Costa Rica, the agriculture made me think of driving through Lithuania. That said, it was a combination of many things I have seen and encountered before. Even though it was not even close to anything I have seen before in reality as this is my first meeting with Asia.

Photo taken by author with permission. 

 “The poor themselves can create a poverty free world –all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them” ( Muhammad Yunus, Founder Grameen Bank).  If the poor are given the same opportunities as others, they can themselves get out of poverty. The Grameen Bank, The Village Bank is a Bank for the poor that is breaking the vicious cycle of poverty through microcredit. One of the first aspects of the Grameen Bank, among Bangladesh largest Microfinance organizations that is owned by the poor I encountered was people that was benefitting directly by their work. I experienced this first experience during a meeting with students that are Higher Education Loan Recipients. This is one of the many programs that the Grameen Bank has. There were both girls and boys, inside a small shelter building that were either in high school or university working towards betterment of themselves and their society. I claim that they are contributing to the betterment of their society, as well as themselves because education is an essential part of development of a country. They introduced themselves with name, degree and university with excitement. One after one they also shared what they hoped to do in their lives, one boy want to become a lecturer at University, another to work in business, a girl want to become a social worker, another to work in IT. The Higher Education Loan from the Grameen Bank helps them achieve these dreams that they have such high ambitions and excitement about.  We also discussed with them in small groups, asked them questions about how many brothers and sisters they had, what their parents do, when do they learn to speak English among other questions.

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First Encounter with Bangladesh

I arrived in Bangladesh excited and nervous early this week for a field study with University of the South, Sewanee TN, USA. I did not know what to expect really at all, except what I had read and seen pictures of online. Shortly after arriving in Dhaka a day after the group, I was welcomed at the airport. Then we travel out into a more village area outside the city. It was a car ride that should take around 1-2 hours, but it took over 4 hours.

My first encounter with the Bangladeshi traffic was interesting to say the least. The cars are often new and modern, the buses and trucks are decorated beautifully in strong colors and decoration. To add to the traffic picture is bikes and rickshaws decorated with colored patterns and pictures. It's a completely different traffic image than what I'm used to from Europe and the US.

Traveling in the traffic, I've seen so many things, that I will share later.
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Welcome to Across Places- Pass the Peace

Welcome to my blog Across Places - Pass the Peace. The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences traveling, studying and working abroad. I believe that the first step to understand complex issues and the best approach to solving them is to learn about the culture and society through experience. My hope behind this blog is that it can provide you with insights into cultures you have never lived in. Perhaps even a better understanding of the social issues a country is facing and what is done to improve it.. Or even what you as an individual can do to Pass the Peace - make a difference.

As I'm writing this I'm in Bangladesh on a field study learning about Microfinance Institutions and Poverty. This blog will give you an insight into how it is to work and learn abroad, in jobs that has to do with the betterment of human beings, such as development. My insight into this is not the only one, and I can certainly not give you the whole picture on this topic. But I will give you my own insights and perspectives that is be based on my own experiences living and working in a foreign country. It's important that you realize that the written work here is based on my experiences and will be affected by that, as well as my perspectives and reflection on what I see and live which is influenced by my background. The blog will be written in a simple form influenced by anthropological ethnography and journalism.

Posting Schedule:
When I'm in Bangladesh there is no posting schedule as my internet access will vary. Once I move to India I will develop a posting schedule and share it with you.

Please share your comments and own insights.

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