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.

Pass the Peace.