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.