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.
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.
Pass the Peace.
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.
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| View of Dhaka from Grameen Bank Headquarters |
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.
Pass the Peace.
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