The last time I was in Mirpur, I was tredging in mud among the slums during the monsoon rains. Little did I know that in poverty’s backyard was one of the biggest endeavors to counteract it. Grameen Bank’s central office is located in a section of Dhaka city known as Mirpur. The building stands tall with over twenty floors and numerous open offices all staffed by enthusiastic workers most of whom started out in the field at the village level as a field officers, center managers and branch managers.

And so Dhaka welcomed us. The hustle and bustle of the city that is always under construction. Travelling through Dhaka is hard to capture. Just one of those things you have to experience…If you can manage to breath and abstain from heart palpitations. It’s like a fish swimming against a current. The engines of our vehicle reved past flimsy bicycle rickshaws, whose dented metal frames were assalted by a bamboo cane if they did not move with the traffic…Past women with one or two babies on their hips tattered saris…Past a begger stumped over the concrete median strip that measured one foot in width. His deformity was large and I wondered if his internal organs were crushed from the pressure of him doubling over…Past faces darkened by diesal fumes and social stigma…And past little girls selling bunches of roses perfumed with the sweet hope of a few taka for a meal.

The Meeting:

Upon our arrival we were taken to a central meeting room. I have to admit after reading Borstein’s book and Yunus’ biography Banker to the Poor about the birth of Grameen, if was surreal to actually be present where efforts to combat poverty in the field were centralized. The program participants were from all walks of life, but came with a common purpose: to help people living in poverty out of poverty. As one of my classmates had put it “I had a good job in a field that was enirely unrelated to poverty, but I felt I was misplaced in this field. I wanted to do more for the social welfare of the people.”


Among our Grameen instructors sat Miss. Nurjahan Begum, the first female fieldworker. She sat in a simple green sari neatly wrapped over her head. Nurjahan is a womon with great strength and intellect. What makes her powerful is not limited to her words, but her thoughtful character. As we all sat like enthusiastic children in a class asking question after question about the functionality, the feasibility and the efficiency of Grameen, Nurjahan sat smiling. And why not? She has been with Grameen since it’s inception. Nurjahan told us that many of our questions would be answered with a visit to the field.

After watching a video that traced a Grameen borrower and loanee from having nothing, to having a house, we were introduced to concepts of Grameen, the Grameen Trust, Trainings, and additional enterprises. Were there then set up in pairs of two and were given our field assignments. I was paired up with a woman from Australia. We were told to be ready the following morning at nine. Little did we know what the experience would hold. Read on by clicking the link below.
So what does Grameen do?:

Grameen in Bangla (the language of Bangladesh) means village. Hence, Grameen essentially translates into village bank. As there is a boutiful of literature on Grameen, I’ve chosen to stick to rudimentary basics. One of the misperceptions people have is that you have to be an economist to understand how Grameen operates. Grameen represents more than a bank that issues loans to poor women. It is a philosophy rooted in providing opportunity for poor populations to change their lives and incorporates what Yunus terms socially driven economics. The poor have a set of survival skills. They are experts because they are have learned to live under harsh circumstances, limitations, difficulties and adversities. However, they have survived and that precisely is the point. In the early days of Grameen, Yunus felt that a major obstacle hindering the poor from helping themselves was not having access to credit. He felt that poor are just as capable as any citizen if not more of paying back their dues. The two-syllable word meaning giving small credit—-that would change the face of global poverty was born.

Microcredit, the process by which Grameen uses to help poor women villagers out of poverty involves giving small loans of money to women to begin private business enterprises. During this procees, they participate in social support networks and are responsible for each other. A strict disciplinary code is enforced to ensure that each woman must attend a weekly borrowers meeting and repay her dues. In most branches repayment rates vary between 97-100%. There is a built in savings if a woman faces harship such as a cyclone, natural calamity, or a death in the family. There are also insurance schemes and deposit funds for future savings. The poor own 70% of the shares of the Grameen Bank. As you will see in borrower stories, these women have faced the most challenging of cirumstances. They have gone from having absolutely nothing to having shelter, food, and sending their children to school.

Microcredit is not a new concept. It’s the same as teaching someone how to fish instead of giving them the fish. Those of us working in microcredit whether it be NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), field workers, or foundations giving seed money for loans, working play a role in that we are simply faciliatators in the process.

You may wonder why I take the time to extensively share my Grameen experience. It is because I too believe in the vision of a world with limited poverty. This stategy is one key to poverty alleviation. Ananda Foundation supports microcredit projects. We feel that by helping one woman at a time, we will help entire communities. By giving those living in poverty tools and a sense of hope–they have a new lease on life.