We took our seats on the four chairs that had been set up for us at the front of the room. Thirty-six women sat on wooden benches. Some smiling, one women wiping the mucus from their baby’s face, one breastfeeding, and another shooing the flies.

While the branch manager asked his questions and began to take the roll call of the members, I sat looking into the faces of the women reflected in the mirror to my left on the wall. Hung by a rusty nail and next to a large life-size poster of a happy chubby baby. This was one of the oldest Grameen centers. Most of its members have been with Grameen for seventeen years.

We asked members what they liked about Grameen. One lady answered: “In year one and two, I was afraid of paying the installments back, so I did not invest at first. Now it has been eighteen years and I am not afraid. Since then, my investments total 350,000 taka. That is a big change for me.”
When asked about the GPS system (commonly known as Grameen Pension Scheme) and equivalent to a savings fund, another woman replied: “It is my savings and in the end I will benefit.”
Paving the way for the future

As we walked through the village with children trailing us with their laughter and smiles. We stopped to take photos with everyone, to hold their babies, their children, to congratulate them on their accomplishments and to thank them for sharing their stories. This brings me to the house of Mrs. Firoza.**

We entered a vertical house which was longer than it’s width. In the corner sat a man hunched over. “He is my father and he is ninety years old.” Then Mrs. Firoza urged us to take our seats on the wooden bed near her father. She too, had a Grameen experience.

“The people of our village are very happy. My husband recently got elected as a member of the union council, the poor people will have representation and Grameen also has representation….The people of my village have seen how well we do with our loans, and how we have been able to send our children to school. They respect us. They think we make good decisions and my husband helps them. If they have a problem they come to me and I listen.”

Witnessing a transformation: A Personal reflection of my field experience

Upon entering this field experience, I was a skeptic. How could so many lives be changed and transformed? I had visited poor villages before. I’ve seen the dilapidated huts, single room houses with an eight member family that could be blown apart in a flash of a storm, communities without a sanitary latrine (toilet), villages where the nearest well is seven miles by foot. The difference was that these villagers had been given a chance. Grameen is the facilitator in the process of change and Microcredit is the currency and tool used in the process.

These women and their families were given hope that by their own work and merit, they could succeed and do well. This was reaffirmed every time my collegue and I asked: “What was your life like before Grameen?” These women have had hardships, but they have risen above them. They have not given up and have continued to persevere. They may never live a life of luxury, they will always have to work hard and pay back their loans, but their standard of living and their quality of life is significantly better from where they started. Women recognize this and it makes them happy and proud of what they can do for their family.

I was astonished at the confidence and exuberance with which the women spoke. They were delighted to tell their stories. It had so many advantages for them; they were able to send their children to school, feed their families three nutritious meals, and generally had good familial relations, spousal abuse that is so common to those living in poverty also decreases.

After my field experience I became a believer in the Grameen philosophy. It is situation specific and it’s application varies by culture and region, however, its premise remains the same: give the poor an opportunity and a means of empowerment, and they are capable of changing their fate.

*The union council is the grassroots unit of national government. However, it is a milestone for a poor villager to become an elected and recognized official.

* Names have been changed for confidentiality.