What initially drew me to Grameen Bank was the potential of micro-credit to challenge traditional attitudes towards gender equity. The goal of the micro-credit summit campaign was not simply to reach women but empower them. This meant developing micro- and macro-level strategies to achieve gender equality in power, rights and resources. Yet, empowerment is a culturally specific word. A young female receiving a liberal arts education in the west has a much different understanding of empowerment as compared to an uneducated woman growing up in a rural village. Therefore, until I could answer the question does access to credit necessarily lead to economic, social and political empowerment, I first needed to learn how both Grameen and its borrowers understood the concept. First, I came up with my own working definition. I see economic empowerment as access ... read more

Initially, my plan for last weekend was to visit the Sundarbans and take a relaxing boat ride through the beautiful Bangladeshi jungle. But due to Cyclone Aila, which killed over 200 people and left thousands without homes or clean water, I knew I could not enjoy being a tourist amidst so much pain and destruction. Looking at the front page of the Bangladeshi newspaper, I grew frustrated that neither the government nor the private sector was doing much to help. Suffering has become such a daily reality for the people that the government no longer bothers declaring the country in a state of emergency. However, I suddenly realized that I was in a unique position to contribute to the relief effort. Rather than getting caught up in the bigger picture of conflict and poverty, I decided ... read more

Social Business: Last week I traveled with three other interns to visit some of Grameen’s sister companies. We drove five hours to the conservative town of Bogra, stopping first at Grameen Danone. Professor Yunus recently published his book Creating a World Without Poverty about the project with Danone. Basically, the French yogurt company approached Yunus looking for a way to market their company as a global institution that cares about the world’s poor. Yunus proposed the idea of a social business, or a company whose main focus is helping others rather than making a profit. Some of the guidelines include investing all profits back into the business for improvement and expansion rather than solely to the benefit of the shareholders. I find this idea very appealing and so did Danone, for they agreed to sell their ... read more

I am having trouble writing about what I saw today. I love the intensity and sharp contours of the Bangladeshi lifestyle but what I witness daily is also hard to process. Entering Old Dhaka, I stepped into a world where a man’s body is abused for a small cost and where forgetting who and where you are is not an option. The narrow streets are places in which man and steel fight for dominance. Rickshaws, taxis and pedestrians push ever more forward in the hopes of gaining a few more inches, while on the sidelines, narrow waisted men move melting soil and rows of tailors with small fingers make delicate stitches. Walking down to the river with my Indian friend, we hired a man who spoke some English to guide us on a small wooden boat. ... read more

Day 2 I watched as a bus smashed into the side of a rickshaw today. The first thought that crossed my mind was whether or not the man was harmed and then to how the driver would survive without his source of livelihood. It is disheartening to think that all of one’s possessions could be so easily destroyed. My Indian friend Daashan asked me earlier that day if I would like to take a rickshaw to the downtown area. I hesitated, explaining my discomfort in having someone peddle me around and explained that in America, this would be seen as a human rights violation. He appropriately reminded me that if I did not support this man’s business, essentially he would end up a beggar. This is also the attitude Grameen shares. Rather than giving loose change ... read more