Mi primera impresión de Вangladesh

I arrive at Bangladesh the 11th of January. A Friday morning. I have to say I was a bit scared; the reason was that I didn’t know anything about Bangladesh or their life. My background about Grameen was very concise; I read several articles about it but not more. All the information I had about Bangladesh or Grameen bank was from my friend Javier that did his internship last summer.

My first impression was the traffic chaos of Dhaka, no traffic lights, no authority, and no signals. In resume an authentically disaster. But I´ve learned in the weeks I`ve been here how to manage that problem. Leave 2 hours earlier.

I arrived at the Grand Prince Hotel in the early afternoon of the same day and finally I reached my room safely. Everyone to whom I spoke with that morning has been kind and careful for what concerned my needs and the safety of my person.

My first afternoon in the Hotel, was a bit strange. For my first time in my life I didn’t have any idea what to do. Then I met some “veterans” interns who invited me to have dinner with them. They “trained” me a bit of who my life was going to be here, who to get CNG, rickshaw, who to move in the city. I got some information about Grameen and its structure, which they work. This was the beginning of my adventure here.

In the following pages I will explain how Grameen works, who they give the opportunity to poor people to start their life. Who the dream of Dr. Yunus came truth and who its possible.

My First week

My first walk from the hotel to Grameen, 10 minutes, was a in a hurry. I was late because my alarm didn’t work. I rushed into the 8th floor, where Grameen interns work, and jumped in the classroom where the other new interns where waiting for me. There I met Zakarias our coordinator, Hannah a German girl, Cassandra and Edo from Italy and I Gi from China. It was my first contact with my group at Grameen.

During the first day we had been told about the structure and content of the internship and the staff of Grameen structured the structure also taking into consideration the personal interests and curiosities.

Then we got our program, the first week was going to be dedicated totally to the knowledge of Grameen Bank structure. The second week will be a week trip to the village to se how Grameen Bank operates with the borrowers, the essential part of the structure in Grameen Bank. The next weeks will be composed to learn and visit the sister company’s of Grameen.

Structure of Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank started to operate in 1976, the began their adventure of giving loan to poor people in little areas of Bangladesh. Now they operate in 82 thousands villages. They started from 42 poorest borrowers in 1976 to 8.34 million borrowers, and its steal going up. The 97% of borrowers is composed of women. This tries to give a new image to the country, and try to change their mentality. Usually women in Bangladesh stayed at home all day, now we can se how the own their business, or help their husband. In my opinion Grameen is not only try to give an opportunity to poor people also is making the country develop.

Grameen Bank only operates in the villages, not in the city´s. The number of Branches that operate in the whole country is of 2565. But the most outstanding data that Grameen Bank will saw you is its recovery rate; 97%. No bank in the world cans show that achievement and this is because of how they work in the field, and most important is how they treat the borrower. Is the bank of the poor. The Bank goes to them, they don’t have to go to the bank. New philosophy, that you only can se here.

The loan proposal has a strict procedure to be followed without exceptions. First there is a discussion among the group members to check the reasons and commitment of the borrower in asking the loan, than the center manager receives the loan proposal that before approval must be signed and permitted by the area manager before starting the disbursement procedure. The high active participation of the members and their relation with the different managers of the Bank helps them in understanding the procedure, transparency of the Bank itself.

Actually the social network aspects of the bank are among the most important in creating the feeling and perception that borrowers are actually the real owners of the bank.
An average number of 45 centers compose the branch office where branch manager, second officer and other supporting staff of the bank works. The geographical areas covered is around 4 to 6 km. the branch manager attend up to 10 center meeting per week (two center meeting happen during morning time in each of the 5 working day of the week).

Area office is the biggest unit, under a single area usually it is possible to find up to 10 branches. Area manager and second officer is responsible for the area related activities as well as the correct functioning of the IMC, an informatics center printing and reporting all the borrowers operation of the week as well as center documents such as collection sheets necessary to register repayment and disbursement of borrowers at branch and center levels.

Second week- field trip

I would say the main experience of all the internship was the 5-day trip to the branch office. It was not only interesting for me as the base of Grameen Bank project, but also a great cross-cultural life experience.

Branch Office.

The Branch Office is lowest administrative level of the bank, is the one that gets in touch with the borrowers in rural areas. Nowadays Grameen Bank has more than 3,000 Branch Offices. The Branch Manager and the officers deal with the current administrative work. Their tasks are: control the outstanding loans, collect the instalments, disburse the loans and visit the Centre Meetings. Additionally, the Branch Manager has to look for the target borrowers. The bank goes to the clients, not the clients to the bank.

Centre Meeting.

Centre meetings are basic places located in different places along each village. Every Monday morning borrowers meet in the centre in order to collect the money of the week instalment. Goncourt Branch Office is in charge of more than 70 centre meetings.

Basic Loan.

The basic loan amount goes between 100 to 150 Euros. The borrowers have to repay the loan in 44 weeks. The interest is 10% of the principal, but the instalments start a week after they borrow the money. In Goncourt most of the loans are invested in agriculture and fishing. This will change depending the area of the Branch.

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