January 19, 2004

Grameen Bank Model helping people in Rhode Island, USA

Thrive, based on the international Grameen Bank from Bangladesh, brings tools from the village for Western women to gain financial independence. The goal of this program is to create economic self-sufficiency among predominantly struggling women in Woonsocket city and surrounding communities. Read here for more.

Bangladesh is proud of Dr. M. Yunus and his Grameen Bank which has become a micro credit icon in the world. The Grameen Bank was started in Bangladesh in 1976 as an action-research project that attempted to provide tiny loans to very poor people to allow them to start "micro-businesses." Now Grameen Bank has 2.4 million borrowers, 94% of whom are women, and has loaned more than $3.7 billion in amounts averaging less than $200. Grameen Bank models are replicated in many countries of the world.

Mr. Yunus's views:

We can remove poverty from the surface of the earth only if we can redesign our institutions - like the banking institutions, and other institutions; if we redesign our policies, if we look back on our concepts, so that we have a different idea of poor people.

To learn more about Grameen Bank click here.

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