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.