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UA in BangladeshNew 490/AMS 505 Grameen Bank Basic Training students interview villagers, disburse small-business loans while learning how the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning organization alleviates poverty in developing countries
F or the past two summers, UA instructor
Rashmee Sharif has led groups of students
to Bangladesh in collaboration with the
Grameen Bank basic training program,
which teaches students how small loans to
the poor can alleviate poverty in develop-
ing countries by providing citizens re-
sources to create self-sustaining businesses.
While in Bangladesh, students follow the
bank’s branch managers, interview locals,
disburse loans and collect payments.
“I’m interested in corporate respon-
sibility, so I was interested in seeing how
these social businesses help the com-
munity while running a for-profit busi-
ness,” said MBA student Tyler Morgan.
“As a finance undergrad, we talked about
complicated financial scenarios. But
what’s interesting is that Grameen is such
a simplistic banking system. The borrowers
own the bank, and this simple system is
what brings these people up.”
Started in 1976 by economics
professor Muhammad Yunus, Grameen
Bank’s system is both self-sustaining and
community-building. Individuals, usu-
ally women, in rural Bangladesh come up
with business ideas that typically employ
skills such as sewing, weaving, farming and
ranching. Once an individual decides to
take part in the Grameen Bank program,
he or she must find four other villagers to
participate. Each group member’s ability
to secure a loan is reliant on the other
group members’ repayments of their loans,
encouraging the newly established busi-
ness owners to work together. All loans are
disbursed without collateral and are repaid
on a weekly basis in small increments.
Yunus and Grameen Bank won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2006.
For UA students and anyone who
participates in the basic training program,
the goal is to foster knowledge and equip
them to replicate the Grameen model in
another part of the world. Fourteen UA
undergraduate and graduate students
across disciplines including business,
film, law, criminal justice, political sci-
ence, anthropology and education have
travelled to Bangladesh for the three-
week program. As part of
their UA studies, they also
read three books, Yunus’
“Banker to the Poor” and
“Building Social Business”
as well as Lonely Planet’s
“Bangladesh” country guide,
earning three hours of New
College or American Studies
credit.
Third-year doctoral
student Ben Woodruff said
the Grameen Bank program
allowed him to learn about real-world
applications for his research, which focuses
on microcredit. “I saw a lot of potential
in my discipline to help Bangladesh and
other developing countries,” Woodruff
said. “I left with several research ideas.”
Sharif said a lot of students have told
her they want to go back to Bangladesh.
“It’s a very concentrated experience,
but it’s also a very powerful experience,”
said Sharif, who has friends, cousins, aunts
and uncles living in Bangladesh. “I wanted
each student to come away with a differ-
ent perspective of the world. Going to a
place like Bangladesh really shakes your
paradigm. I expect it will stay with them
for a long time.”
A video about the UA in Bangladesh program won the GoAbroad Innovation Award for best student video in 2011. The video consists of student photos from the 2010 trip and a video clip from a Bangladesh school. Winners were announced June 2 during the GoAbroad reception in Vancouver, British Columbia, and were chosen by the public via online voting. Tyler Morgan, who participated in the 2010 Bangladesh program as an MBA student, provided many photos featured in the video, and George Guarino, a Capstone International graduate assistant, produced the video. “I was thrilled that we won because it gives more attention to the program. It helps keep it sustained,” Morgan said. See the video and learn more about the program at http://international.ua.edu/programs/newsite/bangladesh-grameen-bank/.
Students Farah Majid (left) and Carmen Groom on their way to visit a Grameen Borrower.
UA students with a group of Bangladesh villagers. Students live and work in rural Bangladesh during the three-week program.
Award-winning video
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