Friday, September 17, 2010

Introduction

This is a blog about my internship with Grameen Bank, a Nobel Peace prize winning development organization, located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.   My internship is scheduled between August 1 to September 29, and I look forward to detailing my experiences with Grameen and its affiliated organizations, along with my experiences exploring the country of Bangladesh.    
Grameen Bank focuses on providing collateral free micro-credit loans to the extreme poor as a method of eradicating poverty and promoting economic and social development.  Furthermore, Grameen has also established several social businesses and development oriented non-profit organizations.  These social businesses and organizations aim to reinvent capitalism and contemporary economic theory towards a sustainable global economic system that is inclusive of the marginalized poor and free of poverty.
Bangladesh is a small country located in south Asia surrounded by India, except for a small border with Myanmar to the south-east and the Bay of Bengal to the South.  A relatively new country, Bangladesh won its independence in 1971 after a brutal civil war with West Pakistan.  Since then, Bangladesh has been mired with famine, natural disasters, political instability, social inequities, and extreme poverty.  Today, Bangladesh is a developing country and remains one of the world’s poorest.   Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh with a population of 15 million, and is among one of the largest and most dense urban areas on the earth.