Thanksgiving

So my family decided to change things up this year.   Instead of baking our turkey, as we have done every year in the past, we deep fried our bird this year, and I was pretty satisfied with the results.  As a matter fact, I think I'm sold on deep frying every year from now on.  Besides tasting better, in my opinion, it only takes an hour to cook.  The only draw-back on this method is the amount of oil needed to cook a turkey, which makes it a little more costly, and obviously less healthy. 

Thanksgiving is one of my more favorite holidays.  It brings my entire family together and I love the food.  I think preparing a Thanksgiving meal is as enjoyable as eating it.  Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving as well.

Grameen Bank's Mission and Products

Grameen Bank claims to be different from conventional banks in that it provides loans to the poor, who are otherwise seen as not credit-worthy.  It is believed that those who are poverty stricken around the world have vast untapped potentional for innovation and productivity if only given the resources to work.  And this entrepreneurship can lift a person, family and society up from poverty and into a self-sufficient, productive work-force.  Additionally, Grameen promotes establishing women as the financial hub of society.  According to Grameen, women have been proven to be the more responsible members of society and, therefore, a greater tool for development.  The following are quick notes of Grameen's products and conditions.

 -95% borrower owned ; 5% government

-all involved members based on need/incentive

-Loans are usually 1yr term loans

Grameen Products:

I: Basic Loan

-10K to 15K taka per new borrower

-granted for any activity that generates income

-interest rate: 20% on a declining basis

equivilent to 10% if installments are paid on time – weekly payment installment

a. Micro-Enterprise Loan: up to 300K taka (after 3 years of membership )

II: Flexible Loan

-granted while in probation for non payment: flexible to basic

-cannot borrow more until flexible loan is paid.

III: Housing Loan

-granted upon 3yrs of successful basic loan

-interest rate: 8% on declining basis

IV: Higher Education Loan

-granted to children of borrowers

-after 12^th grade

-interest rate: 5%: no interest during current enrollment plus one year after/ monthly payment plan.

V: Struggling Member Loan:

-social objective over income generation

-up to 5K taka with no interest charge

Saving Products

-claims to have higher interest than other bd banks

-savings are from borrowers and non-borrowers

I: Personal Savings

-Open to all nationals; Deposit and withdrawl at anytime

-8.5 % interest

-every borrower has savings (with a min of 10 to 20 taka deposit weekly required)

II: Grameen Pension Scheme

-Borrower and employee / monthly deposit

-5yr scheme (at 10% interest)

-10yr scheme (at 12% interest)

Less than one year (no interest); <3yr (8% interst); 3-5yrs(10% interest)

Compounded interest (this appears to be a loosing venture for the bank)

III: Fixed Deposit

-open to all

-1yr scheme (8.75% interst)

-2yr scheme (9.25% interest)

-3yr scheme (9.5% interest)

IV: Double in 7yr

-open to all

-10.4% interst or double in 7 yrs

V: Monthly Profit Scheme

-open

-fixed

-1000K taka will receive 850 taka profit

VI: Loan Insurance Savings

-Deposit, with no interest paid

-purpose: w/3% from loan amount and additional 3% for husband, if death occurs, 100% of loan is paid by fund.

Defaulted Loans:

-written off loans go to memorandum by provision with collection attempt : half to provision / half to income

Provision: after 10 weeks of non payment, 100% provision

 

Day 5: One Week Review (August 5)

We were given a free day on Thursday, which is the end of the work week in Bangladesh, to reflect on the week, prepare for the upcoming Village excursion and to conduct independent research using the Grameen library.  The first week of my internship with Grameen Bank was very exciting, informative and eye-opening.  I had decided to focus my internship on the Grameen social businesses and to critically analyzing Grameen Center operations and replication projects. 

Here is an outline of the structure of Grameen Bank.  In the following posts, I will present Loan products and restrictions along with some other relevant background information.

Grameen Corporate Structure

Supervisory :

I: Head Office

a. 13 departments

b. 40 Zonal Office

1. 268 Area Offices (or 8-10 Area Offices per Zone)

Operations:

II: Branch Office (2564 branches) or 8-10 branches per Area

a. Center Office (60-70 Centers per Branch)

III: Center

-Center leader: elected by group chairman and must approve loans before disbursement.

a. Group Basis Lending

-8-10 groups per Center

**Classical System (1976 – 2000)

-5 people per group

-Group Chairman and Group Secretary (elected yearly)

-3 general members

**Current System (2000 – current)

-6-7 people (max 10) per group

Day 4: Prepare for Village (Gram) Excursion (August 4)

On August 4th, I spent the morning finishing up the basic information session started at the beginning of the week with some more office introduction, all of which were repitative of earlier topics. We were told that the following week we would be going on a week long excursion into an under-developed village, the exact location and details of the trip would be discussed during a meeting after lunch.  I was excited about the opportunity but a little apprehensive as well.  I had lunch with a few of my co-interns at a nearby diner with some very tasty food and amazing Lassi, which is a yogurt based drink with rose water.

After lunch we were briefed on the excursion.  We would depart Dhaka on Sunday morning to a village called ShorShodi located in the district of Comilla.  The trip was to last the entire week, returning on Thursday evening.  This excursion was intended to provide an in depth, hands-on observation of Grameen Bank's bottom line operations.  I was grouped with two other interns, David from France and Hamza who attends Emory University in the United States.  During the trip, we would be under the care of the Manager of the Grameen Bank Center of ShorShodi who was responsible for educating and training us on Center operations and assigning us to various tasks throughout the week.  We were also assigned to formulate surveys and interview questions which was relevant to our research interests. 

Day 3: Grameen Center Day Trip (August 3)

On this day I attended a day trip to a Grameen Center at a nearby village on the outskirts of Dhaka.  The trip took about two hours with some amazing scenic views of the country side.  After being briefed on procedures and formalities, my group was given the privilege of helping conduct the days meeting.  Every meeting is started with a ritualistic greeting. There is a four point salutation method to initiate a meeting, where the group chief asks for permission to begin the meeting, the center leader approves, a salutation is made and permission granted to sit down and begin. Thereafter, each group is summoned to deposit the weeks installment payment, new applications are considered, and other banking and business affairs conducted.  I aided in collecting payments and reviewed new loan proposals.

After loan payments were collected and recorded, my team was given the opportunity to group interview the bank members.  Most questions were regarding the economic and social conditions of the members.  All member claimed to have been under extreme poverty before receiving micro-loans from Grameen, which were used to start businesses.  Almost all the loan recipients we observed were women.  We also visited several borrowers homes, all of which were very simple but hospitable. After the interview session, we proceeded to a Branch office for observation.  Each branch is responsible for seven to ten centers like the one in the picture above.