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Grameen Bank started out with a tiny initiative in the village of Jobra in 1976. In 1983 it became a formal bank. Now in 2014 it has over 8.5 million borrowers. Right from the beginning we paid attention to two things: 1) borrowers build the habit of savings by putting money every week in a savings account. We encouraged them never to give up this habit. 2) Secondly, borrowers should send their children to school. We paid highest attention to the second generation in the families of borrowers.
At the very start of Grameen Bank we encouraged our borrowers to use their Centre House, a hut under which borrowers assemble to hold their weekly centre meeting, as a place of learning for their children. They hire a local girl or a woman paying small salary (usually TK 500 or $ 6.5) to teach their pre-school kids every day. Families had no experience of schools. They could not tell their children what to expect in school. This new learning and fun centre acted as a soft introduction to the kids to get used to reading and writing, also have fun being together everyday, as a way to overcome the fear of school.
We included the commitment of sending every child to school in the basic charter of pledges of the borrowers, famously known as "Sixteen Decisions", chanted by all Grameen Bank borrowers collectively, in every weekly meeting week after week, year after year. We launched a campaign to make sure hundred percent of the children of Grameen families go to school. This was quite a daring task when most of the children of poor families did not go to school. Grameen Bank gave scholarships to thousands of students each year to encourage them to continue in school and compete for better performance. Our campaign worked. We succeeded in making all children go to school. When they finished primary school we encouraged them to go to high school. Most of them did. When they finished high school we encouraged them to go to colleges. But that created a problem. Going to college needed money. We came up with a solution. Grameen Bank introduced education loan to make sure they move to higher education.
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Since then thousands of students have taken education loan to become graduates, doctors, engineers and professional people. But for most of them there were no jobs. They were very frustrated. At this point we launched another campaign. We started campaigning to redirect their mind from traditional path of hunting for jobs to creating jobs for themselves and others, through entrepreneurship. We invited them to keep repeating to themselves that "we are not job-seekers, we are job-givers". We tried to inspire them to create businesses, with Grameen Bank loans, instead of hunting for jobs. We called those who chose that path and took loans from Grameen Bank, as Nobin Udyokta (NU), Or "New Entrepreneurs".
NU program did not pick up any speed, because parents were reluctant to let their sons or daughters take more loans while they still have the unpaid education loans. Moreover, bank staff were very slow in giving them fresh loans because they still have outstanding loans to clear.
At the very start of Grameen Bank we encouraged our borrowers to use their Centre House, a hut under which borrowers assemble to hold their weekly centre meeting, as a place of learning for their children. They hire a local girl or a woman paying small salary (usually TK 500 or $ 6.5) to teach their pre-school kids every day. Families had no experience of schools. They could not tell their children what to expect in school. This new learning and fun centre acted as a soft introduction to the kids to get used to reading and writing, also have fun being together everyday, as a way to overcome the fear of school.
We included the commitment of sending every child to school in the basic charter of pledges of the borrowers, famously known as "Sixteen Decisions", chanted by all Grameen Bank borrowers collectively, in every weekly meeting week after week, year after year. We launched a campaign to make sure hundred percent of the children of Grameen families go to school. This was quite a daring task when most of the children of poor families did not go to school. Grameen Bank gave scholarships to thousands of students each year to encourage them to continue in school and compete for better performance. Our campaign worked. We succeeded in making all children go to school. When they finished primary school we encouraged them to go to high school. Most of them did. When they finished high school we encouraged them to go to colleges. But that created a problem. Going to college needed money. We came up with a solution. Grameen Bank introduced education loan to make sure they move to higher education.