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.
New Solution for an Age-old Problem
When I was promoting credit for the poor women in early years of Grameen Bank, many experts around the world insisted that credit may work for only very limited number of entrepreneurial poor people. Entrepreneurship is a rare quality in people. It is more rare in poor people, they claimed to counter that, I came out with a reverse position. Position I took was -All human beings are entrepreneurs, with no exception. Not only I promoted that position I became a firm believer in it. Microcredit was born out of this firm belief. Current NU programme has the root in the same firm belief.
When I was promoting credit for the poor women in early years of Grameen Bank, many experts around the world insisted that credit may work for only very limited number of entrepreneurial poor people. Entrepreneurship is a rare quality in people. It is more rare in poor people, they claimed to counter that, I came out with a reverse position. Position I took was -All human beings are entrepreneurs, with no exception. Not only I promoted that position I became a firm believer in it. Microcredit was born out of this firm belief. Current NU programme has the root in the same firm belief.
Social Business may bring a fail-proof
new solution for an age-old old problem, i.e. the problem of
unemployment. It has application everywhere --poor countries, rich
countries, urban areas, rural areas, tribal areas, isolated areas,
anywhere. It does not have to be restricted to any particular group. The
young, the old, men, women, the literate, the illiterate, all are good
candidates for becoming entrepreneurs. All human beings have their basic
creative power. That, backed up by social business framework is all it
needs for the success of turning unemployed into entrepreneurs.
Not only would this save people from extreme frustration and the depression of being unemployed, it would give people a new life, new hope and new mode of enjoyment. Everyone would become an active and productive citizen. In the process it would create a new economy. There would be no wastage of human creativity. It would save people from state dependency.
As the first step in this process we may
begin by getting busy with turning unemployment into entrepreneurship
in social business villages to solve the human problems with efforts of
their own people. If we succeed in doing it, we can move confidently in
the direction of creating a world without unemployment, and without
dependence.
Source: Yunus Center
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