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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