Mike Hettwer Photography - Documentary, Archaeology and Dinosaur

Grameen Bank - Bangladesh

Over the last 30 years, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has loaned over $6 billion to the very poor, in small amounts without collateral. These are known as microloans and 95% are made to women who are much more reliable in repaying than their male counterparts.

Grameen Bank has a 98% repayment rate - far better than almost all American and European banks. Grameen has lifted 30 million people out of poverty and microfinance is now one of the most powerful economic concepts.

Contact Mike Hettwer at mike@hettwer.com.

Thousands of rickshaws and baby taxis crowd the streets of Old Dhaka. Grameen Bank is headquartered in Dhaka but can not operate there. Copyright 2008 - Mike Hettwer Photo
   
The children of this village embroider tablecloths for sale in Dhaka. The parents, who also work here, are Grameen Bank borrowers and have been lifted out of poverty with many years of microloans from the organization that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The two current loans are large for Grameen at $434 and $290 USD.
  
At the weekly Grameen Bank center meeting, the woman in charge of all of the groups (right) sits closest to the door and will only collect money from the borrowers when certain conditions are met.Grameen Bank Photos - Copyright 2008 - Mike Hettwer Photo
     
  
Looking through the truck window in Old Dhaka is like street theater with thousands of workers, customers, and vendors streaming by continuously.
  
Grameen Bank is owned 93% by its borrowers and several years ago they developed the “Struggling Members” program for beggars. This woman’s husband died several years prior and she was left to beg. Members of this Grameen program go door-to-door selling staple products like this betel nut leaf. They have no fixed repayment terms and pay only when they can.
   
A mother and daughter share a moment during a light afternoon rain. The mother is a very successful Grameen "phone lady." Grameen Bank has over 250,000 women in 80,000 villages reselling cell phone minutes at a markup. She has started many other businesses and has become wealthy by Bangladesh standards after 15 years of ever increasing Grameen loans.
     
  
Mr. Morshed, a dignitary from Grameen headquarters addresses the Grameen borrowers in the village during the weekly center meeting. Jobra is famous as the birthplace of microcredit as Dr. Yunus developed his theories at the nearby University of Chittagong and made his first loans here in 1976. Now there are 7 million borrowers and they have lent over $6 billion. The hut was built by the women at no cost to Grameen and a condition to start the loan program in the village. The temperature was about 110 degrees with 90% humidity for the hour long meeting held on Wednesday mornings. It’s a combination of a charismatic religion, military discipline and hierarchy, and a place for women to bond and gossip outside of the home. Copyright 2008 - Mike Hettwer Photography
   
This Grameen Bank borrower makes cloth for resale and spins the raw cotton into thread.
  
The weekly outdoor center meeting is run by the local Grameen Bank manager and is where the borrowers repay their loans. 95% of the borrowers are women because they repay 98% of the time. They experimented with men many times and found that men repay about 50% of the time.
     
  
All of the children of the Grameen Bank borrowers in this village go to school and have more time to play with their friends. Here they play a game in which the object is for one boy (tank top and jeans on left) to touch the arm of another boy without being tackled. He did not succeed.
  
Mat-making is the least profitable small business to operate according to the Grameen Bank branch manager. Wholesalers / middlemen make the most money buying local products and selling them at a profit in the large cities.
  
Rice is the staple crop in Bangladesh and they can have 2 or 3 harvests per year because of the weather, great soil and plentiful water. Here workers in the late afternoon harvest the last of a thousand-acre rice field about 40 miles from Dhaka.
     
  
2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and founder of Grameen Bank, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, looks out of the window of his 10th floor office in Grameen Bank headquarters. He is a former economics professor who started Grameen bank 30 years ago by making a $27 loan from his own savings to a group 42 women. Grameen has loaned $6 billion to 30 million people since their inception. Grameen Bank Photos - Copyright 2008