Carolina Tituaña

106061
Reading Notes
The video talks about the Grameen bank. This bank offers loans to people living in extreme

poverty in villages in Bangladesh. The idea arose when its founder realized that although

there is so much economic knowledge in the world, there are very poor people. To access the

loans given by the Grameen bank one does not have to own land, be very poor and know how

to write the name. The loans are only given to the women of the village. The reason for these

requirements is that the bank's objective is to lift people out of poverty. When giving the

money to the women they realized that they administered it much better than the men because

they are the ones who feel the consequences of extreme poverty. One of the obstacles was

that people did not know how to write for what the bank's advisors teach them, although at

the beginning they show resistance after a while, people feel very proud of having learned to

write it. Bank advisers help lenders choose alternatives that allow them to earn money and

survive and repay the loan. The initiative was very successful, although there were many

opponents. The culture of Bangladesh is strongly influenced by Islam, which is why many of

the villagers accused the women of going against their religion. In Islam, the work of women

is not well seen because they have the belief that their role is to stay at home and make their

husband happy. Another criticism was about the interests since in this culture it is forbidden

to lend money in exchange for interest. The only way to lend money, according to this

culture, is by giving money in exchange for some material good. Women who receive the

loan are also criticized for doing a type of "exercise" that consists of sitting and standing for a

few times arguing that they were made a dance in exchange for money. The advisors in front

of these problems explain to them that they are not dancing but only doing an exercise. The

bank has received various criticisms of going against religion and culture. Many have said

that they want to convert the villages to capitalist, communist, turn them into Catholics and
impose Western culture. Despite all this, the bank has proven successful without refuting any

of this and only with the results that people see.

Opinion

I believe that this initiative is very good because it dignifies people. Contrary to the charity

that makes the poor dependent, these loans make them independent and teaches them how to

manage money. Many times, it is the system that does not allow people to escape extreme

poverty. In the video it can see how a woman earned 2 cents for the sale of their crafts

because the person who lent her the money for the raw material put the price on their

products. Many times, we have the false belief that the reason for being poor is that they do

not like to work or do not know how to do anything. These loans are proof that the only thing

poor people need is an opportunity. Another thing that caught my attention in the video was

the success of women over men in this type of loans. In these types of cultures, the role of

women is underestimated, they are the ones that suffer the most severe consequences of

poverty and those that are most eager to get ahead. I believe that these women are very brave

because despite the criticism received and being under the pressure of their culture and

religion, they accepted the challenge of getting out of poverty and working hard. It seems to

me that the key factors for the success of the bank is that they learn to adapt to the culture of

these people, because they are aware that they have to teach them basic things like writing

their name to deal with religious criticism.