Three Cups of Tea

I'm sure some of you have heard of the book and the story of Dr. Greg, but if you haven't then get off your computer right now, go to your nearest bookshop and get the book. No don't order it online, because you should start reading it tonight!

Check out the books website:
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

I read the book in the last two and a half days on my trip to and from work, and every minute of free time I had last night. It is a different country with different villages, but the similarities to what I would like to someday do - even if it is just a fraction of what he has done - are extremely inspiring.

It really was incredible to see the sacrifices that he made to extend all the help he could to the Balti people. However, even after he had built those first couple schools I thought it was amazing that he still had so much trouble collecting donations. He had proved that he could do it, he had the establish connections in the region, yet he could not collect more funds to build schools.

This is the attraction in social businesses where they can grow themselves, and fund the creation of more schools themselves. In this way extra donations only serve to speed up the process of expansion even more. That said, I doubt a social business model would work in the sparsely inhabited and remote Baltistan, where whole villages are poor and there are not wealthier families which could subsidize education for those who are even less fortunate.

Cheers,
Michael

Introduction to the ISSI

The International Sustainable Schooling Initiative is the name for this organization that will; fundraise for, own and operate the schools. Initially the schools will be in Bangladesh, but the goal is to eventually expand to other countries, hence the 'International' part of the name.


It is hard for me to put a description of the organization here, since we are continuously discussing with each other trying to refine how to effectively to organize the organization. I will try and describe it in general terms though.

In Canada, the US and the UK(so far) we will be collecting donations and looking for investors. The funds collected in these countries will be transferred to our partners on the ground in Bangladesh to fund the creation of the first school and scholarships for the first students. Our representative in Bangladesh - Babor Ali, Bangladesh Country Coordinator - will then oversea the construction and hiring of staff for the school. Babor has been working with the Grameen Bank for 20+ years as a Branch Manager and then the International Department of Grameen Bank - which is where I met him. Babor and his wife, an English Teacher in Dhaka, are very passionate about schooling and will bring the experience in both running a business and education that we need to be successful.

Initially scholarships will be provided to the students using donations that we collect. Donors will be able to sponsor a student for anywhere between a year to the entire six years that they will be attending our school (if they start in Kindergarten). In the long run the plan is for each school to be able to fund its own scholarship fund. This will mean that students in the community who are able to afford the tuition will be subsidizing the tuition of other students in the same community. This situation is preferred over one where everyone pays a lower tuition and no scholarships are provided because this way it is possible for the extremely poor to attend the school and pay almost no tuition. In areas where it is not possible for a school to fund its own scholarship fund then a portion of the profits from other schools in the country will be used.

Initially I was envisioning setting up a endowment which would provide a reliable, sustainable number of scholarships. However in numerous discussions with the other members of the ISSI we decided that the amount of money that would be required to set up an endowment could be put to better use opening another school. In addition the return on investment for the schools is higher than we would likely be able to achieve by investing an endowment somewhere.

After the first school is built and it can support its own scholarship fund, donations will be directed towards funding the creation of a second school. As mentioned in my last post - profits from the schools will be used to fund the creation of more schools. The donation will be used to speed up this process and allow for even more schools to be built.

We are not trying to take over education from the Government, we are just trying to provide an alternative option that has a high standard for education and is affordable to the poor. By doing this, hopefully we can reduce the pressure on the government system, and force other private schools to improve to compete with us. It is not important who provides a higher level of education, as long as someone does.

Cheers,
Michael

The Kamar Kali School Project

About a week after I left Bangladesh I got an email from two of my friends back in Bagnaldesh asking me when I was usually on Skype. A couple days later I had managed to set up a Skype-date with Dave Meredith, from Montreal, and Melanie Craxton, from Rochester, who were both interns still back in Bangladesh. They told me they had an exciting project they wanted to talk to me about.

So one Saturday night we set up our Skype-date and they told me about their idea to build a social business school and create the International Sustainable School Initiative, a charity that would collect donations to fund the creation the school and possible future replications of the school. That was the start, now it has grown to a larger group of Grameen Internship Alumni and even more of their friends. It really has been amazing seeing how many people are eager to jump on board, and after reading this if you are interested in helping out (we need all of it we can get!) please send me an email: mc.futbol@gmail.com

Refresher – What is a social business?
A social business is a non-loss business that provides a good or service, which works towards achieving a social objective. The difference between a social business and a charity is that they actually charge their customers a small fee instead of just giving handouts. They charge a small price to their customers so that they can cover their expenses and earn some profit, which is then reinvested back into the business. The advantage of this is that once the social business is set up it is not reliant on donations in order to continue operating and expand. This makes it much easier for the social business to expand quickly and reach a larger number of people.

The Future Site of our School

What is wrong with the education system?
There are a number of problems with the education system, but the most prevalent ones are: over crowding, a lack of school supplies and a shortage of quality teacher, especially English teachers. The problem in Bangladesh is that despite the fact that 'English' is often considered the most important subject, it is taught very poorly in schools. After independence English was banned in Bangladesh, and now at least it is now a mandatory part of the primary and secondary school curriculum. Unfortunately the ban meant that the teachers who teach English, never learnt English in school themselves and cannot hold up a conversation. They simply teach enough writing and reading to be able to pass the nationwide grade 5 tests, but do little to help kids with the more useful conversation English.  The reason English is viewed as so important is that all universities in Bangladesh teach in English, it is also the international language, the computer language and the best jobs all require it.

Trying to speak English with the Kids

The Opportunity
David’s coordinator from the Grameen Bank, Babor Ali, is planning on leaving the Grameen Bank and going to set up a school on a piece of land he owned outside of the city. Together with Dave and Melanie they went to the area and interview teachers at other schools in the area, as well as Grameen Borrowers with kids who would be among the target customers of the school. They did interviews and collected data on what people wanted from an education, how much people were willing to pay for what they got and how much it cost to build and run the competing schools. The school would provide a number of benefits to its students while still being affordable: a high quality English teacher, smaller class sizes and computer literacy training.

1) English
Our school will address the need for a strong English program, by paying the money required to attract a sufficiently strong English teacher. Students will learn reading, writing, grammar and spoken English, which will give them an advantage when going to university and looking for a job.

Another School in the Area and Babor Ali

2) Computer Literacy
Another advantage that the school will give its students is access to a computer, and computer literacy training. Being able to use a computer is an incredibly important skill when looking for a job, however most Bengalis never get to use a computer, especially in rural areas. The problem with computers is that rural areas only have power eight hours a day, and it is expensive to run a generator the rest of the day. Our school will have an innovative solution to this, where we will buy a number of energy efficient Eee Box PCs from ASUS, and essentially get a giant battery for them, called an IPS Battery from Grameen Communications. The battery will work for the desktops similar to how a laptop battery works. The school will have 5 computers and all students will get time on the computers to learn the basic functions.

3) Smaller Class Sizes
Another advantage of the school will be small class sizes and length of the school day. The average class size in Bangladesh is be around 50-70 students to one teacher, and this is taking into account the massive drop out rates that plague the higher grades. In our school there will be six classes each with 45 students (Kindergarden to Class 5). 45 students still sounds big, but for Bangladesh it is actually small and it is needed to ensure the feasibility of the project. It is hoped that by having such a high standard of teachers and courses, the student retention will be strong and many students will continue all the way from Kindergarden to Class 5.

Dave visiting another School in the Area

4) Longer Days
In other schools classes often only run from 9am until noon, and then the afternoon is often taken up by tutoring. The students are forced to pay extra just to get a full day of learning. In our school the students will receive a full day of school, which will minimize the need for additional tutoring, and thus save families from spending additional money on tutoring.

5) All for a Reasonable Price
We will be charge its students a monthly tuition fee of tk 500 per month. This is more than the other private schools however Dave and Melanie talked to many parents in the area and they all agreed that it was a fair price given the quality of the education that they would be getting. We will also be offering a scholarship program so that families who cannot afford to send their children to the school will still have the opportunity to do so. Each scholarship would cover anywhere between half to all of the cost of the tuition depending on the financial situation of the family.

New Website and for a new Project

Hello everyone again,

I am switching websites since I felt that the last website was too specific to my trip, and I want to still use the blog in the future, and especially now that I have a new projected related to poverty, education and international development. So this is the new website: http://storiesfromthegrameen.blogspot.com/ Thanks for continuing to read it!

It has been a couple weeks and I am getting settled back into the pace of North American life once more. However, Bangladesh never seems to be far from my thoughts. One of the best parts of my trip was all the great people that I met while I was there. I met a couple interns that I have become really good friends with, two of them were Dave from Montreal and Melanie from Rochester and going to school in Edinburgh. They called me a week or two after I had left Bangladesh and proposed a very interesting project to me, which I immediately jump on board with them. Since then I have been spending almost every evening after I get back from my summer job, working on it.

Together with our coordinator from the Grameen Bank, Babor Ali, we are going to found a private school in the rural areas around Dhaka, Bangladesh. The goal is to make it financially self sufficient so that after it has been established it does not need any more funding. Them our task will be to replicate it across the country and around the world!

I am going to post a series for stories an explanations of how it will work, and what we are doing and why. But basically we are trying to raise ~$50,000 to found the first school and an endowment fund for scholarships (the school will be charging tuition). It will provide a high quality of education to the rural poor and prepare them for secondary school, university and employment. If you are interested in the project, please send me an email (mc.futbol@gmail.com). I will have a professional email soon, but not yet.

Thank you for reading, shortly I will post a more detailed explanation of the project.

Cheers,
Mike

The Grameen Fund Summary

This is part of what I wrote for my Internship Report:

So, what does the Grameen Fund do? They provide, among other things, financing to small and medium enterprises (SME). This is very important because these businesses are often unserved by both the commercial banks and microfinance banks. They are not poor enough to be accepted by MFIs and they require more services than they can provide. Commercial banks generally do not consider SME financing important since it is much more profitable for them to focus on much larger clients. Thus there is the 'SME finance gap' between these two groups of banks.

This is where Grameen Fund and other SME financing institutions such as BRAC and Basic Bank come in. They provide their clients with loans and other services to help them grow and expand their businesses. This is very important for a country to continue its development. It is all great if everyone in the country has a cow and a rice paddy field, but some of these businesses must keep growing for substantial growth to occur.

The Grameen Fund used to operate through Grameen Bank branches, however just 9 months ago they left and started operating through their own branches or 'booths'. Now they find, appraise, disburse and collect their own loans. It is our job to make profiles of the two branches that we are visiting and asses the progress that they have made and make recommendations on how they can improve! We also want to do a couple case studies of some of their clients, and get to do some in depth interviews with them.

Our trip to Grameen Fund was very interesting and definitely worthwhile for many reasons. It was worth it just to get out of Dhaka and actually get to do something. But it was also very interesting to get to talk to the Fund. They are a very new business.

The Grameen Fund is the next step after the Grameen Bank on the development food chain. They deal with bigger clients and have fewer restrictions than the Bank does. The Fund deals with already established business owners who want to get bigger loans than they can get with Grameen Bank. Fund offers loans which are greater than tk 50,000, the average loan size that we saw was between tk 1-2 lakh (tk 100-200,000).

There are a number of other features that make Fund more appealing to larger businesses. They have monthly repayment instalments instead of the Grameen Bank’s weekly ones, and they have no requirement to be in a group or attend weekly meetings. Instead clients get a visit at least once a month from the Booth Manager where he comes and visits to see how the borrower is doing, encourage them and give advice if needed.

They have been around for a couple years but they only just split from the Grameen bank and started doing things themselves about 9 months ago. Now they have their own booth offices across the country, currently they only have 6, but that are plans to double that by the end of the year.

 We were asked to go to the field and visit one of the booths and make a report on the Grameen Fund with an assessment of the booth system and recommendations for the future.

We came up with a couple recommendations:

1. Organise better with the Grameen Bank on who is going to offer Micro Enterprise Loans, as well as making use of the Grameen Bank’s network.
• Currently both are but we feel that just Grameen Fund should be offering them.
• They should have a graduation system for Bank members to become Fund members. We are not sure if they do have one it was hard to get a clear answer because we would here different things depending on who we asked.
• Promote themselves more through the Grameen Bank so that people know more about it and the benefits of getting loans from them.
• Instead of setting up more booths, they could instead rent an office at Grameen Bank Branches, that way the Fund can make use of the existing infrastructure and
2. Keep expanding their booth network both in terms of the number of booths and number of employees at each booth. Currently the manager is able to visit all his borrowers but it requires a lot of travelling.
3. Further decentralization of the booths, such as giving them more autonomy over the loan approval process. Also technology like computers need to be used to their full potential to save time and allow for more rapid communication between head office and the booths. This may require training of booth managers or hiring of computer technicians. 

Cheers,

Mike

The Indian Story

Ok, I am now back in Canada, and it has been a very busy week so I have not had much time to update the blog. I will pick up where I left off...

So the next morning I met Will, the English guy I met on my flight, and we check into a triple room at Hotel Maria on Sudder Street. His friend Tom was arriving later that day. We then wandered around the neighbourhood, found a McDonalds and had the local version of the Big Mac. From there we found a nice book store where we sat and read a little over a cup of Darjeeling tea!

I found a book about poverty and aid that I was interested in, but it was a little big and I did not think it would fit in my bag. However, I did find a book about a Indo-Canadian living in Muskoka, so I had to pick up that! That night, once Tom had arrived, we went to go watch the England game at a club / bar a couple blocks away, and came home disappointed and went to bed.

One of my friends back in Dhaka had suggested that I go talk to the two owners of a shop on Sudder St (The main street in the backpacker community). I went over and met them, Sanjay and Ankash - they were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Their shop was filled with scarves, bags and shirts of all different colours, and they were constantly bringing me and any other visitors a cup of tea. At the shop I met a couple from Australia who invited me to come with them to a French Gypsy Jazz concert at the Alliance Francais in Kolkatathat evening! I thought - how many people can say they went to a French Gypsy Jazz concert in Kolkata? so I had to say yes, I would come!

I stayed there for a bit before deciding to go do some sightseeing. I set off to walk to the Victoria Memorial and on the way found Elliot Gardens, a little grassy area in themidst of busy Kolkata. It had plenty of benches for couples to hide themselves away on and escape from the watching eyes of their parents. Eventually I made it up to the Victoria Memorial and paid a whole 4 rupees to get into the gardens there!

The memorial was spectacular. It looked like it was made entirely from white marble stones, with some amazing statues and domes adorning the roof. It was far and away the cleanest and best kept building I had seen in 6 weeks!

That night I met up with Will and Tom and convinced them to come with us on the Kolkata metro to the Gypsy concert. The concert was actually really cool, I really enjoyed the rhythm and beat of the songs, and the performance was capped off with a guest appearance by two local musicians! From there we rushed back to the bar to watch the Ghana-Serbia game and have a couple beers... and I woke up the next morning with my glasses, wallet, watch and camera gone.

The other guys had nothing of their stolen and none of us remembered exactly what had happened. We were able to piece together that we had left the bar showing the Ghana game and had tried to find a bar showing the midnight game, but with no success. However that was the extent of our memories. Maybe my drink was spiked? or I was a little too trusting of my new friends? Who knows.

I quickly cancelled my debit and credit cards, exchanged some of my Taka, which I had left in the hotel, for rupees and I spent the rest of the day in the shop with Sanjay and Ankash. Luckily my passport had been back in the hotel, and I had some extra money there as well. Sanjay was incredibly helpful and he organised a cab to meet me early the next morning to take me to the airport.

So it was a unfortunate way to end my Indian adventure, however I did have a great time there and I definitely want to come back and visit Kolkata again as well as the rest of India.

Cheers,
Mike

Kolkata!

I am in Kolkata now for a little vacation within a vacation. I booked my flight last week to India, but I hadn't been able to book my train, I couldn't figure out how to until the day of my flight. By the time i\I had figure out where I could book online, they were sold out. But I thought I would still try the train station to see if there were any available.

I landed in Kolkata and got a taxi to Howrah train station. However , after being in Dhaka I had exchanged all my US dollars already so I did not have any more. One of my friends gave me $10 US though so I had a little, but I needed to find an ATM. This was harder than I thought it would be, it seems like most ATMs here close at 4pm, and by that time it was about 5 or 6 pm.

Once I had money I went to try and get an overnight ticket to Varanasi, but with no luck. So now I was in Kolkata, with no hotel, no train, no ones phone number and I didn't even know anyone here (even If I had a number, my phone was dead, and it does not work in India apparently). My parents had scanned and emailed me a couple pages from an Indian guide book, so I knew that Sudder street had a bunch of backpacker hotels for really cheap. So I got another taxi from Howrah to Sudder street. My taxi driver wouldn't actually go on the street because apparently it was closed.

I wandered around and eventually stopped to look at my map and ask directions. This really nice lady came up and asked where I was trying to go, I told her one of the hotel names from the pages my parents had sent me. She had to go into the store behind me to buy something but her friend stayed with me until she was back. Then she lead me around to the hotel and gave me her number so if I needed anything I could contact her. The Bengali hospitality extends into India it seems!

From there I got a bed in a dorm room for 100 rs per night with a fan and a locker for my bags. Then I headed around the corner to a pub and had a nice cold beer and watch part of the South Africa-Mexico game. I got talking to one guy from Bangladesh, when an English guy who had been on my flight walked into the pub! So we ate and had a couple drinks there and agreed to meet again the next day to go around Kolkata together.

So now I have a couple days in Kolkata, Saturday till Monday and then I fly out Tuesday morning!

Cheers,
Mike

The SME Finance Gap and Our Project

Ok, after a week of Ross sitting in the Grameen Fund's office and my failed week of trying to get a second village trip planned, we finally have a trip with Grameen Fund happening!

Ross and I will be going to one of Grameen Fund's booths in Noakhali, and Melanie (one of the other interns at the Bank) and an intern from Grameen Fund will be going to Feni. Feni and Noakhali are both about 5-6 hours south east of Dhaka and about an hour apart from each other.

So, what does the Grameen Fund do? They provide, among other things, financing to small and medium enterprises (SME). This is very important because these businesses are often unserved by both the commercial banks and microfinance banks. They are not poor enough to be accepted by MFIs and they require more services than they can provide. Commercial banks generally do not consider SME financing important since it is much more profitable for them to focus on much larger clients. Thus there is the 'SME finance gap' between these two groups of banks.

This is where Grameen Fund and other SME financing institutions such as BRAC and Basic Bank come in. They provide their clients with loans and other services to help them grow and expand their businesses. This is very important for a country to continue is development. It is all great if everyone in the country has a cow and a rice paddy field, but some of these businesses must keep growing for substantial growth to occur.

The Grameen Fund used to operate through Grameen Bank branches, however just 9 months ago they left and started operating through their own branches or 'booths'. Now they find, appraise, disburse and collect their own loans. It is our job to make profiles of the two branches that we are visiting and asses the progress that they have made and make recommendations on how they can improve! We also want to do a couple case studies of some of their clients, and get to do some in depth interviews with them.

So that is what I will be doing for the next couple days in Noakhali. I will probably not have any internet so I will update you when we get back!

Cheers,
Mike

My Reflections after one Month

Putting together the intern feedback form made me consider what I would out on it...

Overall I would definitely say that the trip was an amazing experience and definitely worth it. I learned a lot about microfinance, poverty and development, met a ton of new and interesting people from all over the world and got to experience a completely different culture. To people who are interested in doing the same or a similar trip I would definitely encourage it, but there are a couple things to do differently. 

Start to think about what you want to get out of the trip before you come here, research some of the sister companies and other NGOs and see if you want to learn more about them. Also see if there is some way to tie in what you are studying and interested in to the trip. For example I should have done some more research on NGOs or development agencies who were working in Dhaka on urban devleopment. So I would suggest set aside 4 weeks for the Grameen Bank, and then another 1-2+ weeks for one of the sister companies or another interest of your choice. In total I would say the ideal time would be about 6 weeks in Bangladesh which gives you enough time to learn about the Grameen Bank and get stuck in to another department.

I definitely have learned a lot and have seen so much that I never would have back in Canada. This trip has also inspired me to keep with it and expand on what we already have. Up until now I have mostly been focussed on just microcredit but now in Bangladesh I am seeing that MFIs a very important piece, but there are other important pieces as well. For example, after learning more about the Grameen Fund I am learning that Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) financing, is a hugely important piece of the puzzle which is largely missing right now.

Overall I feel that I could have gotten a lot more out of the program if I had a better idea of what I wanted to do before I came here. This was the motivation to try to get old interns talking to new interns before they come to the bank. The first week and a half was spent going on a day trip and a weeklong trip. The following two weeks was spent visiting and meeting with sister companies. After that, more and more time just got wasted sitting around the head office.

Before I came I was under the impression that they would have a program for us to follow for the whole 6 weeks, however their program at most lasts 4 weeks. Beyond that it is up to you to request to do certain things, the problem is that everything takes longer to do here. Frequently I came to the bank and was told to come back after lunch, or the next day and it took a long time for things to get done.

The first weeklong trip was a great experience, but I did not know what to expect and was not able to make the most use out of it. I would have liked to spend another long trip doing a more investigative study on the effect that microcredit has had on peoples' lives.

In the future I would suggest that interns should be told to use their weeklong trip to collect data to answer a research question. For example I was interested finding out how much the borrower's standard of living had improved since joining Grameen Bank. How much more savings, land, food, better housing did they have now compared to before? Unfortunately I did not think to ask these questions systematically to every borrower we talked to on our weeklong trip and I never got to go on a second.

So in summary the trip has been an amazing experience but I could have gotten a lot more out of it if I had been more organised before I got here and in my first couple weeks.

Cheers,

Mike

They still have Bureaucracy Halfway around the World

I am not sure if bureaucracy is the right word, but despite a very minimal legal system here, we still felt tied down by issues of liability and responsibility for the safety of the interns...

We had an interesting meeting with the general manger of the International Program. When we proposed our ideas she got very apprehensive. Even though they have no legal responsibility for the safety of the interns they still go to great lengths to protect us from harm. Very different from in Canada where The Unviersity of Western Ontario said that we were not allowed to go as a club to Bangladesh. For the sole reason that they did not think that they could escape the legal and financial risk of us travelling. In Bangladesh they have different reasons but the same outcome by the looks of it.

In our meeting we proposed the 4 changes listed in my previous blog post. She was not in favour of most of them since she wants the department to be able to control all information that goes out to interns. She especially did not like our idea about how old interns could answer emails and give presentations to new interns. Basically we are never supposed to walk any long distance, or take rickshaws, or auto rickshaws, or go sightseeing without a tour guide. We didn't even bother asking about going to markets.

If I had followed those warnings you could erase more than half of the pictures and stories I have posted. I never would have gone to Srimongal, no tour of Lalbag Fort, no river cruise, would never have had the chance to walk through the markets.

Dhaka may be an incredibly hard place to live because of the heat, pollution, garbage and traffic. But it is actually incredibly safe, I have never felt threatened or thought I was in danger. All the interns, guys and girls, feel the same way. Sure the driving here takes a little bit of getting used to, but after that it is ok.

I have had one instance where someone tried to rob me. It was starting to get dark and we were in old Dhaka, a little boy came from behind and put his hand in my back pocket – which had nothing in it. I yelled hey at the kid, and another man immediately yelled at him as well. Crime here is not tolerated. A couple of the interns saw a man get beat up for stealing on the weekend. 

So unfortunately it looks like our reforms to the internship program are going to fall on deaf ears. We are going to push ahead with our feedback form and suggestion to have one mandatory starting day each week. Then we will be forced likely to do our won thing and set up our own unofficial FAQ and forum separate from the bank.

 

Cheers,

Mike

Give the City Busses a Chance

I must take back my assessment of urban public transport in Bangaldesh. Up until yesterday I had still not ridden the public bus system, it just seemed too chaotic to me. Often you see people jumping on and off busses while they are still moving. However yesterday we bumped into a group of interns from Germany who had a Bengali guide showing them around.

The guide was going to take them back to the hotel on the public bus, so we thought it might be fun too. We took rickshaws to the nearest bus station and then waited for the Germans to catch up to us. Several times though people came up and asked us where we wanted to go, and we could have easily caught our own bus.

It was a fun experience which I wish I had earlier in my trip. The bus had extremely tiny seats, and took even longer than usual but on the whole the ride was nice and relaxing. To get from old Dhaka back to our hotel in the suburbs it took about an hour. The same ride in a tuk tuk (auto rickshaw) would have taken about 45 minutes depending on how motivated your driver was and his sense of direction.

I now know the names of several of the bus stops in central Dhaka, so I can hopefully find busses that go to them from our hotel! Unfortunately I will likely not get much chance to use my bus skills since I am going to be away for the rest of my trip pretty much.

It is confirmed, we are going to a Grameen Fund "Booth" from Tuesday to Thursday. Ross, Melanie and I as well as an intern with Grameen Fund will be going to do a report and study their operations. Then Friday afternoon I am flying out to Kolkata and flying back early Tuesday morning!

Cheers,

Mike

Changes to the Internship Program

I have been talking with a couple of the other interns about how to improve the internship program and make better use of the coordinators’ time and to allow for a more organic way for the program to improve.

As it stands currently the coordinators spend a lot of time responding to emails from people who are applying to do the internship. Most of these questions are very repetitive since most people have similar concerns. At present there is not a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions section on their website for interns to look. Because of this interns are forced to ask the coordinators more questions.

Another problem is that there are many interns who arrive throughout a week, and are all on slightly different schedules. The coordinators are forced to give the same introductory presentation and explanation of the Grameen system over and over.

Finally, there is only a very limited method of evaluation and feedback by interns of the bank. Each intern is required to write a report on the experience that they had while they were here and then fill in a very quick survey. However, after looking at some reports that they consider are good, it does not look like that read them all that thoroughly.

In addition to the changes we proposed below, I was also thinking about having more structure for the report that we write. I think the bank should encourage us to collect some data and do some research while we are here and write a proper research paper. I am going to try and do this a little bit when I go to the village again this coming week. I am going to go to a new branch and an old branch and compare the progress of borrowers in both by seeing how much they have improved their living conditions using land, buildings (size and building material), savings and diet to measure their progress (later today I will post more about what I am going to do this coming week).

So in response to these problems, three other interns, Joshua, Julian, Melanie and myself have been discussing simple solutions that we think could be easily implemented.

1. Feedback Form
• Purpose: To allow for an anonymous method of improving the internship over time
• To be completed at the end of the internship
• Would include feedback on performance of Translators and Coordinators, effectiveness of the program, areas for improvement of the program, educational benefits gained while at the bank and suggesting new ideas for social businesses, sister companies, etc.
• Anonymous System which will be run and maintained by old students shortly before leaving
2. Intern Forum
• Purpose: To save time for coordinators from answering emails and to allow for better communication between prospective interns and experienced interns
• There should be a link to the forum on the Grameen Webpage, and coordinators should direct new interns to look at the site before they come to the bank
• Would be maintained by alumni of the internship program during and after the stay.
• Would enable people considering the internship to ask questions of other people from their own country.
• Alumni would have the option to be ambassadors and list their: name, country, contact information, date and length of their internship, age and a summary of their internship
• Also a section to upload select reports and an FAQ section maintained by interns
3. Introductory Presentation by Old Interns to New Interns
• Purpose: Connect new and old interns, and allow for experiences and advice to get passed along, while also saving the coordinators from giving the same presentation over and over to new interns
• Presentation (Powerpoint, or other) of experiences at the bank as well as an educational presentation of the products that the Grameen Bank offers and their organisational system
• Group events – group trips to dinner, cricket games, sights, etc.
4. More Structured Program
• Purpose: to prevent the need for multiple introductory presentations in one week, place interns in groups right from the first day, creates groups of people even if they are not all living at the same hotel
• Only one starting date each week,
• We suggest Wednesday – allows for introduction on Wednesday and day trip on Thursday, and weeklong trip starting on Sunday/Monday
• Interns that are staying for longer than 4 weeks should be encouraged from the start to start thinking about a sister company that they would like to get placed in, or a research question they would like to study

 The network of alumni would enable people to be better prepared before they arrive. For example the issue of money: I only brought a little US dollars and some travellers cheques. The US dollars came in very handy at the airport, but I have been unable to find anywhere convenient to use my travellers cheques. The only place I have heard, are the banks in the Gulshan neighbourhood in Dhaka, which is a 45 minute cab ride away. On the other hand, the just the bank I use here, Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd, has over 300 ATMs in Dhaka. And withdrawing cash using them is very easy. Other questions about dresscode, the weather, sights to see and places to visit can be easily answered by past interns.

This would be supplemented by the forum which would have information about frequently asked questions, and places to stay in Dhaka, day trips around Dhaka, weekend trips around Bangladesh and other useful information. When a prospective intern contacted the bank with a question about the internship, they would be sent back an email with the list of ambassadors and the forum. Then the person could look at forum to get answers to some questions and if they wanted to ask more questions they could contact someone from the list. The list could be easily organised by country so that you could talk with someone in your first language, who was likely in a similar situation to you when they came to the bank.

One of the most important changes needs to be to the structure of the internship. Currently the bank is extremely accepting of interns who come for all different lengths and on starting on all different days of the week. This wastes the coordinators time, and prevents them from doing more important things like organising trips, and meetings for their interns. We are suggesting that the internship should start on a certain day every week, so that only one introductory presentation is needed each week.

For example:

• Week 1
• The Internship starts at 10am every Wednesday, they have introductory day, watch the Grameen videos, meet with old interns and their coordinator. Thursday they have their day trip to a branch in the morning and then discuss it and plan a weeklong trip for the following week. They then have the weekend (Friday and Saturday) to get settled in Dhaka and get to know the interns that they arrived with and ones that were already here.
• Week 2
• Sunday to Thursday they would go to a branch and experience in more depth what they saw on their day trip. 
• Week 3
• The following week, Sunday would a reflection day and planning for the coming week which would involve meetings with other Grameen departments and sister companies in the head office and visits to social businesses.
• Weeks 4-6
• At this point the interns hopefully have experienced most facets of the bank and can decide how they want to spend the rest of their time – a placement in a department / social business, more branch visits to new or struggling branches, etc.

Cheers,

Mike

Dhaka Fire

Some of you may have heard about a big fire in Dhaka which killed over 100 people last night. I just wanted to reassure you that I am fine. I did not actually know about the fire until someone asked me if I was ok. The fire was in Old Dhaka which is the opposite side of the city from me in a district called Nimtoli. If you look at a map of Dhaka that would be in the south, while I am all the way up in the North in suburb called Mirpur 1 and 2.

It is very unfortunate the way it happened though, and the streets apparently were too narrow which made it difficult for firetrucks and ambulances to respond. The fire was started by an electrical transformer exploded and then a chemicals shop on the ground floor caught fire. From there at least 7 other old buildings caught fire as well which did not have proper fire escapes. On every street in the city there are dozen and dozens of wires which hang from trees and buildings, so in some ways it is surprising that this sort of thing does not happen more often. Add in the fact that Dhaka is one of the most densely populated city and it is easy to see how something like this does happen.

PS - according to the BBC new report this does happen quite often, but that this was just an exceptionally deadly one

A Bike Ride through the Countryside

The Day after going to the tea estates we rented some bikes and headed down the road towards the nearby National Park, tribal villages and a big lake. The bikes were the typical Chinese one speed bikes that you see everywhere in Bangladesh. Also typical of most bikes in Bangladesh, they were falling apart. My bike’s chain fell off at least 15-20 times during the day, the seats were terrible (I still could not sit on a chair a whole day later), and the brakes only gradually slowed you down.

Setting out on our bike journey

Left to right: Frederica, Adrian, Ross, Josh and Julian

All in all, it could not have been a more authentic Bangladeshi experience. The scenery along country roads was amazing, the people were friendly everywhere. I think word of a group of white bikers spread through the area before us. As we approached a cluster of houses the children were always quick to run out to the road. Often you would hear “How are you?” shouted across fields at us. And everywhere people wanted us to stop and talk and take pictures of them.

An abandoned BP gas station

I see you!

Beyond the formalities of hello, how are you, country, and name there were very few who knew English. This made it very hard to get directions to the places we were planning on going. In the end we could not find the tribal village we were planning on visiting, and we did not want to be forced to pay for the park and the other tribal villages twice since we were planning on going the next day with a guide.

Stopping for some cha

So we were left with biking approximately 20km to a natural lake north of Sirmongal. By the end of the trip though I would not have cared if we had never found the lake, I was happy just to bike though the rural countryside. The scenery were beautiful, from flooded rice paddies, to hills covered with tea plants, a sheep traffic jam, and the wonderful little clusters of bamboo, metal and clay houses.

Traffic jam, Bangla style

Eventually by just asking “lake?” people directed us in the right direction. However, they would not let us bike all the way up to the lake though, so we had to pay a guy to watch our bikes for us while we were at the lake. The lake was a beautiful mixture of lilies and little bays that wound between rolling hills that typify the area.

Madhabpur Lake

We first walked up one side of the lake to a couple lookout thatch gazebos and up along the paths through the tea plants that lined the slopes of the hills. We quickly picked up a enthusiastic tour guide who ran around picking up lilies and pointing a tea plants.

The next trend is hair fashion

Eventually we managed to lose our guides and were able to sit down by the water’s edge on our own and enjoy the lake in peace. The rolling hills here are one of the few places in Bangladesh where you are able to sometimes see no one for 360 degrees all around you.

Lillis

We then headed back to our cottage, where we decided that we liked it so much that we chose to cram all six of us into one room, rather than be forced to sleep in Srimongal. The guide book described one of the hotels in the city centre as a place that sees a lot of “paid for” love. And after getting a tour we can confirm that description.

Cheers,

Mike

My Bengali Paradise

After our trip to Bogra, I was in no mood to hop on another microbus and drive another 300 kilometres, however I am incredibly happy that I got dragged along.

On Wednesday we had a 4 hour drive from Bogra back to Dhaka. After that I had to immediately leave to pick up my Indian Visa which meant another 45 minutes in an auto rickshaw in Dhaka traffic. I had a little trouble because I forgot my receipt that showed that I had paid for my Visa, but luckily the guy remembered me so he let me have it anyways.

After that it was back to the hotel where people were waiting for another microbus to go up to Sirmangal, the tea capital of Bangladesh. I was in no mood to get on another bus, but I was told there was space and that i needed to bring my stuff down quickly and get ready. Before I knew it I was on a bus hurtling through the now dark countryside. If you thought day time highway rides were scary, then don’t even think about trying a night time journey. It was a mix of giant busses with blinding lights, and rickshaws and mini busses with no lights, plus at night it is a lot harder to see the speed bumps and pot holes.

I was grudgingly packed on that microbus but now I am so very glad that I was. Once we were on the road we started calling hotels. The first wanted $40 US a night, so that was an immediate no. The rest did not have up to date phone numbers in our version of the Lonely Planet. Eventually we got lucky and Nishorgo Nirob Eco Cottage had space for the six of us for that night (Wednesday) and Thursday night for only 500 taka each ($7-$8 CAD).

When we arrived at 11pm the manager was waiting for us and there were three double rooms for us in two little cottages. We could not see much in the dark but there was a path between the cottages through a little forest and a couple small bamboo bridges over some streams. We were just happy to have somewhere nice to stay.

Nishorgo Eco Cottage

The next morning we had a breakfast of chapatti bread, some vegetables and potatoes, a couple bananas and some tea. The manager said he could give us a tour of the tea estates that afternoon, so we had the morning to relax and explore around the cottages.

The Riverside Gazebo

There was a little Gazebo which overlooked a bend in the stream that ran next to the cottages. It had an inviting ladder down to the river’s edge, and we set about trying to explore as far up and down the river as possible. It was not long before we braved jumping across the river, wadding through it and eventually even lying down and having a mini swim in it.

The view from the Gazebo

We went back up to the cottages and dried off while reading our books. The manager said we could have lunch and then he would take us to the tea estates. So we ate some home cooked Bengali food and then walked up the road a couple minutes to the Zareen Tea Estate.

All I need is a tan and I could pass as a local

The Tea Estate was incredible, they had a factory and an approximately 600 acres farm in behind. They employed over a thousand workers, they got paid only 48 taka (much less than a dollar) per day plus a food allowance, but could get more if they picked more than their quota. Our the hotel manager was explaining that it was not very much, but it was a steady year round job that paid no matter what.

The view from up in the Tea Estates

The tea estates were beautiful, it was hard to get a good picture on my camera, but the sheer size of them was amazing. We were even able to climb up into the bushes and see them pick the leaves up close. They keep the plants 34 inches tall which is the perfect height for picking. Then they pick the 3 newest leaves on the tops. Basically the newer the leaves the better the quality of the tea will be that they produce. So the newest but also the smallest are the best.

The perfect tea leaf picking height

The women who pick the leaves have a sheet which they tie so that they can hang

 it behind them from their head. Then they have both hands free to pick leaves and put them in the bag behind them. They were incredibly fast at picking the leaves. I cannot imagine walking up and down those slopes with a couple kilograms of leaves on my head, I had trouble just carrying my camera. Plus even while you are picking the occasional poisonous snake could bike your legs at any time, although apparently that happens only very rarely.

They were picking incredibly fast (she actually said she was slow, because the plants were farther apart here) and you can only kind of see, but she is carrying a big bag of leaves from her head

That night we headed into the town of Sirmangal and couple kilometres from our cottages. We managed to find a very nice Bengali restaurant, bought some bus tickets back for Saturday afternoon, and had a frustrating discussion with a couple hotels trying to find somewhere to stay for Friday night. In the end we were told to call back the next day when they would know how many rooms they would have available.

All the different types and qualities of tea

Some other pictures from the day:

The whole family came out to see us

The rice paddy on the way to the tea estate

After that it was back to our cottages for another night in our wonderful little rooms. After just one day I can say that this is definitely my paradise in the hills of Bangladesh. It is just too bad that they are full for Friday night and we have to move out. But if you are ever in Bangladesh, set aside a couple days and head to the Nishorgo Nirob Eco Cottage, close to Sirmangal. It is an amazing little place, great rooms, beautiful setting, friendly staff and for that good feeling in your belly - a portion of every room fee goes to protecting the forests here.

Cheers,

Mike

PS – We liked it so much that we decided to stay another night, even though that meant we had to cram all six of us into one room! They are going to give us an extra mattress, so it will be two people to each mattress. 

The Quirks of Bangladesh Shopping

If I was going to pick a place to live in Bangladesh, I would chose the rural areas in a heartbeat so I don’t quite understand the with attracting doctors to rural areas. It is not like you are missing out on the night life in Dhaka, since there are no bars anywhere in the country. The closest thing Bangalis have to bars are their tea shops, which are everywhere, even in the most remote village. And there is usually a decently sized market a couple of kilometres from you, no matter where you are in the country.

After walking through some of the big markets in Dhaka, you realise that there are at most only about 10 types of stores in Bangaldesh: mens clothes, womens clothes, jewellery, leather accessories (belts, wallets), grocery store / tea shop, electronics store, appliance store, tailor, barber shop, fruit / fish market. After that, every big bazaar is just those ten stores selling the exact same products ten times over.

There are some other stores, but they are not so much for the individual consumer more for other businesses, they are still identical wherever you are in the country though. There is the metal rod shop, the metal bed frame shop, furniture shop (they make some very nice hardwood furniture!), the bamboo pole shop (used for scaffolding and stilts to hold buildings up!), the plumping pipe shop, and the mechanic / tyre shop (they pop a lot of tyres here). I think it might be written in the Qur’an that you can only sleep in bed on a silver, red or black bed frame since those appear to be the only bed frames sold here.

We went to Bashundara City Mall, in Dhaka last week. It is the largest mall in south Asia! It was 8 or 9 floors tall and each floor was fairly big as well but the best part was the way they organised the mall. They are not as commercialized as North America, so stores were grouped by product. The high end stuff was split between the ground floor and the top floor next to the Cinema. These two floors where were most of the people were too. The other floors are organised by product: sports accessories, mens clothing, womens clothing (2 floors), music, jewellery, etc.

In North America we organise malls so that you have to do the maximum amount of walking past the maximum number of window displays to get between the two stores that you want. In Bangladesh there is one floor that has everything you want. Much more to my liking, and when you ask one store for something the owner will take you around to other stores if he does not have what you are looking for!

Cheers,

Mike

PS – I have a couple posts from our weekend trip to Srimongal and the Tea Estates, but I will save those for tomorrow!

Grameen Fisheries

So on our trip to Bogra, we visited Grameen Danone, Grameen Healthcare Services, and the monastery on Tuesday and then that night we drive to the fisheries rest house an slept there. The next morning we got a tour around the fisheries.

Our cute little rest houses, covered in flowers

Catching fish to sell in the market

The fisheries have a hatchery, and then a series of different sized man made ponds where they raise the fish. The fish slowly graduate through the different ponds as they get bigger, until they are in an adult pond like the one in the picture above.

The ponds are looked after by the community and each family who helps with the fish gets a share of the profits that they make when they sell them. I forget exactly the names of the types of fish, but I think one of the more common ones, and higher quality is called Rui. I think I tried it once, in a curry and it was definitely very yummy, apparently it also has fewer bones, but I still spent a lot of time picking out the bones.

They trap some of the fish in a small section and then sort them by size and type, in the background you can see fishes jumping to escape the net, some actually make it over.

Proudly showing off the biggest fish from todays catch

Off to the Market!

The take the fish still alive to the market in little buckets and barrels of water. I guess they want to be able to prove that the fish a really fresh and have not been sitting around for long. The fish markets that we have visited have the fish still flopping around on the display.

The Hatchery

To grow the fish they have a separate pond for females and then they bring them into the hatchery and give them hormone. Then they squeeze the eggs out and do the same with the males to fertilize the eggs. The eggs hatch in about 3 days in the hatchery, before they are transported to nursery ponds. They spend a couple weeks (3 I think) in the nursery pond before they are moved to an intermediate pond where they spend 6 months. Finally they are moved to the adult pond for another 6 months or so before they will be caught and taken to be sold in the market.

Three day old baby fish!

5 Tourist Attractions walking through a old Buddhist Monastery

After visiting the Grameen Hospital we drove to the ruins of an old Buddhist Monastery and walked around. But we quickly realized that we had become the tourist attraction.

Julian and Me with Two Kids 

Dave, Nisha and Julian (in the back) at the Monastery

One of the most awkward moments ever.

A family came up to us asking for a photo so I sat down on the wall next to the daughter and the wife, but then the husband told his wife to get up so it was just me and the daughter. The daughter didn't say anything the whole time, or even really look at me while her dad was taking our picture. 

At the Top of the Wall (Left to right, Me, Ross, Dave, Nisha)

Walking along the wall.

And the surrounding picturesque rice paddies

Grameen Healthcare Services – Eye Hospital

Our next visit was right next door at the eye care clinic. The facilities they had were quite impressive. Everything was spotless and clean, and they equipment was the same as what you would see in North America or anywhere else in the developed world.

The Grameen Healthcare Services Hospital

They mostly provide cataract surgeries at the hospital to the poor who live in the region around the hospital. They have several locations where they have a travelling camp on a regular basis. Nurses and DMFs (Physician Assistants) travel to villages and advertise and assess whether or not people need surgery.

Most of the patients from these villages are poor and therefore they do not pay for their surgeries. They will have everything provided free of charge, including transportation and accommodation for two nights while they are at the hospital. In the past this has been one of the major limitations of providing healthcare to poor rural areas – they cannot afford to get to the cities where the services are provided.

Nurses at the Hospital

Despite offering free services to the poorest patients, they still do cover all of their costs by charging other patients for surgeries. We thought this would mean that it would be more expensive for wealthier patients. The manager of the hospital said that it was actually still cheaper for these people to get their surgeries done here than somewhere else. Once again though, their limitation of the number of surgeries was a lack of patients, which seems like another massive failure of Grameen marketing.

Alfonso found out he needs glasses

The hospital had 4 doctors, who rotated working days at the hospital. Presumably the other days of the week they are working in Dhaka or another city. This is another major limitation for rural health provision. Grameen Kalyan provides rural health insurance and basic health provision to the borrowers of the Grameen Bank. Their main limitation was an inability to attract doctors to practice in the rural areas. Despite offering twice the salary and a free motorcycle it was still hard to get doctors.

I think this hospital has some deal worked out with a hospital in Dhaka or some other city where they get a doctor for the day. Then the next day a different doctor is sent. This way no one doctor is forced to endure the quiet, picturesque, relatively pollution free countryside for more than a day or two at one time! And they don't have to pay the salary of a full time doctor, which helps them save costs. 

It was difficult to see how they are able to cut costs so much without sacrificing quality, but hopefully back in Dhaka I can take a look at their balance sheets and income statements to find out more. 

Cheers,

Mike

Grameen Danone

Grameen Danone is a social business that produces nutritious yogurt for children in rural areas around Bogra and in urban areas around Dhaka. They did a study of the diets of children in Bangaldesh and identified a number of areas where the children were not getting enough nutrients. The yogurt was designed to ensure that the children get those nutrients that they are missing, be tasty so that the kids like it, and be affordable.

I don't know about the kids, but Ross loved it!

The result of this study and plan was in 2006 construction began on the plant and but February 2007, it started operating. At the plant they collect milk from micro cow farmers who are borrowers from the Grameen Bank, and they also collect from the Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Project.

The Grameen Danone Factory

The milk is collected at a couple remote locations that have a automated machine which measures and tests the milk. The farmers are paid 20 to 30 taka for the milk depending on the quality. In 2008 they started with 234 farmers and they now have 400, each with 3-4 cows. 90% of the milk is collected this way, and most of the remaining 10% is collected from the Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Project. They have to offer the farms a competitive price because the farmers can sell their milk in the local markets as well.

The milk is then brought to the factory to be processed. The factory has solar panels heating the water, and a rain collection system as well in an attempt to reduce their energy and water consumption. We were not allowed to see much of the factory actually, because they are concerned about keeping it clean. So we could really just sit in the office and talk to the manager.

The yogurt is then sold through yogurt ladies, who are borrowers from the Grameen Bank, in rural areas. The women get a 1 taka commission when they sell them, so that the final price consumers pay is 6 taka (less than 10 cents) for a 60 gram cup. They have a mango flavour which is 7 taka, and both are more expensive in Dhaka because of the transportation costs.

A Cup of the Shaktidoi Yogurt

The factory has 100 marketing and sales employees and 500 yogurt ladies. Each lady sells approximately 70-80 cups per day, and on the whole they sell 100,000 cups per day. The factory provides the yogurt to the ladies on credit, and they repay it the next time they buy more yogurt from the factory.

Like most Bangali managers, he did not have much idea about the financial state of his business. He kept saying it was hard to be sure. He said that the plan was still losing money - apparently the plan was to be profitable by the end of 2011, which still gives them time to reach that target. However their original plan was definitely more ambitious.

Posing with the Shaktidoi Lion!

 One of the interns had done a project on Grameen Danone, and they were supposed to already have a second plant and have begun constructing a third. However it sounds like they have had issues with production a couple times which have set them back. On the whole though, it was a very interesting trip.

 It seems like once again the major limitation is the demand for the product. Like with the water at Veolia, they are having trouble convincing people that their product is worth spending 6 taka on. The people in the rural villages are used to making their own yogurt, and not paying anything. But apparently the yogurt that can be bought in the markets is more expensive and not as nutritious. You would think with that kind of competitive advantage on their side they would find it easier to sell the yogurt. I am beginning to question Grameen marketing campaigns. They say that the way they promote most social businesses is through centre meetings, or travelling salesmen.

That was our trip to Grameen Danone, which was right next to the eye care hospital, but that is a whole new post!

Cheers,

Mike