First day on the job

After having breakfast and lunch yesterday we headed into the office at noon and met with our coordinators. They were telling us more about how the Grameen Bank works and were planning our next week.

Life in Dhaka:

I had curry every meal yesterday! Lunch was especially good: bangala curry chicken and nan bread. Then we headed over to the bank. The bank is only a couple minutes walk away, between a 6 and 10 minutes, and it is the tallest building by far in the neighbourhood so it is hard to miss. The first thing that you notice after leaving the hotel however, is the smell of the streets. The open sewers are not nice to walk beside!

There is also a constant haze over the city and it is very hot and humid. As one guy on our plane said, it is Bangladesh’s big problem that they have to wear pants even though it is so hot. You have to wear pants and a shirt to work always and especially when you visit the villages. Women have to wear long sleeve and lose fitting clothing. Our coordinator said this was because Bangladesh is a Muslim country.

It is a nice walk to the Bank Head Office though, there are no big streets to cross, just one small side street. Although you still need to keep your wits about you when crossing it, I almost got hit by a rickshaw on the way to the bank. There are a bunch of nice apartments with guards outside and two schools along the way and a hospital is being built now next to the bank.

The View from the Hotel

Me and Ross are wasting no time at all, get the weekend (Friday and Saturday) off, and then we have our first trip on Sunday! On Sunday we are going to a village for a day trip to just get an introduction. Then we come back to head office and then the next day we are leaving on another trip, this time an overnight trip from Monday to Thursday!!

Organisation of Bank:

My coordinator’s name is Babor Ali, he is one of six coordinators who works in the international department. They deal with all the foreigners who come to visit the bank through internships and other programs that the bank offers (they also offer research programs, journalism programs, and training programs for people who want to replicate the Grameen model and start their own banks). One of the other coordinators is Humayun Kabir, Ross’ coordinator. He started talking to us about how the Grameen Bank is organised.

There is one Head Office, which supervises 40 Zonal Offices. These Zonal Offices cover every part of the country – it is a nationwide bank. Then there are 267 Area Offices, and each Zonal Office is responsible for maximum 8-10 Area offices. The Head Office, Zonal Offices, and Area Offices are the monitoring and supervising levels of the bank, they do not actually deal with the borrowers on a day-to-day basis. That is done at the branch and centre level. Below the Areas there are 2,564 Brach Offices, and once again there are maximum 8-10 Branches per Area.

The size of the groups that the borrowers must join before taking out a loan is a max of 10 borrowers (but preferably 6-7). They join groups for experience in leadership and discipline and for support, but they each borrow money individually – there are no group loans. Each group elects a Chairman and a Secretary who are responsible for making sure they all attend weekly meetings and keeping track of the payment of their instalments. Then each one of these groups is part of a Centre and 8-10 groups make up a Centre. The centres are where the weekly meetings occur and where the borrowers deposit their loan repayment instalments each week. There are then 60-70 of these centers in a Branch.

So in Summary:

1. 1 Head Office
2. 40 - Zonal Offices
3. 8-10 Area Offices per Zone
4. 8-10 Branch Offices per Area
5. 60-70 Centres for Branch
6. 8-10 Groups per Centre
7. 6-7 (10 Max) Borrowers per Group

The Grameen Head Office

I have lots to read now about the Grameen Bank, in addition to the books I brought. So there is a lot to talk about and I still have to talk about the hotel... all in due time! Over the weekend Ross and I are going to go explore around the hotel. We are very close to the Zoo and to the Botanical Garden as well as the National Cricket Stadium. So hopefully we can get to know some of the other interns and do some sightseeing!

Cheers,

Mike