Bangladesh's Next Top Model

Grameen Check (Grameen's fabric and clothing company) asked me to model their new clothing line with a few other interns from across the globe!! The whole experience lasted 9 hours and took place in several locations around Dhaka. It was super fun! Check out this hilarious pics that Rafique took during the shoot!

Grameen Shakti

Light provided by the solar panel! 

Woman cooking on her new stove!

Grameen Shakti (Energy) is sister company of Grameen Bank that is providing environmentally friendly energy to the rural villages. Today I had the opportunity to visit individual homes that contain three of Shakti’s initiatives. The first project I visited was a home equipped with a solar panel. The panel collected energy during the day and was able to store enough energy for four hours of use at night. The battery stored enough energy to light a light bulb, small fan, and charge a cell phone. The entire system and installation cost the borrowers 26,000 taka ($371) which could be borrowed from the Grameen Bank and paid back in 400 taka installments of three years. The second project was a special kind of stove with a long exhaust venting system that carried the smoke produced by cooking with fire from the house. The third project was a system for producing, storing, and using methane gas to cook. Cow dung was deposited every other day into a concrete reservoir underground and methane gas was produced. The methane was then released into a tube system that ran out of the ground, across the courtyard and into the stove. The system provided enough gas for cooking for an entire family and could provide as much as needed if the tank was continuously filled. Luckily, there is never a shortage of cow dung! The entire system cost 20,000 taka ($286) and the money could be borrowed from Grameen Bank and paid back over several years. 

Grameen Kaylan

Hospital bed at Grameen Kaylan. 

Grameen Kaylan (Healthcare) is a sister company of Grameen Bank that provides affordable medical care to Grameen members, their families, and others who live in the area. Healthcare clinics are located throughout the country – especially in areas where there are several bank branches. The office I visited today consisted of an open waiting room, a physician’s office, a small pharmacy and lab, and 2 rooms filled with hospital beds for the sick. The office provided basic healthcare services for the people living within 10 square kilometers. If there was a more complicated medical problem than the clinic could handle, the patient was sent to the nearest hospital (about an hour away). Complicated deliveries, for example, were always sent to the hospital as soon as the complication was identified.

Birthing Center! Check out the bucket
at the end of the table. 

 The healthcare fees are very affordable and Grameen Kaylan offers an insurance program for both members and non-members. Grameen Bank members pay only 200 taka ($2.85) and non-members pay only 300 taka ($4.29) a year for access to the healthcare facility. This insurance program covers up to six family members and with the plan an office visit costs only 20 taka (29 cents). Although the facility doesn’t handle complex medical issues, it does make a huge difference in the everyday lives of the villagers. 

Pharmacy and lab area. 

 While I was there, a young boy around 6 years old came in with his mother. He had been playing outside with his friends and had fallen and hit his head. He had a one-inch gash above his eye that needed to be stitched up and a possible concussion. Without this small medical facility, the boy would not have had been properly stitched up and would not have had access to any antibiotics if needed for infection. 

Grameen Shikkha - Preschool

Children lining up to sign the national song before
starting school for the day!

 In the city of Dhaka, Grameen provides free education until grade 5, but in the rural villages Grameen Shikkha only provides preschool since the Bangladeshi government provides free primary schooling to all children. The preschool is open to all children of Grameen Bank members and to the public if there is space available. The children attend preschool for two and a half hours each day and learn basic reading and writing skills along with fun activities like singing and dancing. I got to visit one of these preschools and the children there were incredible. Each child stood up and introduced themselves and then they performed some of the poems and songs they learned in school.

Grameen Education

5th Grade girls crowded on the floor with their books
while other children try to listen at the door. 

      Today I visited a Grameen Shikkha (Education) school in the slums of Dhaka. The school was one small room with a mat on the floor. 19 students crowded in every day from 2:00-5:00 for a few hours of instruction in Bengali, English, Math, Science and Religion. This primary education is free to these students who can’t afford to attend a formal school and Grameen is committed to paying the costs of attending a formal high school for those who pass the post 6th year exams. The children that attend this school spend the first several hours of everyday working in order to help support their families. 

Two young boys hand beading a sari. 

We visited one 10 year old boy in his home after school let out and he showed us the sari loom that he used to do the hand beading on saris. It took him about a week to hand bead one sari working around 8 hours a day and he usually made around 900 ($12) taka for each one. Although this doesn’t sound like a lot of money, this small amount makes a huge difference in a poor family’s income and these children have no choice but to keep working in order to make sure the family eats. 

My friend Brandy caught a shot of the secret handshake!

  Surprisingly, the children at this school were some of the happiest children I have met so far.


They were all extremely excited about our visit and took turns performing songs and dances that they had practiced with their friends. When it was time to leave all of the children from the neighborhood ran out of their houses and followed us to the van. The children surrounded me and everyone wanted to do the secret Bengali handshake! 

Sightseeing with Russel

Today was another Friday with no official bank duties so Russel took us sightseeing. First we headed to the Parliament building but we weren’t allowed inside the grounds because they were closed. Next, we headed to Dhaka university to explore campus a little bit. Russel took us to see some student dorms and I was surprised to hear that there are separate Muslim and Hindu dorm buildings. He said that sometimes the groups intermingled and stayed in each other’s buildings but for the most part the groups were housing separately. We also checked out an art exhibit and the School of Fine Arts and walked around their grounds where students were busy working all different types of sculpture and painting on their day off. Next we had lunch at a delish Bangladeshi restaurant that had the most heavenly fried eggplant. I would love to go back there again, but I have no idea what it was!

     After lunch we headed to a beauty salon because everyone was interested in getting our hands done with henna tattoos. Poor Russel had to translate our requests and then wait outside because the shop owners wouldn’t let a man sit in their salon. I got both the inside and outside of one hand and forearm done and it looked great until he began to fade. It turns out that henna absorbs much better on the inside on your hands than anywhere else so now my hand is really dark and the part on my arm is pretty faded. Oh well, it still looks awesome!

 That night Russel invited us to a friend’s wedding. The wedding was planned in just a few days because the groom was leaving the country in one week and they needed to have the wedding before he left. Because of the time crunch the traditional Muslim wedding traditions were shortened. A traditional Muslim wedding lasts 4 days. One day for the bride’s party, one for the groom’s party, one for the wedding, and the last one for the reception. At the wedding I attended, everything went down in one night and there was no ceremony the way we think of it. The groom had a mini ceremony and signed the marriage certificate in one room and then the bride had a small ceremony in another room where she signed the certificate. They then got together for pictures and more signing! At the reception we were seated with Russel and several of his friends from university and everyone was having a great time until they brought the food out. Food was served family style and giant bowls of assorted meats covered the table. I was with 2 other vegetarians and when it became noticeable that done of us were eating things got a little crazy. Everyone was so nice and they were worried that we didn’t like the food. Even after Russel explained that we were vegetarians and that we weren’t upset at all about not being able to eat, people kept coming up to us and apologizing. It quickly got out of hand when the caterer in charge of the whole event offered to send his staff to buy more food and to make us our own special meal. Since we were causing so much dinner drama, we decided to go ahead and leave before the whole event was ruined because of us. Instead we headed to Pizza Hut to show Russel the traditional American way of ending a Friday night. Pizza!

The Beautiful Bride and Groom!

Padakhep: A Center for Sustained Human Development

In order to study urban replication of the Grameen process, we visited Padakhep: A Center for Sustained Human Development. This organization has brought microlending to the urban poor in Dhaka city and throughout the country. Grameen Bank was formed under a special government regulatory authority that only allows the bank to work in rural areas and needs other organizations like this one to replicate Grameen for the urban poor. The actual banking process is very similar to that of Grameen’s but the loans are usually for larger amounts because of the higher cost of living within an urban area.

            Padakhep has several other poverty relief programs throughout Dhaka and we visited one of 4 homes for abandoned children. This program operates like an orphanage that takes in children from the street, rescuing them from a life of begging in order to survive. The home not only feeds and shelters the children but also provides practical skills training so that the child can support herself once she emerges at 18. Training includes tailoring, pottery making, and other small handicrafts that the children can sell. The facility is funded by UNICEF but still struggles to feed and clothe the number of children coming through their doors. They also sell the small crafts that the children make in order raise extra funds. During my visit the children who I met wanted to sing a song for me that they had been working on. One song led to another and before long a very enthusiastic little boy was dancing to the beat of all the children singing and clapping for him!