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!

Viyellatez Garment Factory

Today we visited the Viyellatex Garments Factory. When I thought about a garments factory before today, images of child labor, excessive working hours and horrible working conditions flashed before my eyes. Not anymore. Viyellatex Garments, while not a “traditional” garments factory, was nothing like I could have ever imagined.  All of the employees were paid 20% over the minimum salary required by the government, most worked in air-conditioned rooms, and the job came with many other benefits. Viyelatex provides free childcare to any worker with children, free healthcare, free lunch everyday, and an open environment of mutual respect. Although the work was visibly difficult, this company was really trying to end the bad reputation of garments factories and provide respectable employment to both the educated and uneducated alike. 

Party at the Air Force Base!

 Shamima’s Brother in Law is a captain in the Bangladeshi Air Force and invited us to the party he was hosting for his 7 year old son on base. In order for us to even be allowed to enter the base, we had to apply and submit a copy of our passports. Luckily no one turned out to be too shady and they let us attend! It was really exciting because we all got to wear the fancy Bangladeshi clothing that we bought. I had a traditional 3 piece outfit made by a tailor in the market and was super excited to wear it to the big event!

Social Business: Grameen Danone and Grameen Eyecare

 Grameen Danone is a social business initiative between Grameen and Danone Yougurt. Grameen Danone aims to make no profit but to provide vital services to the poor at the lowest sustainable cost. The partnerships objective is to reduce poverty while providing nutrition to poor. Both companies contributed 50% to the startup cost of the projust. Danone provides the yogurt making expertise and plant while Grameen works to satisfy local regulations and distribute consumer education about the product. The product, “Shokti” is a nutritional yogurt that is fortified with calcium, protein, and several vitamins and minerals that Bangladeshi children are deficient in. Shokti is sold for 6 taka in the rural villages and 12 taka in Dhaka city grocery stores. In the rural villages the yogurt is sold door to door by Shokti ladies who make a 1.5 taka commission from every sale. This project employees 370 local farmers who provide the milk used to make the yogurt and another 40 employees who work within the factory. The Junior Project Manager, Amaud Riegert, that I spoke with predicted the factory would be running at zero-cost by 2011 – meaning that the sales proceeds from the yogurt would be equal to the cost of running the factory. Grameen Danone is doing everything it can to keep costs down and to be as environmentally friendly as possible: Rainwater is collected and used to make the steam necessary to sanitize the yogurt and packaging, expired product is composted and used to make gas that provides light to the entire facility, and any excess water that has been used throughout the process is used to irrigate the farmer’s fields behind the factory.

            Grameen Eyecare is a part of the Grameen Healthcare Initiative. The eyecare clinic is located in Bogra and provides services to an area containing a population of 3.5 million on a sliding scale basis. The clinic provides routine eyecare, eyeglasses, and surgery in their facility. The most common surgery is corrective cataract surgery.  The facility also hosts Eyecare Camps in the rural villages. A group of workers and a doctor drive out to the villages and offer free eye exams to anyone who would like to participate. If someone needs eyeglasses, then they are only charged a very small amount to cover the costs. If someone needs cataract surgery, then they are placed on a bus and driven back to the clinic where they will have the surgery and spend one night in the facility. These patients are only responsible for their food costs during this trip. Grameen Eyecare is already operating a sustainable level and has plans to open more facilities soon. 

Grameen Fisheries

The fisheries consist of over 400 ponds of various sizes used to grow several different types of fish. 50% of the project is owned by Grameen and the other 50% is owned by the local villagers. Grameen pays for all of the overhead and maintenance costs and the villagers provide the physical labor required to run the fisheries. When it is time to sell the fish at market, a Grameen representative and a villager go together and split the proceeds. The average villager who worked in the fisheries made 15,000 taka last year for their work. These individuals also have other jobs and many are involved in livestock production or agricultural work. There are currently over 3,000 families working in the fisheries and the fisheries are producing around 1,500 metric tons of fish a year. Unfortunately Grameen only has a lease on the fisheries land and the lease is due to run out next year. The Deputy General Manager Akhter Hamid is worried about the future of the project and explained that the success of the project depends on the political climate at the time the lease is up. If the government allows Grameen to release the land for another 25 years, the project will continue to grow and more families will be able to support themselves by working with the project. However, if the government takes over the project, the fisheries will likely be turned into a profit making scheme and the community’s poor will once again be at the mercy of a capitalistic system that makes no room for the undesirable at the top.

Struggling Member

            I interviewed a Struggling Member on the last morning in the village. The Struggling Member program is a newer program that allows beggars to take special loans from the bank. These loans accumulate no interest and can be paid back in any time period according to the borrowers needs. These loans are usually very small but allow for a beggar to purchase a small amount of goods to sell door to door instead of begging. The bank does nothing to collect these loans and the beggar is not required to pay them back if she is unable. The lady I met, Aysa Katum, borrowed 500 taka (about $7) to purchase some spices and candy that she sold door to door. She had already paid back her first loan and was currently on her second loan. Aysa had a specifically tragic story to tell; She was a widow and her 2 sons that lived nearby refused to take her into their home and support her. She guessed she was around 60 to 65 years old and was permanently crippled from working long hours bending over in the rice fields. She did have a small one-room shack to live in that was built for her by some local villagers who all chipped in a small amount of money to provide her with shelter. One of her sons lingered several feet away during our interview listening to our conversation. When we asked him why he wasn’t supporting his mother, he answered that he couldn’t support his own wife and children but had offered to let his mother come eat at his house before. Aysa quickly responded that she couldn’t eat at his house because the next day he would come and take any food or money that she had as repayment for the dinner. Although Aysa is still in a very tragic situation, the Grameen Bank Struggling Member program has really helped her out. She can now make enough money to buy rice for herself to eat and has access to clean water from a Grameen installed tube well nearby. Grameen also gave her a young goat to take care of. This gives Aysa a sense of purpose and will also generate money for her once the goat has kids that she can sell. At the end of the interview I asked Aysa if she was angry – angry  at her current situation and at her son for not supporting her as the Muslim culture dictates. She pulled her young grandchild close to her as she said that “No, I am not angry, I am helpless.”  

Malaria? Heat Exhaustion?

During a meeting I started feeling sick and felt ready to pass out by the time I arrived back at branch office. I knew I had a fever and my skin felt like it was on fire. Russel ran to the village market to try and find a doctor but the nearest one was several villages away. Instead he came back with a thermometer and some physician’s samples of various medicines. My temperature stayed around 101 for the rest of the night and I just couldn’t cool down. Although I should note that it is pretty much impossible to cool down anyway when its 90+ degrees outside and the rolling blackouts limit any air circulation that the fans could provide. Finally Russel came up with the plan: Anna must give me a cold water sponge bath in order to cool me down. I must at admit I was pretty miserable at that time but the fact that Anna was going to have to do that did cheer me up! So there I was laying on my back on the concrete floor of a Grameen Bank Branch Office Manager’s bedroom scandalously showing my kneecaps and elbows while Anna doused me in cold water. Luckily for me the combo of random meds and a cold water splashdown got me through until the next morning!

Hand Loom Weavers

     Hand loom weaving factory! Children work alongside adults on giant loom machines making saris. Each loom can make 1 sari in about 2.5 hours and the saris are sold for between 300 and 500 taka each ($4 -$7). All of the cotton thread is hand dyed and beautiful bright colors hang to dry from trees along the path.

Scholarships and Higher Education Loans

      I had the opportunity to interview both a Grameen Scholarship recipient and a Higher Education loan recipient. The scholarship recipient was a 19 year old girl named Runa who was currently in her first year of university studying botany. Her mother was a member of Grameen Bank, which allowed her to apply for the scholarship. Grameen is paying for her school for the first year and a half and the higher education loan program is open to her after that if needed. She is the first one in her family to attend university and her mother and father are both proud of what their family has accomplished. She is currently applying to attend the new Grameen Nursing school where Grameen will be giving free nursing training to borrowers' daughters that are accepted into the program.

            The Higher Education Loan recipient I met was a 21 year old named Mahmudal Hossain. He is currently in his third year of medical school. His plan is to finish medical school, then work in the city for a few more years until he feels his medical training is complete and then move back to his home village to fulfill the need for a village doctor. He talked about his father’s influence on his career choice and how important it was to be able to serve his community to the best of his ability. When asked about how the Grameen loan has affected his life he responded, “Grameen Bank was the only thing I had to rely on to continue my education. Without the Grameen loan I couldn’t go to medical school, and without this medical training, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my father’s dream for me to help my family and the people of our village.” 

Gara Doho Village Visit

       Last week I stayed at the Gara Doho Shahajadpur branch office in order to get an up close view of daily bank operations. The first morning I attended a center meeting in one of the nearby villages. All of the borrowers in this village are required to attend the weekly meetings, and pay back their weekly installments at that time. Each group of 5 borrowers comes up one by one to greet the center manager and pay their weekly installments on their loans as well as deposit any money into their savings or pension accounts. Each borrower is required to deposit 20 taka per week into her savings account and 50 per month into her pension account. This compulsory savings program teaches borrowers the importance of saving for the future and provides them with something to fall back on in case they need it. After they reach a minimum of 300 taka in their savings account, they are allowed to withdraw money from their savings accounts at any time and for any reason. Pension accounts mature after 10 years and the borrower receives 12% interest on the total amount deposited. Although only the 50 taka/month pension account is mandatory, many borrowers had other pension accounts and were saving larger amounts of money each week. 

            After the center meeting, I visited one of the oldest borrowers in the center in her home. Joshna was 55 years old and had taken her first loan from Grameen in 1988. Since then she has slowly built several businesses and dug herself and her extended family out of poverty. During the interview she offered us cookies and tea which we politely refused – I didn’t want to take food from her because I knew she couldn’t afford it. When I tried to tell Russel (my translator) why I didn’t want to accept the food, he responded, “Why do you think she is poor? She used to be poor but now she is the richest person in this village!”

            That afternoon we decided to take a walk around the village before dinner and ran into some kids playing soccer. Russel (our translator) convinced us to play even though it was about 100 degrees outside at the time. The kids love to play World Cup and I was on the Argentina team.  I even scored a goal! (even though I am pretty sure the kids were taking it easy on me). After the soccer game bathing was no longer a choice. We didn’t have a shower in the house we were staying in and the idea of showering out of a bucket standing a foot away from the squatty potty was just too much for me so I had been avoiding it for the first 2 days... Instead of facing that fear, Russel suggested that we shower on the terrace instead. After all it was already pretty dark outside and trees surrounded the whole house. So that’s what we did – Showers out of a bucket of questionably clean water on the roof of a Grameen Branch office in the middle of nowhere Bangladesh. In the end we ended up nice and clean with only a few awkwardly placed mosquito bites!

Bangladesh in Photos!

Men fishing at Grameen Fisheries. 

Sunset at the Fisheries. 

Fishes! 

CNG ride!

Grameen Veolia

Grameen Veolia is a small-scale water treatment facility and the first of its kind in Bangladesh. The entire operation is housed within 2 small buildings and can produce enough clean water for several surrounding villages. The clean water is dispersed throughout the area through underground pipes and pump stations. The water is sold at a very low price (a couple of cents for 5 liters) in order to maintain the station but no profit is made from the project. Grameen Veolia is only one of Grameen’s social business initiatives that I will be visiting in the coming weeks.  

Life as a Tourist - Old Dhaka and the National Museum

 Weekends are Friday and Saturday in Bangladesh and Friday is the holy day so almost everything is closed. Naturally, we tried to go to the National Museum only to find out that the museum was only open in the afternoon. Instead we spent the morning in Old Dhaka checking out the historic part of town. At one place where we stopped they were preparing to open a historic mosque for Friday prayer and we weren’t allowed in. Because Friday is the holy day, many people come to open mosques to pray with others instead of praying alone. 

Next we went to Shamima’s (a friend from Bangladesh who now lives in the states) house for a delicious home cooked lunch. The food was very spicy and oh so delicious! I got to meet several of Shamima’s family members and was even invited to a family party in honor of a young nephew’s circumcision… Traditionally boys aren’t circumcised until they are around 7 years old and it is a big deal for the whole family. I am pretty sure the kid wasn’t too psyched though!

When we finally made it to the National Museum, I was less than impressed. This place wasn’t a Bangladeshi museum, it was a life on earth museum.  For example, in the “Music” room there was a set of bagpipes and an accordion on display among the other musical instruments from around the world. I’m pretty sure that neither the bagpipes nor the accordion originated in Bangladesh… There was also a “Furniture” room which has a beautiful display of “Chairs.” It was an awesome display – a line of chairs from various times and places in history all marked “Chair” in case we didn’t know.

That night as we were getting ready for bed we saw several cockroaches and decided to take care of them once and for all. Thus began that great cockroach genocide of 2010…. Once we started spraying poison into the cracks in the walls and between the door frame, they all came streaming out but we were prepared with the shoe of death. 15 minutes later… about 30 cockroach bodies covered the floor!

Khakran Village

            This morning we took our first trip to Khakran, a small village outside of Dhaka. The trip took us about an hour by van and then another 30 minutes by boat. From the second we arrived until we climbed back into the boat several hours later, a large group of children followed our every move. Our first destination was the small bamboo shack that was used for Grameen center activities. Villagers gathered around the open windows to watch the meeting and a group of teenage girls giggled as I turned around to say “Hello.” This is where the borrowers meet each week to pay back their monthly installments and make deposits to their savings and pension accounts. I got to observe the basic weekly meeting and ask the borrowers questions about their businesses. For example, one woman named Shuchitra borrowed money from the Grameen Bank to buy a truck for her husband to drive. Her husband had been driving a truck for a company before the bank came to her village and was only allowed to keep a small percentage of his daily earnings. The rest he had to pay to the owner of the truck. Shuchitra’s loan from Grameen allowed her to purchase a truck so her husband could keep all of his daily earnings. Shuchitra now owns 2 trucks and deposits 100 taka per week into her savings account. 

            After the meeting, we walked around to visit individual borrowers to see their businesses. Most of the people of Khakran made pottery but we visited one home that specialized in making cow dung bricks to use as coal. They asked us if we wanted to see the place where they made the bricks and of course we said yes…. 5 minutes later I am standing inside an open area of someone’s home with a large cow tied to the wall waiting for the coal to drop. Eww!

            As I was leaving the village I got separated from the group and the center chief motioned for me to follow her. She took me into her small house, which consisted of one room with dirt floor. She wanted me to sit on her bed and admire the beautiful things she had collected. You could tell from the way she pointed out the embroidery on her bed sheet and the baskets she had collected that she had been working and saving for a long time. 

First Day at Grameen!

            This morning we walked to the bank from our hotel. The bank is pretty close and the walk only took us around 15 minutes.  Even though the walk was short, it felt like I was worlds away from the comfort and security of the hotel. The streets of Dhaka are always busy and filled with people setting up tiny booths selling fruit and small trinkets. The traffic is always heavy and the honking of horns is a constant buzz like a bee that is follows near your ear all day.

            Its easy to see why Muhammad Yunus felt called to reach out to the poor through microcredit. Poverty is commonplace in the streets right outside my hotel. Beggars line the sidewalks and its difficult to not open my purse and give them everything I have. I gave some money to a small disabled girl today and walked away praying that she wasn’t going home to a pimp tonight who would take the small amount she had collected throughout the day.

            Once we got to the bank, we were greeted by several Grameen employees and ushered into a conference room. We spent the next several hours watching power point presentations about how the bank works and various new programs. Even though I had already read everything that was discussed today, it was a great chance to hear about the bank from people who had put so much work into alleviating the pain of poverty. These people have devoted their lives to Grameen and have sacrificed a great deal to make sure that the program works for the individual needs of the borrowers. 

Grand Prince Hotel

            I am staying at the Grand Prince Hotel on a busy street in the shopping district of Dhaka. From the street, the hotel blends in with the surroundings perfectly – a bland dirt color with a vertical sign marking its presence. Once inside however, the hotel takes on a whole new attitude. The lobby is clean, well lit and fully equipped with wireless internet that is always being used by guests from all over the world. There are 2 restaurants with enormous menus boasting Chinese, Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine.

            Our room is small with two twin beds and a small bathroom attached. The room has an air conditioner that works periodically and is comfortable except for the 20+ cockroaches we have killed so far.  We considered switching rooms but quickly realized that if our room has bugs, so does everyone else’s. Instead we  went downstairs to the local bazar and bought some bug spray. We used the whole can on the room so hopefully they will stay out for awhile!

            There is a mosque right outside the window of our room and we can hear the call to prayer several times a day. Today  I walked into the hall to find a hotel employee on his prayer mat in the hallway. I spoke with someone about visiting a mosque and she said that they would most likely let me in if I found a mosque that allowed women to enter. I hope to find one in the coming days and check it out. 

Heading to Bangladesh!

Hey Followers! This summer I will be spending a month in Bangladesh and completing an internship with the Grameen Bank - a microfinance institution that provides small loans to women in rural villages through the country. Here is their website if you wanna check out what they do. http://www.grameenfoundation.org/