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!