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November 2004 Small-Loan Program Empowers Beggars
Muhammad Yunus was a young economics professor at Chittagong University in Bangladesh when he had a revolutionary idea: He would loan money to poor village women so they might start and run their own businesses. In the three decades since, Yunus’s microloans succeeded beyond his or anyone’s dreams. His Grameen Bank, which made more than $11 million last year, has given $4.5 billion worth of small loans (the average is about $200), with a 99 percent recovery rate. It has seen its methods adopted in 58 countries, and in Bangladesh Grameen has had an extraordinary effect on the status of women in their families and communities. Now, Yunus told an audience at the inaugural conference of the Business School’s Center for Global Business and the Economy, he has a new target population: beggars. Grameen enlists store owners to extend up to $35 in credit to individual beggars and guarantees the loans. Beggars who go door to door can offer products or shop for the lady of the house. Even beggars who aren’t ambulatory can take part in the program. They can keep “some soft drinks, some bananas, some cookies” next to the begging bowl, Yunus explained, and “people have a choice whether they want to throw a coin or buy a banana.” Yunus figures he will have 25,000 beggars in the program by the end of the year and hopes that by next year a good number of them will have left begging for business. “All we need to do is put a roof on top and she turns into a businesswoman right there. Just because one cannot move doesn’t mean one is totally incapable,” he said. |
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