Monday, December 01, 2008

Dreams Do Come True

The people close to me would have heard me rave about this man. They would have been bored stiff with the way I keep on telling and retelling his story like a broken record. I adore him and yes, I’m crazy about him…

Who is he?

He’s a Bengali.

Is he handsome?

He’s as old as my dad.

Is he wealthy?

He’s a banker to the poor.

Is he powerful?

He’s not into politics.

Prof Muhammad Yunus – Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2006

So, why do I like him so much?

He is an ordinary man, with a great vision and a burning passion to help the poor. He is the founder of the Grameen Bank, a bank that gives out high-risk loans to the poor without collaterals so that they can use the money as a capital to start a small-scale business to earn a living for themselves. As the business grows, they have to pay back the loan and once they have settled the loan, they can take out larger loans to expand the business.

Basically, it’s like a “tai yee long”…but the nicest, kindest, sweetest one you’ve ever met.

To illustrate, let’s say you’re really poor, hardcore poor…and you’re a woman with 3 kids and your husband’s a drunkard who beats you up, couldn’t care less for the family and gambles away his meager pay. You are good in making kuih but don’t have the money to buy the ingredients to make the kuih to sell.

So, what do you do?

You try to borrow money from commercial banks, like Maybank or CIMB, but you obviously won’t give you any money because you can’t offer any collateral and by giving you a loan, there’s a high possibility that you can’t pay back and when you can’t pay back, they don’t have anything valuable to take from you. And remember, you’re probably haggard after living such harsh life, so you won’t be able to seduce the bank manager to turn a blind eye.

Contemplating on borrowing from the average “tai yee long”?

Better not, they are like insurance salesman – when they need your business, they are all lovey-dovey, but when you don’t pay up in time – no mercy, man!

So, how?

You can borrow from Grameen Bank. You get 4 friends to join with you and come up with a business proposal. The bank personnel would look through it, and give the loan (probably RM900) to you and just one other friend. The other two won’t be able to get their loans until you and your friend have paid up the loan installments. So, while you are able to start the business with the loan, the other two will help you with it and keep checking on you. The bank personnel would do a weekly assessment on your business. This gives you the pressure motivation to work hard and allow business mistakes to be rectified quickly.

Business is going great. You can finally earn a bit of money from the kuih stall. Equipped with motherly instincts, the first thing you do is buy good nutritious food for your kids. As part of the contract, as a borrower, you will have to attend weekly classes, where the bank would send experts to educate you about nutrition, the importance of education, proper sanitation and housing. Not just that, you will have to pledge to save at least 10% of your earnings in the Grameen Bank savings account, pledge to give your kids nutritious food, pledge to send them to school, pledge to fix the leaky roof (this might sound like a joke, but nearly half the population of Bangladesh didn’t have proper roofs above their heads and this caused rain to enter the house, spreading sickness like pneumonia that is potentially fatal especially in young children and the elderly), pledge to fix proper sanitation.

As the business of the stall gets better, you want to open a second stall in a nearby kampung. So, you can take out a larger loan to get a small kancil car to drive from stall and stall and hire another mak cik to help you make kuih and sell at the second stall. The bank would arrange experts to help you make your business plan a success.

You are your own boss. The sense of achievement boosts your self-confidence and self-esteem. You gain your self-dignity and won’t allow that “sei lo yeh”-no good-of-a-husband of yours to trample all over you, setting a perfect girl-power example to your kids.

The more you earn, the more you have to put in the savings in the bank. The money recovered from the loans, plus the interest rates, would be loaned to other poor women in need.

Down the road in 15 years time, you would have saved enough money to send your eldest son to a community college. With his sky-rocketing IQ levels, he managed to secure a place in a local university. But, you don’t have enough money to send him to the prestigious university…so, the bank offers him a scholarship in hopes that he would be able utilize his talents in the bank and enrich the lives of the poor.

And everyone lives happily ever after.

By now, you’ll probably be wondering why a nerdy medical student like me would take so much interest in micro-financing…

I met an Indian patient in seremban hospital, middle-aged gentleman, who had an infection that did not heal well and required amputation of the leg. He kept coming in and out of the hospital so frequently. I realized that the hospital team provided him with the best medical care they possibly could but because he was so poor, he didn’t have proper running water in his house nor nutritious food to eat, this compromised the body’s ability to heal well.

That is just one example of the many patients that I meet during my clinical visits. Being poor mean not having access to proper education, health care, nutrition. Without education, without a healthy body, how can a person excel in life? And the vicious cycle of poverty repeats itself once again. Poverty robs someone of their very basic right, the right to live. Many African children die before the reach five years old due to malnutrition and AIDs. These are preventable diseases, if only the funds could reach them…

Poverty robs someone of their dignity, of respect from other human beings.

Poverty can be defeated, the question is whether you are willing to take up your sword and fight?