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Yallingup, Western Australia
Email:
viti@bearfruit.com.au
Website:
http://www.bearfruit.com.au
“Much previous research into women’s business in rural areas has concentrated on
examining the impact of the introduction of the Grameen Banking system,
pioneered in Bangladesh in 1976 and the promotion of micro capitalism in countries
as diverse as Africa, China, the Indian sub-continent, parts of the Muslim world, and
some other parts of Asia.”
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Yet, two key questions in Kira Kay’s 2009 Grass Roots Leadership presentation resonated deeply
with me. When HwH community groups approached the organisation for micro-credit loans,
they were asked:
How can your group contribute to this project?
How will you make it sustainable?
As simple as these questions appear, they underpin HwH philosophy of ensuring their projects
bring about social change. And as the Nepalese people themselves have come to realise, ‘You
give the net not the fish.’
Banking on Social Change
‘Banking on social change’
is a phrase Alexandra Bernasek
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applies when reviewing the
Grameen Bank microfinance model (Bangladesh) as an alleviation strategy for poverty. Banking
on social change has not only galvanised HwH activities over the years, but it has also been
implemented by: their banks, clients, employees across their projects, banking personnel and
international friends (sponsors) who, collectively, are striving to alleviate disadvantage and bring
about social change in rural and urban areas in Nepal.
As Jonathon Murdoch, an economist who has written on microfinance worldwide — says, “Most
programs continue to be subsidized directly through grants and indirectly through soft terms on
loans from donors.”
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Therefore, banking on social change, is the desired outcome immaterial of
where the ‘traditional microfinance’ endeavours and activities are taking place.
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Still & Simmons, (2006), p. 82
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‘Bernasek, A., (2003), pp.369-384, Banking on Social Change: Grameen Bank Lending to Women’, Associate Professor Department of Economics
at Colorado State University in the US.
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society
, Vol. 16 No.3, Spring 2003
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Cited in Husock, H 2007, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank,
Kennedy School of Government Case Program Harvard University,
pp. 1-17