My last five weeks have been spent working at Grameen Trust since I finished my internship at Grameen Bank and have now moved on to the second part of my internship. GT focuses on implementation of the Grameen microfinance structure in other parts of the world. They often send Grameen experts from the bank abroad for implementation and organizational procedures.
I was assigned a report based on Grameen America Inc, a company that was started in the United States to provide microfinance services for those living under the poverty line. All in all, my time has become a lot more focused on the typical 10-6 workday sitting in the office and crunching numbers. But it’s fascinating because I’m analyzing all of the underlying issues and making suggestions. I just hope my report will be put to good use.
Within the past few weeks one of my ultimate dreams came true… twice. I met my number one idol of all time, the man who inspired me to get into the microfinance area and become a better person overall, Professor Muhammad Yunus.
He is known as the father of microfinance and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts. However, he was pretty much kicked out of Grameen by the Bangladeshi government for political reasons last year. Basically he was thinking of starting his own political party and got into the political scene, so of course the government decided to find some random technicality that involved his age and so ended his career at the Grameen Bank. He now runs the Yunus Centre, which mainly focuses on the promotion and consulting for social business, as well as sits on the boards for most of the sister companies
Professor Yunus is literally almost never in Bangladesh. He travels more than anyone else I’ve heard of so I was lucky that he happened to be in town this week to give a presentation to visitors from a Japanese university. He was set to give a speech on March 19th and my lovely connection at the Yunus Centre filled me in on the details so next thing I knew I was sitting in a conference room waiting for the man that helped to change my life to walk in. And all of a sudden there he was. Just like that. Have you ever had someone influence your life so strongly that your eyes filled with tears the second he/she walked into the room? I have.
Disclaimer: Forgive my not-so-powerful reiteration of his powerful words in advance. Believe me, it was inspiring when he said it.
He delivered an effortless speech about social business and its feasibility. Some background: a social business is a completely sustainable company that focuses on fixing a social problem and reinvests all profits back into the company instead of paying dividends.
Most notably, he mentioned that there is a difference between incentive and habit. A habit is something that develops into an obsession and eventually an addiction. Profit making is not the only incentive but it is the one that has developed into an addiction. It’s much like smoking. Public places have banned smoking in order to try to break the addiction but if you keep asking for one small puff, you maintain it.
That’s what we have to do with profit. We can’t just pay a one percent dividend because then the addiction won’t be broken. It has to be zero percent, only then can we convince the world that there are other incentives. And what could those be? Does it make you happy to make other people happy? That’s the type of incentive in social business.
He also discussed the young generation and seriously believes that we are the most powerful generation in human history because technology has created such a wide gap between our generation and the former one. Now instead of believing the answers our parents give us to our childlike curious questions, we can verify their answers by simply “googling-it” and get the truth about almost anything. We are exposed to and aware of so much more and can shape the world more easily than before. But we don’t know it. We are unbelievably unaware of our power and do not realize that if we draw up the world that we most desire, we can make it happen.
The Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, stopped by for a friendly chat as well. He told us about a program that started in Brazil called the World Hunger Zero project that basically brought over one-quarter of the population above the poverty line. Check it out!
After the event, some other interns and I ran into Professor Yunus outside the building as he was saying goodbye to some of the Japanese delegates. He came over for a quick chat. When I told him I’m from Ottawa, he responded, “Ottawa? Why Ottawa? No one goes there.” I was flabbergasted and just stood there with a blank look on my face without any idea of how to respond. I didn’t have time to mention how he was at Carleton in September of 2010 to accept an honorary degree.
I was able to catch Professor Yunus by the elevator at Grameen Trust as he was leaving the quarterly board meeting. He knew my intentions when I approached him with my camera and nicely posed for a photo with me!
Upon my return to Carleton, I will be holding one or two sessions to share my experiences and have been trying to think of a way to move those in attendance from the comfort of isolation into my situation. As an exercise, I would like you to consider the following questions:
How many times have you stepped out of your comfortable home onto the street to have at least two extremely deformed beggars sticking their hands out to you, a couple of street kids tugging on your clothes, and usually either a mother or a very old person all requesting your help?
How many times have you had children fall at your feet and wrap their arms around your legs to hold you there until you help them?
How many times have you been shocked that humanity could exist in such a way?
Not enough people have experienced these things or taken enough notice to care. If they had, the world would be a much better place. There are numbers. There are statistics. Before I came here, I knew that a third of the Bangladeshi population lives below the poverty line but I didn’t know what constitutes a third of the population and I was definitely unaware of what below the poverty line looks like. But it’s how the majority lives and it’s unnecessary and completely solvable.
-K