Grameen+Bank

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Background: Above is a map of the Kangaroo shaped country of Bangladesh. Bangladesh was born in 1971 when Bengali East Pakistan separated from West Pakistan. This area is boarded by either land or water with a large river running through its center; needless to say, this area is susceptible to flooding during monsoon season. This flooding does not help the already poor country revive its dead economy. Although this area may seem large on a map, it is actually slightly smaller than Iowa. Its //land total is// 133,910 sq km with a water total of 10,090 sq km. Located near the tropic of caner, the general climate is tropical; there are a 2 months of hot summer and then the monsoon hits. Every natural disaster from hurricanes to tornadoes end up hitting this region every year. The area is also highly exposed to arsenic and arsenic poisoning due to the highly concentrated arsenic soil. Needless to say, this area is full or natural problems and such issues create a problem for such a small country to create a strong economy. As if that is not bad enough, political corruption and mismanagement has also contributed to the poor economy. The local banks fed of the farming economy and caused the local community to fall into a deep depression of huge debts. After a while, the banks ceased lending to the overwhelmingly poor population with the assumption that they would not repay their debts; not only this, but they refused to lend any money to women. However, one man saw through the corruption and knew that he could help the local community rise above their poverty. Muhammad Yunus saw a chance to make a difference and knew that loans were the answer; thus, he built Grameen Bank. He decided to lend money only to those below the poverty line (which was most of the community). These loans would start out small, $60, and would go towards people trying to build their own businesses. The trick with this system is that he would only loan money to communities and only to the women because he felt the men would not spend it responsibly. The other restriction to this plan was that money would not be lent out again until the entire community had repaid their debts. This shifts the power from the banks into the people's hands and allows them to be responsible to each other. Through this method, Grameen Bank was able to spread into 39,000 villages throughout the country and has raised around 5% of the borrowers out of poverty each year and is lending to 2.4 million people. In 2006, Grameen Bank was given the Nobel Peace Prize for their work with the community.

Application:

I would like to present this material through a station by station type of learning experience. I would have different stations that held material such as a group of pictures of the people, the flag, and the areas. The next station would have a detailed map that shows the water and explains about all the natural disasters that plague the area and the affects that it has on the people. It would also have the land mass numbers and how it is smaller than Iowa. The next station would have information about the banks and the corruption that has gone on there and affected the economy within the area. The final station would have the information about Grameen Bank and how it has revolutionized the area. After all the students went through the stations, I would have them come together and discuss what they learned as a class. I would want them to discuss how they felt about it, their emotions, and what they thought was the best idea put forth by the Grameen Bank. I would then separate the class into groups and let them have debates. The topic would be why did Grameen Bank win the Nobel Peace Prize if they were just trying to grow their company and make money? The things that I want my students to focus on would be the geography of the area, why it is so ridden with natural disasters, and why the area is so poor. The purpose of the debates is to serve as my assessment to see what the students learned through the stations. The information they bring into the debate about Grameen Bank will show what they learned and if they can apply that information in a deeper level. This would push them past the first stage of Bloom's taxonomy and take the students int the critical assessment and application stage. It would also teach the students to justify their beliefs and learn to prove themselves as logical and critical thinkers. It will also teach students tolerance. The students must learn to listen to each other and to argue instead of "fight" like politicians present as a model in debates. This lesson is not only a lesson on geography, but an integrated lesson on geography, rhetoric, logic, tolerance, human integration, and critical thinking.