One day at Grameen-A photo Essay

We had a pre-planned meeting with Mrs Nurjahan Begum of Grameen Shikhkha, the scholarship management program of Grameen Bank for the benefit of underprivileged students .

She offered us to a day long field trip at one of the Grameen locations to see the activities of Grameen. Due to time restraint, we decided to do it the following day. A car was rented, a Grameen Bank officer, MR. Shahabuddin would accompany us to Madhabpur of Singair Thana at Manikganj.

Here is a pictorial essay of the day,
We went deep inside Bangladesh, we drove beside the paddy fields,

These farmer’s family members get loans for seeds, tractor rent, fertilizer etc.

They walked miles to greet us at the Bank office. We found them waiting for us.
As grameen scholarship recipients, their high school and college education expenses are partly met by Grameen education scholarship.

Please view the full post with 32 more pictures in next page.

 

The Human Forklift

Rafiq is an immigrant in his own country. At least, he belongs to a group which is known as the group of immigrant workers to the local people.
Rafiq, looks much older than his stated age, hails from Jamalpur in north central Bangladesh. He “immigrated” approximately 100 miles far as a teenager to Kathpotti, near narayanganj. Kathpotti is the main hub of the rice trading in Bangladesh.

Rice, after being pruduced and processed locally in rice growing belt, are all transported to Kathpotti, where it is stocked, dried ( Occassionally), rebagged, traded and shipped out to all of Bangladesh to meet the hunger of rice eating bengalis.

We all know how Dubai Ports World does the cargo handling in different ports. Now let’s hear how Rafiq does his cargo handling job.

Rafiq’s job is to pick up sack full of rice, weighing 100 to 200 KG, once they arrive by boat and head carry them to the processing area ( May be miles away), and transport these back to the baots once processing and tading is complete.

Rafiq dreams of ending his immigrant life, go back his village. However before doing so, he is eager to see his 13 year old son pick up this job.