Project was begun in Bangladesh in 1976 as a way to provide collateral-free credit to the rural poor. Now with over 1,000 branch offices, the Grameen Bank serves more than 1.5 million borrowers, providing loans mainly for planting crops, buying and raising livestock and poultry, and leasing land. Although the loans are very small by U.S. standards, they have reportedly enabled recipients to increase their incomes by as much as 50 percent over three years, making a significant difference in the economic situations of many needy families.
Children get priority from the mother.
A man often has different priorities. Because of its overwhelming success, the Grameen program has been adopted as a model for similar endeavors in Africa, Latin America, and the United States, and much has been written about the bank's development and expansion since its inception. In 1996 alone, three major studies came out, each focusing on a separate aspect of the bank's workings. Grameen Bank Borrowers after One Decade by Helen Todd. After founding the project and serving as project director, Yunus, an economist, went on to become the bank's managing director in 1983, the position he still holds today.