Grameen Bank is bank that caters to impoverished women in th villages of Bangladesh. It covers 97% of all villages in Bangladesh, has over 8 million borrowers and 97% of their borrowers are women. The bank requests that borrowers commit to 16 decisions they have come up with. Reading over them, I thought that these are decisions that everyone could benefit from including the top 1% richest in the world, 1/2 of which live in the United States. Below is a table with their 16 decisions, I have marked that ones that don’t apply to citizens of the United States and have made notes on some of the others.
| # | Decision | Illustration | US Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | We shall follow and advance the four principles of Grameen Bank --- Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work – in all walks of out lives. |  | |
| 2 | Prosperity we shall bring to our families. |  | We should focus on bringing prosperity to our entire household and not just focus on our own needs. |
| 3 | We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work towards constructing new houses at the earliest. |  | We should maintain our houses and keep them in the best shape possible. |
| 4 | We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus. |  | We should have vegetable gardens and compost heaps in our yards, patios, and balconies. We should also share with the neighbors. |
| 5 | During the plantation seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible. |  | We should produce as much food as possible in the small spaces we have. |
| 6 | We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures. We shall look after our health. |  | We should reproduce responsibly and make sure we can provide for each of our offspring. |
| 7 | We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education. |  | We should teach our children about financial management at a young age. They should work to put themselves through college as much as possible. |
| 8 | We shall always keep our children and the environment clean. |  | |
| 9 | We shall build and use pit-latrines. |  | N/A |
| 10 | We shall drink water from tubewells. If it is not available, we shall boil water or use alum. |  | N/A |
| 11 | We shall not take any dowry at our sons' weddings, neither shall we give any dowry at our daughters wedding. We shall keep our centre free from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage. |  | We should not have lavish weddings. |
| 12 | We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone, neither shall we allow anyone to do so. |  | We should speak up and notify the authorities when someone does something wrong. |
| 13 | We shall collectively undertake bigger investments for higher incomes. |  | We should constantly improve ourselves and find new ways to make contributions to improve the world. |
| 14 | We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her. |  | |
| 15 | If we come to know of any breach of discipline in any centre, we shall all go there and help restore discipline. |  | We should work as a community to reduce crime and not tolerate criminal enterprises. |
| 16 | We shall take part in all social activities collectively. |  | We should encourage social gatherings such as picnics, family reunions, sports and family outings. |