FILMAKERS LIBRARY

ASIA

27 Dollars: Banking for the Poor

A film by Andrea Beretta

Thanks to loans from the Grameen Bank, two million women have come out of poverty. Founded in 1976 by Muhammad Yunas, an economics professor in Bangladesh, the Bank is a credit institution that grants micro-loans exclusively to the poor. Today, it counts over a thousand branches and serves two million clients in 35,000 villages. On the basis of the favourable results in Bangladesh, the Bank model has since been adopted in 56 other countries.

In this film, Yunas recounts how he visited a village where he met Dhaka, a woman who was being overcharged for her bamboo which she needed to make stools. She needed only twenty-five cents to buy the bamboo to go into business herself. The economist did not want to rob her of her dignity by simply giving her the money. He asked the other villagers how much they needed to improve their situations: forty-two people needed a total of 27 dollars. It took two years to receive permission from the government to start a loan bank; they did not understand helping the poor in this way.

We follow several women in rural villages in Bangladesh who, thanks to loans and advice from the Bank, have developed successful small businesses. Dhaka has improved the lives of her children immeasurably now that she can afford school fees. We see the Grameen Bank inspector holding a meeting in the village, taking a personal interest in each woman as they discuss new projects, progress, new loans and birth control. It is clear that the Grameen Bank's enlightened policies have improved their lives significantly.

"This is a terrific film about a simple but highly constructive and benevolent innovation and its deep effect on Bangladesh."
Michael J. Coffta, Business Librarian, University of Pennsylvania at Bloomsburg for Educational Media Reviews on Line

61 min. Video or DVD. Sale $295. Video rental $75.

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