Grameen family of organizations - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize...

, the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of these organizations have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur

Mirpur Thana

Mirpur is a thana of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. It is bounded by Pallabi Thana to the north, Mohammadpur Thana to the south, Kafrul to the east - to the west it is bounded by Savar Upazila.-Geography:Mirpur is located at...

, Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

, Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it started attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Fisheries Foundation and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi Foundation.

These ventures include Social Advancement Fund (SAF), Grameen Trust, Grameen Fund, Grameen Communications, Grameen Shakti (Grameen Energy), Grameen Telecom, Grameen Shikkha (Grameen Education), Grameen Mothsho Foundation, Grameen Krishi Foundation, Grameen Baybosa Bikash (Grameen Business Development), Grameenphone, Grameen Software Limited, Grameen CyberNet Limited, Gonoshasthaya Grameen Textile Mills Limited, Grameen Capital Management Limited, Grameen Knitwear Limited, Grameen Mutual Fund One, Grameen Kalyan (Grameen Well-being), Grameen Shamogree (Grameen Products), Grameen Danone Foods (joint venture with Groupe Danone) and Grameen Uddog (Grameen Enterprise, owner of the brand Grameen Check

Grameen Check

Grameen check is a type of clothing design that is very popular in Bangladesh, and is rapidly expanding to other countries as well. It mainly constitutes a pattern of squares or rectangles formed from different colors of dyed threads...

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance

Microfinance

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....

organization and community development bank

Community development bank

- Community Development Banking in the United States :In the United States, community development banks are commercial banks that operate with a mission to generate economic development in low- to moderate-income geographical areas and serve residents of these communities...

started in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

that makes small loans (known as microcredit

Microcredit

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...

) to the impoverished without requiring collateral

Collateral (finance)

In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan.The collateral serves as protection for a lender against a borrower's default - that is, any borrower failing to pay the principal and interest under the terms of a loan obligation...

. The system is based on the idea that the poor have skills that are under-utilized. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. The organization and its founder, Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

in 2006.

Grameen Trust

Grameen Trust (GT), a non-profit and non-government organisation established in 1989 uses microcredit

Microcredit

as a tool for fighting poverty and follows the Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

approach for the purpose. It supports and promotes poverty focused microcredit programs all over the world under its Grameen Bank Replication Program (GBRP) through a number of ways - dialogue programs for potential replicators, training and technical assistance to replication projects, funding selected projects, and monitoring performance. Grameen Trust funds are provided in two forms - seed capital and scaling up fund.

As of August 2007, it has provided support to 138 replication partners in 37 countries of the world. Under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) program, the Trust directly implements the projects to respond to the need for immediate and rapid implementation of poverty focused microfinance programs. Grameen Trust hosts the Grameen Global Network (GGN) and publishes the Grameen Dialogue newsletter to promote the cause of microcredit movement.
To implement the replication program, it received funds from the MacArthur Foundation, United Nations Capital Development Fund

United Nations Capital Development Fund

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to microfinance and investment capital....

(UNCDF), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit or GIZ is an international enterprise founded in 1975 by Erhard Eppler and owned by the German Federal Government, operating in many fields across more than 130 countries. It primarily works for public-sector organizations and is...

(German Technical Cooperation or GTZ), United States Agency for International Development

United States Agency for International Development

The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...

(USAID), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...

(UNHCR), United Nations Office for Project Services

United Nations Office for Project Services

The United Nations Office for Project Services , is dedicated to implementing projects for the United Nations System, international financial institutions, governments and other partners in the aid world...

(UNOPS), the Citigroup Foundation, the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

and Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

Grameen Fund

Grameen Fund is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

established to provide risk capital to small and medium enterprise

Small and medium enterprise

Small and medium enterprises or small and medium-sized enterprises are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.The abbreviation "SME" occurs commonly...

s (SME) beyond the scope of Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

's objectives of providing microcredit

Microcredit

to the very poor. Incorporated in 17 January 1994, Grameen Fund started operation in February 1994, inheriting 40 projects of Grameen bank with assets of 391 million Bangladeshi taka

Bangladeshi taka

The Taka is the currency of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country controls the issuance of the currency except one taka and two taka notes, which are the responsibility of Ministry of Finance of the government of Bangladesh...

investmented in small industries, fisheries and agriculture. As of 2007, it invested equity worth $1.0 million in 13 joint ventures and financed 1763 small and micro enterprises in Bangladesh, especially in technology-oriented industries, by providing collateral-free fixed and working capital loans.

Grameen Telecom

Grameen Telecom (GTC) is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

established with a partial stake in Grameen Phone (GP). GTC has driven the pioneering GP program of Village Phone that enables rural poor to own a cell-phone and turn it into a profit making venture. The vision behind the village phone program was formulated by Iqbal Quadir

Iqbal Quadir

Iqbal Z. Quadir , founder of Gonofone and Grameenphone. He is currently the Founder and Director of the Legatum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of Advisory Board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology...

who was convinced that a mobile phone could become a source of income generation. Quadir worked with Professor Yunus and the Norwegian company Telenor

Telenor

Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...

to make the program a reality. Currently Grameen Telecom provides mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s among the villagers of the country.

Grameenphone

Grameenphone is a GSM-based cellular operator in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

and market leader with more than 50% of the Bangladeshi market share. Grameenphone started operations on March 26, 1997. It is partly owned by Telenor

Telenor

(62%) and Grameen Telecom

Grameen Telecom

Grameen Telecom is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus with a partial stake in Grameen Phone . GTC has driven the pioneering GP program of Village Phone that enables rural poor to own a cell-phone and turn it into a profit making venture...

(38%). It has more than 10 million customers as of December 2006. It is also the fastest growing cellular telephone network in Bangladesh. At the end of 2005, it had about 3500 base station

Base station

The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...

s around the country with plans to add about 500 in the following six months. Grameenphone's stated goal is to provide cost-effective and quality cellular services in Bangladesh.

Grameen Solutions Limited

Grameen Solutions Limited (GSL) is one of the fastest growing software development companies in the region.

Grameen Communications

Grameen Communications (GC) is a not-for-profit information technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

company established in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

in 1997, with a portfolio that includes software products and services, internet services, hardware & networking services and IT education. The life of the company began as an IT support unit under Grameen Trust in 1994. Besides providing IT support to various Grameen family organizations it in charge of developing systems for organizations like CASHPOR Financial and Technical Services Private Limited (CFTS) in Mirzapur District

Mirzapur District

Mirzapur district is one of the 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The district is bounded on the north by Sant Ravidas Nagar and Varanasi districts, on the east by Chandauli district, on the south by Sonbhadra district and on the norhwest by Allahabad district. The district...

, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, CMC in UIndia, Swayam Krishi Sangham (SKS) in Hyderabad, India, Grameen Koota in Bangalore

Bangalore

Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

, India, Moris Rasik in East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

, Ganesha Foundation in Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, and Ahon sa Hirap Inc. (ASHI) in Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

The company has developed the Village Computer and Internet Program (VCIP) to set up a number of multipurpose Cyber Kiosks in rural areas using different connectivity solutions for information access, communication and IT education. The first VCIP was established in a room rented from the Grameen bank at Madhupur Upazila

Madhupur Upazila

Madhupur is an Upazila of Tangail District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh.-Geography:Madhupur is located at . It has 74984 units of house hold and total area 500.67 km².It has a large forest area named 'Madhupurer Gor". Madhupur is famous throughout the country for delicious pineaples...

, which is connected through microwave

Microwave

Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...

link to the VSAT at Grameen Communications office 160 km away in Dhaka. Two others were established at Sarishabari Upazila

Sarishabari Upazila

Sarishabari is an Upazila of Jamalpur District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh.-Geography:Sarishabari is located at . It has 58,254 households and total area 263.48 km².-Demographics:...

and Mirzapur Upazila

Mirzapur Upazila

Mirzapur is an Upazila of Tangail District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh.-Geography:Mirzapur is located at . It has 61479 units of house hold and total area 373.89 km².-Demographics:...

. A partner of International Development Research Centre

International Development Research Centre

The International Development Research Centre is a Canadian Crown Corporation created by the Parliament of Canada that supports research in developing countries to promote growth and development...

(IDRC) initiative Pan Asia Networking (PAN), GC is also developing a program with Digital Divide Data of United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

to provide data entry

Data entry clerk

A data entry clerk, sometimes called a typist, is a member of staff employed to type data into a database using a keyboard. The keyboards used can often have specialist keys and multiple colours to help them in the task and speed up the work.-Examples:...

jobs for rural Bangladeshis.

Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation

Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation or Grameen Motsho O Pashusampad Foundation (GMPF), a non-profit organization, was founded as Grameen Fisheries Foundation or Grameen Motsho Foundation (GMF), in February 1994 to mitigate poverty through aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...

& fisheries, as well as an integrated fish-crop-livestock and dairy development farming system. The mandates of the organization are to provide rural landless poor, especially women, to gain access to common resource properties; replace exploitation with community empowerment; replace stagnation with social and economic growth; replace traditions with modernity; provide women with legal and gender rights; and to provide food security and sustainable livelihood.

Grameen Shakti

Grameen Shakti (GS) is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh established in 1996 to promote, develop and popularize renewable energy technologies in remote, rural areas of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Grameen family founded to take the Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

objective of alleviating poverty for the extreme poor through microcredit

Microcredit

. Grameen Shakti into one of the largest and fastest-growing renewable energy companies in the world. But attempts to market photovoltaic solar home systems on affordable terms initially faced numerous obstacles. No enabling environment existed for spreading renewable energy technologies in rural areas. People had no awareness, costs were high, technical knowledge was low, and there was no infrastructure. But GS had to create goodwill and gain the trust of the rural people. GS trained our engineers to be ‘social engineers’ who went from door-to-door to demonstrate the effectiveness of renewable energy. GS trained local youth as technicians to ensure that people would have efficient and free after-sales service right on their doorstep. GS is working hard to make Bangladesh will become a role model for 1.6 billion energy-starved people all over the world and becoming one of the world’s first “solar nations”.

Grameen Shakti is the leading company on renewable energy in Bangladesh and fast growing solar sector company in the world. As of December 2010 Grameen Shakti has installed 25MWp solar system. Beside these, Grameen Shakti have installed solar mobile charging van, Solar lighting Boat, Solar emergency Lighting, Solar water Purifier, solar power telecom systems, Off grid power supply system and also nowadays they are encouraging urban people to use hybrid solar- National grid system with low price. Grameen Shakti receives many international awards. Among them they have win Ashden Award in 2006 and 2008.

Grameen Shakti has been honoured with a Right Livelihood Award

Right Livelihood Award

The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...

for its work, and has also won two Ashden Awards

Ashden Awards

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy are annual awards given by a charity of the same name that is based in London. They reward local sustainable energy projects in the UK and developing countries that protect the environment, and improve quality of life....

, in 2006 and 2008.

Grameen Shikkha

Grameen Shikkha or Grameen Education was established in 1997 to promote mass education in rural areas, provide financial support in the form of loans and grants for the purpose of education, use IT for alleviation of illiteracy and development of education, promote new technologies and innovate ideas and methods for development of education. It also conducts Life the Oriented Education Program, the Pre-school/Child Development Program, the Early Childhood Development Program and the Arsenic Mitigation Program.

Grameen Byabosa Bikash

Grameen Byabosa Bikash (GBB) or Grameen Business Promotion and Services was established in 1994 as a social business and not-for-profit organization to provide supplementary services on top of microcredit

Microcredit

to rural entrepreneurs dealing in products like vegetables, livestock or handicrafts to provide experience, skill and knowledge.

Grameen Danone Foods

Grameen Danone Foods was launched in 2006 as a joint venture between Grameen Bank and the French food company Groupe Danone

Groupe Danone

Groupe Danone is a French food-products multinational corporation based in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. It claims world leadership in fresh dairy products, marketed under the corporate name, and also in bottled water...

. Grameen Danone's first product is a fortified yoghurt, branded Shoktidoi, which is designed to provide children with many of the key nutrients that are typically missing from their diet in rural Bangladesh. A crucial aspect of the joint venture is the over-arching business goal: although Grameen Danone Foods is a profit-making company, social impact, rather than financial profit, is the number one measure of success.

Grameen America

Grameen America is a microfinance organization with a mission to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship. Grameen America provides loans, savings programs, credit establishment and other financial services to the working poor, especially women, in the United States.

External links

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