I have become a fan, more than that maybe, a cheerleader for Muhammad Yunus and all his people. I checked this title out of the library and am almost finished. I came across this example of one of the women who benefited from the Grameen Bank's Micro-Lending program. Murshida was featured in a PBS documentary in 1998. I quote from the book.
"Murshida was born into a poor family of eight children. Neither her father nor grandfather owned any farmland. At fifteen she was married to a man from a nearby village who worked as an unskilled laborer in a factory. The first few years of the marriage went relatively well, but things turned sour when Murshida began having children. Just as their family expenses went up, her husband started bringing home less and less money. Finally it became clear that he was a compulsive gambler. During the 1974 famine, he was given a company bonus of 1,800 taka. He lost it all gambling. When Murshida complained her husband beat her.
"To earn some extra money, Murshida took up spinning raw cotton into yarn. She worked on contract for other people and was paid very little, sometimes no more than a handful of broken rice. Still, the work prevented her from starving. She considered other options - working as a domestic servant for a rich family or begging. But what would happen to her children?
"One day Murshida's husband came home after a week's absence and complained that there was not enough food for him. Murshida had cooked up something modest and had not eaten the entire day. Angry, her husband beat her and then left, saying he would return later in the morning. That day there was a thunderstorm, and as her husband had sold the roof of their house to pay gambling debts, Murshida and her three children were soaked. At that moment Murshida decided that something had to change. When her husband returned at midnight, Murshida confronted him.
"You have only brought a small quantity of flattened rice for your daughter," she remembers saying, "but nothing for me. Yet everyone in the village says you earn a lot of money." Her husband flew into a rage and beat her. Then he divorced her on the spot and told her to leave the house.
"What about the children?" Murshida asked.
"You can throw them into the river and let them drown, for all I care," he responded.
"Murshida sent word to her brother, who offered to take her into his home. Once she had moved in, Murshida found some more work spinning on contract. She heard about the Grameen Bank when it came to her village. ...
"At first Murshida borrowed 1,000 taka to purchase a goat and she paid off the loan in six months with the profits from selling the mild. She was left with a goat, a kid, and no debt. Encouraged, she borrowed 2,000 taka, bought raw cotton and a spinning wheel, and began manufacturing lady's scarves. She now sells her scarves wholesale for 100 taka with tassels and 50 taka without. Murshida's business has grown so much that during peak periods she employs as many as twenty-five women in her village to manufacture scarves. In addition, she has bought an acre of farmland with her profits, built a house with a Grameen Bank housing loan, and set up her brothers in businesses that include saari trading and raw cotton trading. Murshida has also emerged as a leader in her center. She was elected center chief several times.
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