Letters from Kosovo -- October 21, 2001

In the midst of a harsh winter, it has become extremely difficult to survive here without any electricity or water supply. It has already become very cold, day after day without any sun shine and power. It is so difficult to do our normal work that I feel bad, we did not count the extreme limitations of working in Kosovo, when determining the wages and terms and condition of our service. Nevertheless, these two weeks, more new centers have been formed under Prishtina Branch and two were formed in Prizren Branch as well as Gjilan Branch.

In the village of Damanic under the municipality of Gllogove, center no. 50 was formed with two groups. This village was very badly damaged in the war and is about 12/13km away from the main road. It is in a remote area and there are no shops in the locality. I was happy to see that two of our members became interested to take loans for grocery shops. Again in Damanic, I met women with extended family and lots of children. The most noticeable was that the local center chief is unmarried and 29 years old. She has six other unmarried sisters, just staying at home. Except for an 11 year old, all of them have stopped going to school. They said they are very grateful for the micro loans.

In the village of Mushtisht-1 in Prizren, 99% of the houses were damaged by recent war. Many Albanians are now staying in abandoned Serbian homes, since all Serbs have left this village. We do not know when and how these displaced Albanians will be able to return to their own homes; but I was pleased to see that one of our members would like to start a hair dressing business, as there is no hair dresser (for women) right now. Also, I was so happy to hear from them that they would like to start business for themselves and would want to create business for other fellow members i.e. some one would like to take loans for a sewing machine and in turn buy milk from our own member, who have invested in milch cows.

On October 29, I was in the village of Perliphica under Gjilan Branch. It was only 3.00 PM, but we had to use candle light to be able to see each other. It was very, very cold . Now we have a total of 27 groups and 13 centers in Gjilan Branch.

We are facing difficulties in obtaining extension of visas for the project staff. It has become a complicated process after the attack on Twin Tower and Pentagon. Italian Embassy is giving visa only for 3 months and for each extension they need a renewed invitation letter from Mission Arcobaleno.

I am pleased to provide you with the latest update on our program in Kosovo (upto 31st October, 2001).

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	Letters from Kosovo -- December 17, 2001

Eid Mubarak !

First challenge right now is to face this terrible winter? Temperature ranges from minus 16 degrees to minus 20 degrees.

On Eid day all the 6 Grameen team members were together for an emergency meeting to discuss how to face the severe situation and how to conduct our center meeting and other works, how to reach the meeting places as we need to cross over hills which are snow bound. As majority of members took loans for milch cows, so our anxiety right now, is it possible in this temperature for the cattle and the calves to survive. There is no heating and no electricity supply. So we discussed all matters starting from logistical problems to operational problems.

This situation is reminding me of our 1988 floods in Bangladesh, but this is a different type of problem, which we never had experienced before. We faced another big problem with the proposed change of currency from DM to Euro. We have to start from 1st January, 2002 and all books of accounts starting from collection sheets to pass books have to show accounts is Euro instead of DM. We are trying our best to maintain a correct accounting system. But it is too much of extra work for all of us, specially in this abnormal situation. We sincerely hope to overcome problems one by one and in time.

Jannat-E-Quanine
Project Director
Kosovo Grameen Mission Arcobaleno
Micro-credit Fund
E-mail: kgmpije@yahoo.com

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	With Passion From South Africa

I am writing to you from South Africa. Myself and others are interested in opening a dialogue with you about the possibility of starting a Grameen Bank in South Africa. Although, the microlending industry is serviced by many formal and informal operators, our frustration has been that much of the microlending being done is unsustainable for the poor, making people to go into debt spirals. Furthermore, it is my personal passion to provide basic banking facilities at a much lower cost, as a poor person who withdraws R10 from an ATM would currently pay R4 in withdrawal fees - this is just too high and prevents the poor from ever benefiting from the established banking infrastructure. It is our belief that it is possible to address many of these issues in a sustainable way, both for the borrower and the bank, if the bank is less concerned about making huge margins quickly and more concerned about making a difference over time in the community it serves. Of all the initiatives world-wide which share similar values, Grameen is the most visible.

Andrew Turpin
Email: andrew.turpin@mweb.co.za
Tel : +27-82-820 5064
Irene 0062, South Africa

July 28, 2001

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	Getting Out of a Vicious Cycle

I read your book and found it really enlightening. As you may know from your visit to Argentina, we are going through a difficult economic situation in which unemployment and poverty are quickly spreading throughout the country.

Together with my partner, Monica Coria, we are working on rural small businesses projects in order to increase productivity and give an alternative to the farmers whose traditional crops have collapsed. We are trying to find financing for a pilot test. One of the key points of the project is to stop rural-urban migrations by generating rural employment. In this sense we both thought that your scheme of microcredit for self-employment would be ideal for rural women and a good complement to this project. I read in your book that there are people working on Grameen-like projects here in Argentina, but the information I found so far is quite insufficient. I was wondering if you could provide me with some information or tell me who should I contact on this matter, here in Argentina.

Any information regarding this would be extremely helpful as the whole idea of the project is to help people to help themselves and find creative ways out of a vicious cycle that has been going on for too long.

Paloma Ochoa
Buenos Aires, Argentina
E-mail: palomaochoa@yahoo.com

August 1, 2001

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	A Father's Solution !

I am a data warehousing specialist working in USA.

My father Mastan Rao Devarapalli is a Retired Civil Engineer. Besides he is a social worker - journalist and author of 16 books - dedicated to building equality in society. He visited USA for two months. His only question was, how do we make India like USA? What is the difference? I do not have any simple answer. You must be aware of reservations' in India. After 50 years only a few families from the backword classes, scheduled castes & scheduled tribes, could make up socially and earn a good living ( by employment). Still the poor are becoming poorer and rich are becoming richer.

I have been suggesting that self employment is the only way that could get poor people out of their misery. There is no point in pursuing the governments for help.

I found the real solution in your book that has worked not in one country, but in several communities across the globe. I hope my father and his associates would try out in our villages - microcredit - with your training programs. I also learned there are already three microcredit programs in Hyderabad.

But as you suggested, the poorest of the poor are in the villages not in the cities.

I still do not understand one simple thing. Why in our multi class society, the people in the upper class try to do every thing they can, to see that the people below wouldn't climb up. Any how with the help of your microcredit programs we should be building a poverty free world by 2040.

Hari Devarapalli
E-mail: Hari.Devarapalli@personed.com
USA

September 30, 2001

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