Editor's note: The Grameen Bank was founded by Professor Mohamed Yunus in Dakka, Bangladesh. Its goal was to help impoverished women escape from the clutches of abject poverty by providing them low-interest, micro-credit loans. Today more than 40,000 women in villages all over Bangladesh belong to the Grameen Bank. They are trained in practical skills so as to earn their own livelihoods. Eventually they repay the loans provided by the Bank, and thus with this very simple process of providing small loans, have had the chance to escape poverty and live lives of dignity. When provided with the loans, the women are requested to unitedly take the following sixteen decisions.
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1. We shall follow and advance the four principles of Grameen Bank --- Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work – in all walks of our lives.
2. Prosperity we shall bring to our families.
3. We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work towards constructing new houses at the earliest.
4. We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus.
5. During the plantation seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible.
6. We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures.
We shall look after our health.
7. We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education.
8. We shall always keep our children and the environment clean.
9. We shall build and use pit-latrines.
10. We shall drink water from tubewells. If it is not available, we shall boil water or use alum.
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.
12. We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone, neither shall we allow anyone to do so.
13. We shall collectively undertake bigger investments for higher incomes.
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.
16.We shall introduce physical exercise in all our centres. We shall take part in all social activities collectively.
