Two Students Take Special Note of Nobel Peace Prize Announcement
Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus Mohammed and Laura Pepper'07
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11/6/2006
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
by Lauren Felkel ' 10
The recent announcement of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and its creator Muhammad Yunus had special meaning for Amee Patel ’06 and Laura Pepper ’07. Both women served internships at the bank, and met Yunus in the course of their work.
Founded in 1976, Grameen Bank empowers people to lift themselves out of poverty by giving them small loans to start self-sustaining businesses. According to the Bank, over 97 percent of its 6.6 million borrowers are women. While the Bank itself is based in Bangladesh, it has served as an example to countless similar institutions across the globe.
Pepper and Patel both learned about the Grameen Bank while enrolled in an economic development class at Davidson with Doe Professor Peter Hess. Pepper considered the bank’s internship program, “but it was one of those things you never think is actually going to happen.” However, after lots of persistence, paperwork, and many recommendation letters, she found herself in Bangladesh for the five week internship during summer 2005. Her trip was facilitated by $3,500 in grants from Davidson’s Community Service, Dean Rusk, and Abernethy programs.
Patel, a Belk Scholar, became interested in Grameen’s work during her semester abroad with the Davidson in India program, during which several lecturers referred to the impact that microcredit schemes were having in the country. She was accepted for the internship this past summer, following her graduation.
Yunus Mohammed and Amee Patel '06
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The day that Pepper and other interns met with Yunus at the bank office in the capital city of Dhaka, he had recently been nominated for the Nobel Prize. The interns congratulated him, but he humbly shrugged off their good wishes because he had been nominated before. When he actually won this year, Pepper was excited that it will increase people’s awareness of the bank and the powerful impact it has been for the poor in Bangladesh, especially the women.
Patel said Yunus is an “amazing man and extremely humble.” When she met him last summer, a European film company had recently approached him about making a Bollywood-type film about the formation of the Grameen Bank. Patel recalled, “That tickled him, and he started joking about which Western and Indian actors should play him. He really loved the idea of reaching a different kind of audience and bringing more attention to Bangladesh and the bank’s work.”
The internship was more culturally fascinating than economically instructional. The Davidson women and ten to fifteen other interns spent some days in the bank’s main office, and some time visiting villages and bank branches. They often attended “center” meetings at which approximately sixty loan recipients gathered with a bank official to discuss the progress of their enterprises and pay weekly installments of their loans.
Pepper’s internship included work at Grameen Shamogree, a sister organization that provides yarn to handloom weavers and sells their work on international markets. Patel worked with Grameen Telecom, another sister organization that brings information technology, most notably mobile phones, to rural villagers across the country.
Patel took this photo of a typical Grameen Bank center meeting at which loan recipients shared tips about their businesses.
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Patel appreciated the fact that Grameen Bank is a for-profit organization. “It isn’t charity,” she explained. “Borrowers have to pay back the loan. It is working toward peace by fulfilling the most basic human need of enabling people to have an income so that they can provide for their families.”
In addition to learning the economic power of microcredit, Pepper said she enjoyed the cultural experience. “The time at the head office was pretty laid back, with lots of talking and learning about Bengali society from Bangladeshi interns,” she said. She learned the delicacies of wearing a sari one day when she sunk up to her shins in mud. She and two other interns were also dropped off fifteen kilometers short of their destination one day by a taxi driver who refused to take directions from a female translator.
Pepper’s favorite moment occurred one evening when the branch office where she was staying lost power. The interns, their translator, and the branch officers climbed to the roof to escape the stifling heat inside. They talked about everything from the electoral college to bicycles. At one point, the translator left the group. In her absence, the bank officials cajoled Pepper and a fellow intern to sing them a song. They responded with “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “You’re So Vain.” Pepper recalled, “We spent the rest of the evening laughing together. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time, and I never, ever anticipated singing 'Row Row Row Your Boat' on a rooftop in Bangladesh!”
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine.
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