Nearly 20 years ago when small loans from the Nobel peace prize winning Grameen bank first became available in her village, Bilkis Begum wasted no time in signing up. From 1985 she took out loans to start a small shop, buy a rice threshing machine and a betel leaf farm. Hard work and a shrewd business sense brought her success after success.
But like thousands of other borrowers, Bilkis, 40, is facing financial ruin after the devastating November 15 cyclone which has left her destitute and worried about her outstanding debts. "My businesses were all very successful, but now I have lost everything," she said, estimating the worth of her small enterprises at between 500,000 and 700,000 taka (7,140 - 10,000 dollars).
"Everything is lost and all the improvements we made are gone," she said, gesturing toward her ruined village which lies 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Dhaka. Bilkis survived the cyclone-powered tidal wave that engulfed the village by climbing a tree and is now struggling to find food for her family.
With nothing left but the clothes she stands up in, she knows she will be unable to keep up the payments on her outstanding debt of 80,000 taka (1,140 dollars). "I want the outstanding loan to be cancelled. I have nothing. We have all lost everything," she said, fighting back tears.
Since it was set up, Grameen bank, which last year jointly won the Nobel peace prize with founder Muhammad Yunus, is credited with lifting millions of impoverished Bangladeshis out of extreme poverty. The country is among the poorest in the world with 40 percent of its 144 million population scraping by on less than a dollar a day.
Yunus's pioneering microfinance concept has been copied around the globe and Grameen Bank currently has more than six million borrowers in Bangladesh, of whom 97 percent are women.
But despite the massive problems facing cyclone survivors, Yunus, who toured the area around Bilkis's village on Friday to assess the damage, told AFP that cancelling outstanding debt was impossible. Although keen to do all he can to help, he said money would inevitably have to be repaid at some point.
"Grameen bank has been around for 31 years and this is not the first time that there have been disasters," he said.
"We cannot cancel the debts. If we cancelled now, every time something happened, a house fire or whatever, then people would be looking to cancel their loans." Instead, the bank, which is often criticised for the high interest rates it charges, will offer all cyclone-affected members interest-free loans of up to 10,000 taka (140 dollars) to rebuild their homes.
In addition they will be given as much time as they needed to pay off their old debts while new loans will be offered to help them start again. "We are telling people that they will be able to repay whenever they can. We can push the loans back for as long as people need," he said.
Bilkis estimates she will not be able to even think about re-starting her payments for at least 12 months. "I need at least a one-year break from instalments. Then I can maybe get back on my feet." Monwara Begum, another resident of the village of 3,000 where 20 people died in the cyclone, recently took a 15,000 taka (214 dollar) loan. She too would like to see the debt cancelled.
The cyclone, which killed at least 3,400 people and left countless more without food, water and shelter, has pushed her to the limit. For days since the disaster, villagers have been surviving on water from a pond filled with dead cattle. "How am I supposed to pay back my loan?" she asked angrily. "The Grameen Bank has made profits from the interest we pay. We have also benefited, (but) I am telling the truth when I say I have nothing left."
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