NBP to follow Grameen Bank of Bangladeshi
The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is planning to launch micro-credit finance schemes in the NWFP [North West Frontier Province] on pattern of the Grameen Bank of Noble laureate Mohammad Younas of Bangladesh, said Dr Mirza Ibrar Baig, chief of the Human Resource Management of the bank. The International News, February 16, 2007

Bishops say microcredit can save dying farmers
Bishops and priests from India's biggest Catholic charity are formulating a microcredit plan for farmers whose mounting crop debts have led thousands of them to commit suicide. An estimated 5,000 farmers have killed themselves over six years across India's sprawling western and southern plateau – where the black soil has long borne a rich harvest of cotton – because they could not repay loans taken for their crops. Reuters, February 6, 2007

Bangladesh's split personality
Democratic elections postponed indefinitely - and a state of emergency imposed. It is a scenario which might suggest suppressed civil unrest, the heavy hand of security forces and a frightening increase in tension. But in Bangladesh, the reality has been very different. BBC News, February 17, 2007

An end to poverty
The Nobel laureate, Mohammed Yunus, visited Mumbai last week during his recent trip to India. Of course, everyone is now familiar with the story of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank and its successful model of poverty eradication. But listening to one of his lectures, one is stunned by the sheer irrationality of poverty, why it exists and how it serves the purpose of those who are not poor and are advantaged in society. Yunus makes a compelling case that poverty is not a naturally ordained state of human existence. It exists for the benefit of those who succeed and prosper in society and is therefore a product of vested interests. Poverty is as unnatural as was human slavery and the colonial domination of countries. Based on this premise, it is therefore natural to conclude that poverty need not be everlasting as indeed slavery or colonisation were not. Ashok Ganguly, The Telegraph Calcutta, February 14, 2007

Microcredit Summit Campaign
This campaign brings together microcredit practitioners, advocates, educational institutions, donor agencies, international financial institutions, NGOs and others involved in microcredit to promote best practices in the field, to learn from each other, and to work towards achieving the millennium development goals. The website includes case studies of people who have been helped through microcredit and provides information about best practices in microcredit, highlighting four core themes: reaching the poorest; reaching and empowering women; building financially self-sufficient institutions; and ensuring a positive, measurable impact on the lives of clients and their families. There are also opportunities for individuals and groups to get involved in the campaign.

http://www.microcreditsummit.org/

"Make Aid Work"
In the lead up to the next G8 summit in Germany this June, Catholic development agencies are calling on governments around the world to live up to their promises to the poor. Download this radio interview from Vatican Radio's website as an MP3 file or Real Audio file. Duration is 14:27 minutes. Vatican Radio, February 12, 2007

"When we fight poverty and oppose the unfair conditions of the present, we are not just promoting human well-being; we are also furthering people's spiritual and moral development, and hence we are benefiting the whole human race. For peace is not simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day towards the establishment of the ordered universe... with a more perfect form of justice among people." Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, On the Development of Peoples, 1967,#76

Online movie: Meet the Pathang family and their community in Bangladesh who are now enjoying fish and a variety of vegetables all year round. View a 3 or 6 minute movie online.

PLEASE NOTE: LINKS TO EXTERNAL WEBSITES ARE NOT NECESSARILY ENDORSED BY CARITAS AUSTRALIA.