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Because most Bangladeshis are farmers and Muslims, the womenfs status in this country is extremely low. Tremendous efforts have been put for the eradication of poverty through international cooperation and womenfs status has been improved over the past 20 years. As such, this country became a successful model for international cooperation. The Grameen Bank is very famous. They give small loans of 50 to 100 dollars to women in the lowest layer of the society without any collateral. The repayment rate of loans is 98%, which is an excellent record. The large majority of the stockholders are women in poverty. It is an epoch-making thing to give women, who canft read or write, who have no assets and who rarely go outside, a chance to earn income and to lead them to the society.
We visited one of the Grameen Bankfs project areas and saw how they changed the peoplefs lives there. Farmersf houses are cleaner than in neighboring countries. Roofs and walls are made of tin, and women are doing the production activities and saving money although the amount is small. The womenfs status at home has also been improved. From considering those facts, it is clear that remarkable progress on womenfs issue has been made, and women now study how to read and write, what female rights are and so on.
One obstacle to human beings as well as to the society in developing countries is extreme poverty. The shortest way for us to help them get out of poverty is to give women education and opportunities to earn income. Military is not the answer to establish world peace, but education, health care services and income are.