Published Date

8

May 2011
Sunday

Marlene Ruth and Elham Nikkhah’s Visit to American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)

Marlene Ruth and Elham Nikkhah’s Visit to American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)

Marlene Ruth and Elham Nikkhah’s Visit to American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)

Marlene Ruth and Elham Nikkhah are from Sweden and both of them are studing Economics with the  focus on Business development/Marketing at the University of Gävle in Sweden. They reached Dhaka on 5th of April, 2011. There are here under the Minor Field Study (MFS) program and their focus is on Grameen Bank. To be able to do the MFS they needed a contact person/supervisor in the visiting country and on request of Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama (the local supervisor of their thesis paper), Dr. Anwar. Hossain, the Pro Vice Chancellor of AIUB cordially accepted the responsibility to guide them through out their project work in Bangladesh. The purpose of their field study is to find out if the Grameen Bank approach works in practice to combat poverty and develop a community in Bangladesh. They also want to get their own insight into the Grameen Bank and how, what and why this form of credit makes them successful. Their main goal is to visit the rural villages and meet and see borrowers to hear their version about these micro-credits. They would try to find out if these loans have truly helped the borrowers.  They will have an objective and a critical view of the Grameen Bank to identify the strengths and weaknesses.  They believe that in this way they can get a more truthful study that they can learn from and pass on to both the Grameen Bank, and other organizations and people who want to be inspired of their work in Sweden and other countries. Marlene and Elham made a presentation in the AIUB auditorium on 26th April, 2011. In their presentation they have highlighted the culture and educational system of Sweden, scholership facelities and application processing system for the foreign students at University of Gävle.