8. money. The women used the money for their own small businesses; for example, to
9. buy straw to make stools. Until then, the local women relied on local moneylenders
10. who charged them high interest rates.
11. Since then, the Grameen Bank model has been duplicated in more than 100 countries. Today, the band has
12. 6.61 million borrowers and over 2,400 branches in over 80,000 villages in Bangladesh. Recently the band started
13. a program to give beggars lines of credit of about $9 to purchase small items such as bread, candy, pickles, and
14. toys. Receivers of the loans then resell the goods to supplement their begging. The bank reports that it has lent
15. $6.55 billion over the past 30 years and claims a high repayment rate-98 percent. Nowadays Grammeen Banks are
16. also in developed countries. One hundred women in Queens, New York, were among the first borrowers of Grameen
17. America. The total number of borrowers worldwide is 7.84 million, 97 percent of whom are women.