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INSPIRING ARTICLES ABOUT BANGLADESH READY TO BE PUBLISHED
Publishers from different countries are already participating in 1We's media platform for a better world. To spread the word worldwide we also invite you to get involved and publish one or more of the articles about Bangladesh. In this way you will be helping us to motivate people to support 1We. Moreover as a media partner you will become a member of 1We The Chain, the international entrepreneurs platform which makes the difference. The website will be launched in August. 
The articles and pictures are offered as free publicity under the condition that the introduction and the closed text will remain intact as written. Below you will find a part of every article. If you want to read one or more of the articles in further detail please contact 1We. More pictures are also available.
< INTRODUCTION ARTICLES >
A team of 1We - One World Experience, the new style development organization, recently travelled to Bangladesh looking for surprising development projects, inspiring stories and refreshingly new entrepreneurs. The result was a series of special meetings with people who are capable of following their passion and who help others to develop their talents. They succeed in spite of the enormous poverty in this country. The 1We-team discovered that Bangladesh is more than an overpopulated country of natural disasters, political instability and a faltering economy. For the projects that originated from this journey please visit www.1we.com. < ARTICLE MUHAMMAD YUNUS [1] >
Muhammad Yunus' micro credit conquers the United States 'People should be able to take matters into their own hands' "Conventional banks are unfair; they do not grant loans to those people who need it most." And: "In most Third World countries the government is not the right place for foreign development projects." Muhammad Yunus, the guru of micro credit, does not mince his words. At the head office of his Grameen Bank in Dhaka, he speaks outspokenly about his fight against poverty. The fight even takes place in the United States, where the Bengali bank established an office earlier this year. 
It seems the other way round; a bank from a developing country providing financial aid to a Western country. This is nothing new, however, according to Muhammad Yunus. "We have been doing this since 1987", he says. "I was invited by Bill Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas at the time, to start the Grameen program there. Since then, it has spread across America and to various European countries, however we never took care of the implementation of the program. Therefore the Grameen Bank was hardly known, and if anything, to be the driving force behind it. We first became visible to the Western world when opening the Grameen Bank America in New York, last February." Own opinion Why now? Sitting behind the desk of his simple office of the sky-high Grameen building, Yunus joins his hands. The Nobel Peace Prize Winner (2006), who has shook hands with many celebrities judging from the pictures on the wall, has his own opinion about the US financial system. "It is far from perfect. There are many millions of people, for instance, who cannot open a bank account or get a loan. This is simply because they are not creditworthy in the eyes of traditional banks. They cannot cash their paychecks unless they go to so-called 'check cashing' or 'payday loan companies', which shot up like mushrooms. These companies overcharge them however by setting exorbitant interest rates. Obviously there is a gap in the system. We try to bridge this gap with our micro credit program, enabling every person to open a bank account and get a small loan at a normal interest rate." < ARTICLE MUHAMMAD YUNUS [2] >
Social business practices as a weapon in the battle against poverty Muhammad Yunus: 'People are not money-making machines' In 2008 a capitalist economy is inadequate. So says Muhammad Yunus, the father of microcredits. In the sober headquarters of his Grameen Bank in Dhaka, the Bengali winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize argues passionately for 'social business practices' and the 'recycling' of money. "Doing business is only about making as much profit as possible. But people are not money-making machines." 
More and more businesses in the West are attracted to socially responsible business practices, doing business 'properly'; taking people, society and the environment into account. But for Muhammad Yunus, an economics professor, that is not nearly enough. "The ultimate goal is still to maximize profits. But humans are not one-dimensional beings, not money-making machines for people who only care about money. It is only one aspect of life." Social purpose To do justice to whole human beings, Yunus says you need at least two types of businesses: the familiar profit-oriented businesses and businesses with a social purpose and no personal profit motive. "The latter I call social businesses. Actually it is the difference between putting yourself othe other first; between making a profit and not incurring losses, so that you do something good for the world." < ARTICLE BIBI RUSSELL >
Former top model Bibi Russell had a dream 'Poverty is not a disease like cancer or aids' Her hand woven yellow sari makes her look like a real 'Bengali girl'. It is a phrase she uses several times. She must be halfway into her fifties right now, but her age doesn't seem to affect her. Former top model Bibi Russell is still a beauty and now in the second prime of her life. After fifteen years of glitter and glamour she decided to listen to her heart and went back to her roots - Bangladesh. "I had a dream", says Bibi, who now offers work to 35,000 weavers as a fashion designer. 
Bibi Russell is a woman of world stature but also regards herself as a 'Bengali girl'. "You should not stigmatize people, but instead give them a chance. That is very important", she says explicitly. "By having been given this chance I became a woman of the world but I am also still that Bengali girl who believes in a better world." At a very young age Bibi went her own way. She was the first woman from Bangladesh graduating at the London College of Fashion in the mid seventies which was the beginning of a glorious career as a top model. She travelled all over the world, worked together with fashion gurus such as Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld and shared the catwalk with top models such as Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer. In the early nineties she drastically changed her life. She sold all her possessions and went back to her native country. This was a step which did not only change her own life radically. "I had a dream which had grown within me all those years." Colourful Her office in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is not much bigger than 15 square metres and accommodates a colourful collection of memories. Every inch of the walls are decorated with pictures, maps and articles from newspapers. Her most precious pictures, the ones depicting her two sons, are framed and placed on her desk. The crowded but cosy room reflects Bibi's colourful radiance and warm personality. "Colours are part of Bengali life. They are our richness", she says proudly. < ARTICLE FAZILA SCIBERRAS >
Shocking confrontation in Bengali hospital 'Apparently welfare does not exist here' She was determined never to return to her place of birth. Nevertheless Fazila Sciberras went along to Bangladesh as an international ambassador of 1We - One World Experience, in search of her roots. The confrontation with Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where she was born 43 years ago, was even more shocking than she expected. "I can't believe that something like this still exists today. It's hard to imagine, until you actually see it with your own eyes." 
The search for her birthplace wasn't as easy as we had anticipated. The only thing Fazila Sciberras' parents knew was the name of the hospital: the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. The driver knows the way, he says so we drive for over an hour through the overpopulated capital to finally end up at the entrance of the wrong hospital. This fact doesn't sink in until the director explains in broken English that the building dates back to the eighties. "You couldn't possibly have been born here", he adds to emphasize his point. After some prodding it appears there is a second Dhaka Medical College Hospital on the other side of town. We step out of the car an hour, later feeling very hot. "This is it", a convinced Fazila exclaims. "The other hospital was far too small from what my parents told me." Suffocating maze From a distance the Dhaka Medical College Hospital looks like a stately complex. However, up close you notice it is long-faded glory. It is very hectic in front of the rusty gate. Rickshaws come and go. Street vendors hawk their wares to make a meager living. Inside, on the hospital grounds, it is just as hectic. The heavily deteriorated complex of buildings built in 1946 looks like a village. "My parents met each other here during a break. My father was a medical student and my mother was studying to be a nurse", Fazila tells us as she takes it all in. "So actually I am here for two reasons: to see where they met and where I was born." She moved to England when she was only ten months old; since then Fazila has only been back to Bangladesh twice: at the age of seven and twelve. < ARTICLE MOTALIB WEIJTERS [1] >
From street urchin to development worker in Bangladesh 'I suppose it was meant to be' After he was adopted, he vowed to one day open his own orphanage. In Bangladesh, the country where he himself lived on the street for nearly two years, he didn't open one, but two orphanages. And he didn't stop there. "My dream to do something for my country of birth has come true", Motalib Weijters tells us with a big smile. He returned, he saw and he conquered. 
Motalib does not know exactly how old he is. "About 37. When I saw my mother again in 1994 after seventeen years, she told me that I was born two years before the independence of Bangladesh. That would have been in 1969. If that is true, then I am 39. That's typically Bengali; almost no one knows their exact age, because there is no functioning registration system." And so Motalib Weijters celebrates his birthday twice a year: on January 1, the fictitious date they put in his passport, and on June 22, the day he arrived in the Netherlands in 1977. "It was both strange and fantastic", he says of that day. "At the airport I saw an escalator for the first time. And I remember my dad taking me to the men's room and I had no idea what I was supposed to do in there!" He laughs heartily. "My father had to show me. I wasn't used to these kinds of things." A beating There are thousands of stories like Motalib's. But behind this almost adventurous boys' story lies a world of extreme poverty. Motalib remembers it like it was only yesterday. He was five or six years old. "One night I was so hungry I ate all the rice for the next day. I ran away from home that same night out of fear that my father would beat me yet again. I ended up on the street." < ARTICLE MOTALIB WEIJTERS [2] >
A Bengali Dutchman fights poverty 'With few means you can make a huge difference' Bangladesh has many faces. While in a city like Dhaka you are confronted by the bustle, smog and poverty, the countryside at first comes across as a green oasis of peace. But behind the breathtaking scenery lies a world of extreme poverty. However, it is not a forgotten hinterland. There are several initiatives in place to fight poverty, such as the SLOPB projects in southern Barisal. A Dutch initiative with a Bengali flavor. 
In the village Shibpur, surrounded by rice paddies, sits a small white spotless clinic. The first thing you notice when you walk through the gate is the colorful mass of people patiently awaiting their turn. The friendly white building with its veranda and its red doors and windows looks fresh and inviting, even for a hospital. It is a breath of fresh air compared to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital that we visited a few days earlier. There we were shocked to see how entire families stayed in a maze of corridors under appalling circumstances. The overcrowded wards, with several people sharing one bed, were a hotbed of infection. And chickens with their chicks ran around the outdoor area where the white laundry is hung out to dry. Boiling water The clinic of the SLOPB Foundation proves that it doesn't have to be that way. Here were no degrading scenes of filthy operating rooms and corpses lying around uncovered for days on end on the floor of the mortuary. Here we find a bright and clean building, with an eye for hygiene and complete attention for the patients who come from far and wide. The flags of the Netherlands and Bangladesh fly amicably side by side. For a reason, as it turns out, because the small hospital is an initiative of Motalib Weijters, who was adopted in 1977 here in Bangladesh by a Dutch couple. < ARTICLE STEVEN KRUIT >
Expat in Bangladesh: living the good life in France? 'I fell for the opportunities of this country' Dynamic, enthusiastic and impassioned. After three years in Bangladesh Dutch Steven Kruit (32) did not lose these three qualities. On the contrary; the life as an expat in Bangladesh seems to him as one big adventure. "But to say that I've fallen in love with this country is way too far. However I did fall for the opportunities this development country offers and the rapidity of this development. That is what makes life over here very interesting." 
Steven Kruit is full of energy. With his sky blue eyes and his taking personality he could easily twist one around his finger. We meet him in the Dutch Club, the operating base for the Dutch in the diplomat quarter of the capital Dhaka. Since the three years he has been living in Bangladesh this is his second living room. It is clear that Steven feels at home. On the other hand, with the same flair he associates with the Bengalis, chats with them and knows how to make them enthusiastic. This charisma is just the thing he needs for his work. Bengali tiger As a Deputy General Manager of the dual Dutch management team of Triton Textile Bangladesh Steven Kruit mainly deals with 'locals'. "With the exception of the management, all the 75 employees within our organization are Bengali," he tells us during a tour around his office in Dhaka. The originally German society takes in clothes locally and checks textile factories on the basis of Europe's guidelines. "This means that no child labour is involved, that we demand a high quality level and delivery is within the postulated time limit," Steven states. < ARTICLE BACHU ISLAM >
Small entrepreneurship booming in Bangladesh 'My rickshaw is my business' The street scene of the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, is all about activity from early in the morning until late in the evening. A gigantic moving mass is constantly busy with all kinds of activities. Like ants in a huge ant nest the youngsters as well as the elderly march up and down. There are beggars, street vendors, rickshaw drivers and mobile merchants. The small entrepreneurship is booming in a country that still today is one of the poorest in the world. Take for example Bachu Islam, a rickshaw driver who can financially support his whole family with his own bicycle taxi. 
As we arrive in the middle of the night in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka, a colourful rickshaw is parked right in front of the Dutch Club, the operating base for Dutch speaking expats and guests. It is the regular location of Bachu, one of the thousands rickshaw drivers in town. His bicycle cab is his everything: his work, his sleeping place, his freedom, his existence. While reacting to our voices he jumps up sleepy from the narrow seat of his rickshaw serving as his bed at night. Curiously he observes us, without saying a word. A few days later he tells about himself in a big waterfall of words. A present < ARTICLE LOEK SEUREN >
A Dutchman sets up a rickshaw project in Dhaka ‘Change begins with the people themselves’ He became greatly attached to Bangladesh when he first set foot in the country at the beginning of this year. A few months later he came back; this time not for three weeks but for almost three months. The Dutch man Loek Seuren started as the project leader of the rickshaw project of 1We - One World Experience, the Dutch new style development organization. “When you hand over a rickshaw and you see the twinkle in the eyes of the driver, you know exactly why you’re doing it.” 
Loek Seuren, 26 years old with a degree in architecture, could easily have had a flourishing career in the Netherlands. He chose for adventure in Bangladesh instead. “No, I’d never been in a development country before”, he says. “I had no idea about the country when I came to visit an old university friend at the beginning of March. Of course you know in a general sense what to expect in a development country, but when you’re there and you see it with your own eyes, it’s something else completely. What I first noticed at the airport were the hundreds of eyes staring at me through the railings, and the chaotic flow of rickshaws." Rickshaw expert Loek could never have imagined that he would become a real rickshaw expert six months later. “It’s funny how the ball starts rolling”, he laughs. During his first visit he paved the way for the 1We-TV team which would arrive a week later. The team was coming to Bangladesh to make a documentary showing the positive side of life in Bangladesh, and to investigate the possibilities for new development projects. Loek: “With that concept in my head I took to the road with a chauffeur. We visited projects all over Dhaka and spoke to a lot of people. In this way we got to know the city and the Bangladeshi culture pretty quickly.” |
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