Today dad and I met with the chairman of the Charumati co-operative bank. Charumati is a bank which specializes in microlending: the loans are small, designed for people wanting to start a vegetable stand in a market or a mobile phone repair shop. The bank is not like a traditional real estate / mortgage broker, rather they prefer a local presence and an intimate relation with the clients. Because of this atmosphere, loans are almost always paid back (the chairman mentioned that the only time people ever really default on the loans is when there is a significant illness or death in the family and they have to stop working). Clients have a one hundred day limit to start making payments if they miss one (loan payments are collected almost every day to monitor progress on the clients). Nani (Muni’s wife) works for the Charumati bank, and I am glad that I’ve been able to meet the people behind the operation: it’s a great example of business genuinely trying to give back to the community. Here are some of the photos from the two markets we visited — people were really glad to see the chairman!
One of the families who have a stall in a large vegetable market thanks to Charumati
One of the vendors offered us milk chai (tea made without water, only milk). Quite an honor!
"Babu" means "baby" in Nepalese. Namaste babu!
After this we thanked the chairman and drove north to visit a temple for lunch.
After the temple we stopped for some lunch nearby.
That’s all for now.
Charles
I was born in London, England. At the age of ten, I moved to Hong Kong, which opened up a whole new part of the world: Asia. Since then, I have enjoyed traveling to different locales around the world. Having graduated from High School, I am taking a gap year to work on a computer project in Nepal, and later a cultural immersion trip in Ghana. This is the blog I am using to keep the world notified. 