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Before joining Grameen, Nurjahan had never earned more
than $37.50 in a year and owned no land. After five years as a
borrower with the Grameen Bank, her annual income is $250
(just above the national average) and she owns two goats, one
pregnant cow, ten hens, and two-thirds of an acre of land.
The land cost $1,000, more than four times the average
annual income. Seasonally, she employs two farm-hands to
assist with her rice crop. In a country where only 46 percent
of the children reach grade five, Nurjahan's son is now in 8th
grade.
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Nurjahan is a borrower of the Grameen Bank in
Bangladesh. Her name means "the light of the world."
Abandoned by her parents at three months of age and raised
by a neighbor, Nurjahan was married at twelve only to be
abandoned by her husband a year later, while three months
pregnant. She returned to the family who had raised her,
cooking for them while raising her son.