Pennies A Day: Discussion Questions (Advanced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gZmycmCbQ4
After viewing the video, discuss in small groups and be prepared to share in the whole group discussion.
1. Why is this video called Pennies A Day?
2. What does this video tell us about people’s potential to solve problems?
3. What is micro lending? How does micro lending offer Bangladeshi women economic and personal choices they didn’t have before? What was missing?
4. Why was there in the beginning resistance to giving loans to women? Did that surprise you? Why or why not?
5. According to Muhammad Yunus, women have a longer vision. Explain.
6. How did financial success change the role of women in families? How were the villages affected?
7. Why are initial loans always for income-producing projects?
8. Why was there initial opposition to Grameen in this mostly-Muslim country?
9. How does the Grameen system manage such a high payback rate on its loans in spite of requiring no collateral and no legal contract?
10. What did Muhammad Yunus mean when he said it is creativity, not the loan, that matters?
11. What obstacles made it hard for the villagers to escape poverty before Grameen Bank? What were their options?
12. Would microcredit work in America? Explain why or why not. Is it even needed in America?
13. Why do people in the US (even poor people) seem to have a greater range of choices than people in Bangladesh?
14. Why do you think Professor Yunus concludes it is better to give women loans instead of monetary aid?
15. In Bangladesh, most women have choices made for them by their fathers, their husbands, and their governments. Does it make a difference whether you can make choices for yourself, or someone makes them for you? Explain.
16. Minara said, “In our village, poverty is gone.” Does this statement surprise you? Is the village still poor by our standards?
17. Is poverty relative? Is the poverty level the same in every country? Explain.
Product/Task: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the purpose of micro lending and why it is so successful in 3rd world countries. You are in charge of a fund-raiser to raise money for the Grameen Bank. Include:
1. Explain the concept of micro lending. What is it, why it works better than normal loans.
2. Explain the process of how to get and pay back the loan.
3. Why you are loaning to women instead of men.
4. What do women usually buy with the micro loan.
5. How does this pull families out of poverty?
6. Why you are confident that they will pay you (the celebrity and you as the "bank") back.
Product Options
A. Video an info-commercial convincing people to loan through the Grameen Bank. Include a scene where you act out a scenario where women are borrowing/paying back the loan. Email your product to me.
B. Create an awareness poster or a street bill board. Include pictures illustrating the women borrowing/paying back the loan and what they are using the money for.
C. Create a pamphlet. Include pictures illustrating the women borrowing/paying back the loan and what they are using the money for.
D. Write a letter to individual celebrities asking them to donate or loan to the Grameen Bank.