Grameen Banking

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Half-way through my term as a parish priest, and after seeing firsthand the poverty of my parishioners, I decided to invite a team of ex-seminarians, ex-nuns and retired religious educators in the parish to introduce a Grameen type of cooperative in the parish. When we started, what we had was a faint idea of works of Professor Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh that started in 1976: Extend banking facilities to the poor, eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders, and create opportunities for self-employment. Since what I had was a ragtag of “ex-men and –women”, there has been no shortage of Christian formation which they had gotten during their seminary years or during the time of their formation in the past. After a series of consultation, we were able to come up with cooperative modules that are based on the social teachings of the church and on the Bible. “I have been through 7 dioceses throughout the country and in Canada,” so narrated Sr. Ely Relacion of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception,” but it is only here that I saw Christian Formation modules as a requirement for would-be cooperative members in the pre-membership stage.” Last Saturday, we had our first graduation of those who were able to finish the Christian Formation Seminars in the grueling 12 weeks. I see a lot of hope for the marginalized and the disenfranchised to become subjects of their own liberation. Photo credits: Pixabay