Page 158 - Social Enterprise A New Business Paradigm for Thailand

1.8 million households and occasionally provided funding for related initiatives. Grameen
Shakti employed over 10,000 people and hired female engineers at the same wage rates as

men, helping to elevate the status of women in a society still marked by gender inequality
(Wimmer in Grave and Berg eds., 2014).
5) Grameen Byabosa Bikash (GBB) or Grameen Business Promotion Company – GBB provides
loan guarantees for businesses needing between USD 300–1,000 (2020 prices), which exceeds
the typical microloan size issued by Grameen Bank. It also offers training and support for rural
entrepreneurs.
6) Grameen Healthcare Trust (GHT) – GHT mobilizes and allocates funding for health-related
social business initiatives. One key project involved commissioning Glasgow Caledonian
University to establish a nursing and midwifery school in Dhaka in 2010, with enrollment

reserved for students who were children of Grameen Bank clients. By 2017, the school had
produced 223 graduates, helping to ease Bangladesh’s critical nursing shortage, at the time
the country had only one nurse for every 6,000 people.
7) Grameen Health Care Service, Ltd. (GHS) – GHS was created to address major health
challenges faced by the poor. It established a social business hospital focused on treating
glaucoma, a prevalent condition among low-income populations in Bangladesh. The hospital
follows a cross-subsidization model, charging middle-class patients to fund free or highly

affordable care for the poor. It achieved financial self-sufficiency within four years and
subsequently opened a second and third branch, both of which also became self-sustaining.
To date, the hospital has served more than one million patients.
8) Grameen Distribution – This enterprise delivers essential, affordable products from the
Grameen network directly to low-income consumers. It operates through a grassroots sales
force made up of poor women who are members of the Grameen Marketing Network. The
company distributes items such as mobile phones, solar panels, small-scale solar energy
systems, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and energy-efficient lighting devices. The
business has reached more than 1.5 million rural households. As a result, the women

members of the network have increased their monthly income by USD 37, approximately half
the minimum wage of a garment factory worker in Bangladesh (Yunus, 2017).

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