Small loans comes to rescue poor and lead them to the path of freedom

Julian D'Cruze three decades ago, moved off from his family's poor farming to big city on a mission to help his father.



The family's land in Doripara, a village covered by Toomilia parish, 30 kilometers northeast of Dhaka, was mortgaged and no longer under their control.

"My father had to mortgage our land to others to meet our family's needs," D'Cruze told UCA News Nov. 8. "This way he lost the land to grow rice for the family, and our situation became worse day by day."

It has been over the last two years D'Cruze, a Catholic, is one of 120 members of Christian Cooperative Credit Union Limited (CCCUL) had bought apartments in Dhaka with the help of loans he took from the credit union.

On Nov. 3 36th National Cooperatives Day was celebrated and about 2,500 people recently took out a rally in Dhaka to celebrate the work of such cooperatives as CCCUL. CCCUL had put up banners in Bangla that said, "Employment Creation is Our Goal - Self-dependent Society is Our Vision." And D'Cruze is an example who has benefited from this vision.



Speaking with UCA News in Dhaka, D'Cruze, now 49, recalls about the days he used to live in grass hut house along with family members and one day he left his family's grass hut in 1978 for a job in Dhaka. Completed a secondary-school education, he hoped not only to make a living but also help his father to pay off debts so that his family could regain their two acres of land.

With the help of cooperative lending today, he has been able to buy back the family land and is also having a good job, he is working for the international courier company DHL, and a family of his own.


D'Cruze told that he found a job when he arrived in Dhaka in 1978, and within three months he took a first loan of 1,000 taka (US$15) from the Dhaka-based CCCUL.

CCCUL is the largest Christian credit union in Bangladesh, according to Nirmal Rozario, its secretary. Founded in 1955, it now has more than 20,000 members.



After taking a loan first of all D'Cruze managed to pay off the debt on one of the four plots of his father's land.

"I was so happy to free the land that was under mortgage for the previous 14 years," D'Cruze said. "My father started cultivating this again and we got more crops for the family."

From the salary he was getting, he was able to repay the loan earlier than the expected date and took more loans, from CCCUL and from his Toomilia parish credit union. These loans helped him free the other three plots of land.

On acquiring back their land his family started producing rice for themselves and sold the excess for an income.

D'Cruze told the news that by taking loans from CCCUL and his parish credit union, he also built two brick-walled houses with corrugated-iron roofs for his family in the village, and was also able to financially support his younger brother and two sisters in their studies, got married and bought more land.



One year ago, D'Cruze took loans from CCCUL and a commercial leasing company and to buy an apartment in Dhaka. He said that if he had been able to obtain all the money from CCCUL, he would have avoided paying the commercial company's higher interest rate.

He said he needed to buy an apartment in Dhaka because his daughter and son are attending college and high school here. By renting he would lose money, whereas "the apartment is an asset."

Anjoli, his wife, who is working as a nursing supervisor at hospital credits the credit union with playing "a vital role in bringing our family financial solvency." She sold her earnings to repay the loans.


D'Cruze told news he tried to get loans from local banks, but he was unable to fulfill the requirements of the banks. Through the credit unions, he was able to get guarantees from other members.

Jonas Dhaki, chairman of Cooperative Credit Union League of Bangladesh, told UCA News people that the people from lower and lower-middle classes are unlikely to get bank loans, since they cannot fulfill the necessary guarantees and requirements.



"To alleviate the poverty of the country, credit unions are an effective way to change poor people's situation," Dhaki declared.

The country's best-known credit union is Grameen Bank, founded in 1983 by Muhammad Yunis, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.