English Unlimited HTL 2, Schulbuch mit Audio-CD und CD-ROM

34 Money 03 LANGUAGE SKILLS EXPLORE LOOK AGAIN EXTRAS READING 18 What do you think microcredit is? Is it credit for: Read the article to check. Why do people borrow money from banks? Make a list of reasons. Example: to buy a home / car … Complete the sentences with these words. Microcredit credit interest a loan repayments 1 My uncle borrowed some money from the bank. Æ He got / from the bank. 2 Now he pays money to the bank every month. Æ He makes every month. 3 Borrowing the money costs seven percent a year. Æ He pays seven percent a year. 19 20 a 1 people without much money? 2 buying computer software? 3 the education of children? b In 1976, Muhammed Yunus, a Bangladeshi professor of economics, started Grameen Bank. Grameen gives small loans – usually no more than US$100 – to very poor people who can’t get credit from normal banks. ‚is kind of credit is called microcredit . Most of Grameen’s customers live in villages in the Bangladeshi countryside. 97 percent of them are women. ‚ey use the credit to start small businesses and make money for their families. For example, they make furniture, repair clothes, or buy animals for milk. Customers usually have to make repayments every week for twelve months. ‚ey pay about 16 percent interest a year. Grameen says that 98 percent of its customers make all their repayments. People who want a loan from Grameen have to make groups of ˆve people, called loan circles . ‚e people in the circle meet regularly to talk about their ideas and help each other. If someone in the group doesn’t make their repayments, no one in the group can get credit in the future. However, if everyone makes their repayments, they can get bigger loans. In 2013, Grameen Bank had over eight million customers in about eighty-one thousand villages. ‚ere are now more than ten thousand other microcredit organisations around the world, including in Europe and the United States. Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2006. In 2009, he received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2013 the Congressional Gold Medal – the two highest civilian awards in the United States. A new kind of banking? Read the article again. What do these numbers in the text refer to? 100 97 12 16 98 5 8,000,000 81,000 10,000 21 Talk together. 1 Why do you think most of Grameen’s customers are women? 2 Why do you think Professor Yunus got the Nobel Peace Prize and the other prizes? Do you think he was a good choice? SPEAKING 22 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv