The SIUC School of Social Work and Case Western Reserve’s Mandel School are proud to announce the “Microcredit and Social Development in Bangladesh” Study Abroad. The program will take place between December 26, 2009 and January 10, 2010, focusing exclusively on the role of microfinance to alleviate poverty, and nurture social entrepreneurship. The Nobel Prize Committee awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”

The trip will explore the basic ideas behind the microfinance revolution in Bangladesh, and its historical significance. The study abroad will also study its relationship to health, finance, management, politics, social entrepreneurship, and social development.

The participants will spend eight days in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, and six days in the villages visiting field projects and meeting people.

Students of business, political science, economics, public administration, public health, non-profit management, and social work will benefit from this program. Students can take 3 to 6 credit hours for the participation.

The program especially welcomes community organizers and social work practitioners to learn about the mechanisms of microcredit in social development so that they may execute the knowledge of their own practice.