I've interviewed Luisa Brunori, Vice President at Grameen Italia, and the promoter of this very nice company. I first met Luisa 1 year ago at the Grameen Global Meeting, and since then we have been in touch and we met at some Grameen events. I''m also going to meet her again to see how can I help for online marketing and social media.
What is Grameen Italia?
Grameen Italy is a Foundation and a public limited company that will provide micro-credit to poor people in Italy. The work will begin in Bologna where it was done the feasibility study and in Modena. Then the geographical range of activity will be expanded along with development plans that will gradually possible. It comes from my idea and it is constituted by an agreement between Grameen Trust, Università di Bologna and Unicredit Foundation. Unicredit Bank is involved in the project and it will be part of SpA, together with Grameen Foundation. The choice was made on the basis of established relationships between the University of Bologna and Unicredit which manages the Treasury.
When will it start?
The Foundation has already been recognized by the competent bodies. Our hope / plan is to be operational or the end of this year or early next year. It’s depend on the time necessary for the conduct of all practices that are too numerous and complex because of the nature of the project. We hope that the new rules of the TUB (Banking Act) on micro-credit to facilitate the realization of our work.
Which are the goals of the first year?
Those objectives that Grameen has had at its birth as well as those who have led Grameen America. Obviously the experience multidecennal will be teaching to the application. Anyway, we will find the interplay between Grameen model and what we might call "genius loci", or a social relational context sensitive enough to the traditional cooperative arrangements in general.
There will be the involvement of Grameen Bank?
Yes of course, and it will be very significant from the point of view of the model both in terms of responsibility ,that, according to the agreement, it will be strongly focused on their expertise and their operators who will be here on the basis of a project of some years of work.
What is your role?
I'll be the Vice-President of the Foundation. The university, for its institutional reason, cannot enter into a partnership in which there is "business risk". This is the reason for creating the foundation that allows us the presence of Unibo, precisely because of the fact that the original idea as the main report with Yunus correspond to my commitment and responsibility and I am Professor at the University of Bologna .Also, you can add that the raison d'être of the foundation is to implement all that work to outline, research and monitoring and training that is necessary for the development of microcredit in Italy and the philosophy that underlies it.
Which are the main variables in MC, why so much sucess and why your involment?
I have been attracted by MC experience exactely for its complexity and the ability/intuition of the inventor to put together both sides of human relations: tangible and intangible. Money should be seen as a mean to transform what is shame into pride basically: in other words helping the human side of human beings to be revealed and expanded for the benefit of both the individuals and their community. I have a dream that this phylosophy could be developped at great extent and could become the main stream of economy and human relations. This is mainly the reason for me of the success of this fantastic idea and for me to be involved in this journey! You might say it is Utopia: I say it is hope.
Who is Luisa Brunori
I am Full Professor of Group Psychodynamics of Unibo. Founder of CIRIG (Interdipartimental Center for Research and Intervention on Groups) and of MIO (Microfinance International Observatory) where Prof. Yunus is Honorary President. Bascally I am psychologyst always interested in the group dimensions of individuals and in the importance of the relations between individuals and the society. As a researcher I have been working in the field of the importance of sibling relations in the construction of the psyche and in family relations. I have worked in the field of marginality applying group analysis in prison, in the field of multiculturality and volounteers. I have been in the BoD of the main International bodies of Group Associations both in the clinical and in the developmental field.I am past President of the Group Analytic Societ, London: culturally leader in the group analytical field.
Actually my research interest goes through the "economy of the group" as it is applied in the Microcredit Grameen model trying to elaborate the intertwining between tangible and inangible sides of microcredit and the implementation of social/civic capital through money: /"money for peace"/ in some way.
