in 2003, grameen bank started a new loan program, different from the solidarity group, to help the beggars in bangladesh. this program is made to give small loans to beggars. the loans cost only the amount of the loan and the repayment take a long time, for example, a beggar taking a small loan of around 100 taka (about us $1.50) can pay only 2.00 taka (about 3.4 us cents) per week and only repays 100 taka.