Dr. Abed Receives Honorary Doctorate from Columbia University

BRAC founder Dr. Fazle Hasan Abed receives an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree from Columbia University.

Creative Giving: Is Bigger Better?

In the June 2 issue of Forbes magazine, David Armstrong writes about BRAC founder Dr. Fazle Abed and BRAC's accomplishments in Bangladesh and its mission in Africa:

Using market incentives, Fazle Hasan Abed built the largest antipoverty group in the world and helped pull Bangladesh out of the ashes. Now he wants to take on Africa.

Click here to read the full article.

BRAC’s cyclone relief efforts supported by the student community

BRAC in the last few months has benefited from immense support from the student community in the US & Cananda, especially in mobilizing support for post-cyclone Sidr relief activities:

• Our friends at the School of International Training (SIT) at Vermont are hosted a series of interesting events, culminating in the Annual Race for a Reason. The race is a 5K/10K walk/run fundraising event, organized by Net Impact-SIT Chapter, and this year we are quite excited that the funds raised will help support BRAC’s cyclone relief efforts.
  
  
• The Bangladesh Emergency Action Charity Organization Now (BEACON) at University of Windsor, Ontario, organized a dinner in March to benefit the victims of Cyclone Sidr. The dinner featured feature Asian food and enterainment by University of Windsor students performing traditional cultural songs and dances from around the world.
  
  
• Finally, The Bengali Students Association at New York University hosted "A Concert for Bangladesh 2008", to support Cyclone Sidr victims. Based on the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh to support victims of Cyclone Bhola, the event attracted 200 people from NYU and the broader NYC community.

Behind each of these events were students who helped organize them from scratch. We are moved by their passion, commitment and hard work.

Thanks, Peter!

The BRAC USA staff were privileged to be invited to see Peter Buffett in Concert and Conversation at The Paley Center for Media on April 21, 2008.

It was a special occasion for us, given that Peter and his wife Jennifer had recently returned from their trip to Bangladesh and India. They had a opportunity to visit BRAC's programs while in Bangladesh, and Peter was moved by the stories of bright young girls benefiting from BRAC's Adolescent programs . Using the images of the girls from his trip, Peter has created this moving video. The song 'Set Us Free' is from his upcoming album, "Imaginary Kingdom"(he also performed the song live at the Paley Center Concert)

Thanks Peter for such a beautiful and elegant portrayal of BRAC's Adolescent Girls program and how it unleashes trapped potential.

MDG3 Global Call to Action

It is important to be reminded that its been seven years since the Millennium Development Goals campaign was launched at the UN Millennium Summit, and eight MDG goals were identified to respond to world's main development challenges. We are at the half-way point and many countries are still quite far from achieving the goals.

Recognizing the challenge, the Government of Denmark has launched the MDG3 Global Call to Action – focuses on the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG 3) on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. They also recognize that gender equality and economic empowerment are also central to achieving all other MDGs. This belief has been central of BRAC's approach, where we have empowered millions of women in Bangladesh through a unique combination of credit, economic empowerment, basic health provision, education and human rights and legal support. We believe that Bangladesh in on track to achieving the MDG targets, especially with regard to women's economic empowerment. The women to men parity index, and important measure of gender equality has risen in Bangladesh from 0.73 in 1991, to 0.90 in 2001. The literacy rates among women between the ages of 15-24 in Bangladesh has risen from 38% in 1991 to 60.3% in 2001. Bangladesh's success in empowering the women is attributed to the vibrant civil sector in the country - organizations like BRAC, which is playing an integral role in achieving the goal.

The MDG3 Global Call to Action is a commendable step, creating a platform to ensure that every country achieves the gender equality and women's economic empowerment goal. BRAC received this call for action five years back, when the organization started its programs in Afghanistan. In addition to Afghanistan, today BRAC is empowering women in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Tanzania and Souther Sudan.

We at BRAC are quite excited that Susan Davis, the President & CEO of BRAC USA was elected to be a part of the MDG3 Champion Network of internationally prominent politicians, public and private sector leaders, and media and civil society representatives.

Microfinance Meets Wall Street

In a recent op-ed published in Forbes magazine, Susan Davis, President and CEO of BRAC USA and Rod Dubitsky, Managing Director at Credit Suisse, discuss the trend where increasing number of MFIs are accessing for-profit capital from mainstream wall-street investors. They nicely outline both the pro's and con's of this fairly recent phenomenon, highlighting three recent deals (BRAC-Citibank Securitization, Blue Orchard's collateralized loan obligation, and the Compartamos IPO)

You can read the entire op-ed here.

Amartya Sen deems Abed "architect of modern and beautiful world"

Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate and Lamont University Professor at Harvard University, has said Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC, is one of the architects of a modern and beautiful world.

Bangladesh and her soil are honoured to have many wonderful persons and role models, he said, adding that Abed is one of them.

The Nobel laureate said this while speaking as the chief guest at a reception hosted by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Ash Institute in Boston in honour of Abed, founder of the largest non-governmental organisation of the world, reports News World, a US-based news agency.

Professor Amartya said general people of Bangladesh are enjoying better health care facilities because of BRAC's contribution to poverty alleviation and the education and health sectors. The people of many neighbouring countries are still deprived of such facilities, he added.

"I have visited different schools and projects of BRAC," the eminent economist said, adding that Abed's contribution to the welfare of people is unforgettable.

Bangladesh has earned worldwide acclaim for the system of micro-credit pioneered by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus and the largest non-governmental organisation of the world established by Abed, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Fazle Hasan Abed said BRAC has been moving forward as the largest NGO with an array of projects aiming to ensure the dignity of people through eradicating poverty.

A campaign to eliminate poverty is now being carried out in Bangladesh, which can be an example for many countries in the world, he added.

Professor Gowhar Rizvi of Harvard University moderated the programme.

- The Daily Star, Thursday, April 3, 2008 09:40 PM GMT+06:00

Abed Keynotes Ash Institute of Governance conference in Boston

BRAC founder Fazle Abed gave a kenote address today to a large international gathering in Boston focused on 20 years of innovation in governance organized by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation led by Gowher Rizvi. After a standing ovation for Abed's talk about BRAC's work over the years to co-produce good governance with government, civil society and the private sector, Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen gave closing remarks. He told a story about visiting a BRAC school and observing the confidence of a young girl with whom he spoke. "This remarkable sense of general confidence of women and girls" involved in BRAC that one can change was so apparent. He added, "Obama has made it popular to say 'yes we can' now but, from the early 70s till now, we know that 'yes,Bangladesh can change' and others can too.

Derrick and his Mom, Uganda's hope

As soon as I hopped out of the van, this skinny boy runs up to me and takes my hand to direct me into his home. Fearless, Derrick knew no stranger or boundaries. Without a word of English, he communicated so much to me on that hot afternoon in Uganda. His mother is a BRAC VO member and a newly trained Community Health Promoter. She wore her t-shirt, apron and cap from BRAC/Living Goods and showed us the pig that she got with her first BRAC loan, her spacious rented home that she and her husband get a good deal because he looks after the landlord's farm for him, and her son Derrick for whom she has high hopes. Derrick was curious about our every move and accompanied us on a round of home visits in the village. He projected a sense of confidence and ease in his skin as he struck a pose and eyed me with gentle longing and promise. A young Obama for Uganda?


Susan

BRAC Nansano Branch Manager Haijara explains targets and achievements

Hired almost 2 years ago, Haijara, is a graduate in social studies of Makono Christian College in Uganda and Branch Manager of Nansana Branch in the outskirts of Kampala in Wakiso District. She had about a week training on the BRAC credit system and the MIS system RADAR and then had to learn 'on the job.' Luckily she had learned Word and Excel in school. Equipped with one computer for the office, they enter all transaction daily and back up the information on a CD daily. They don't have internet connectivity so she sends reports to the Country Office on a CD.

Pointing to her wall charts (found in every BRAC office in any branch), Haijara explained to me that there are 1,060,900 people in the area or 218,142 households. Officially, employment breaks down as follows:
Agriculture - 40%
Services - 12.4%
Business - 24.7%
Others - 2.9%
Unemployed 20%

She also reviewed her Top Ten Ratio Analysis for February 2008 and explains that the branch is profitable, there is 0 portfolio at risk and each of her Credit Officers serves 407 members. She has an efficiency target for them to reach 450 members per CO.

With Sophie, her accountant, quietly sitting through the session, you could see the pride on both of their faces when shyly describing what they had accomplished.

Susan

BRAC Uganda Village Organization meeting for Microfinance

On a cloudy day, with rain threatening, BRAC VO members from Nansana Branch crowded inside a member's home, Rebecca's, to conduct their weekly meeting with Grace, their BRAC Credit Officer, to collect repayments on their business loans. Rebecca is a Community Health Promoter who is in the poultry business. She took a 300,000 Schilling loan to buy chickens, feed and a 'drinker' for their water. Now she's equipped with 20,000 Schillings worth of health related products to sell as she does health education in her neighborhood. Linda is the group Treasurer. Others is the group include Justine who makes handicrafts (mats, wall posters, supplies for cultural theaters), Betty who is a tailor, Margaret who has a small shop in front of her home selling tomatoes, bananas and other fresh produce and snacks, Joanne and Juliette who sell second hand clothers, Dorothy and Judith who have poultry businesses, Lukeya who makes snacks to sell to small shops, Kedine who makes and lays bricks and sells firewood, Salama who sells second hand shoes, Tete who sells fresh fruit, Mary who sells tablecloths that she stiches and decorates with flowers, Annette who sells bananas and who makes chapatis to sell from her stand, and Lillian who used a 500,000 schilling loan to buy a refrigerator. I asked Lillian what she does with a fridge and she replied that she squeezes juice and sells water and cold drinks in a small retail shop. And when the power goes out? Lillian smiled and replied, "Yes that happens often. I just put the perishable items in the freezer and wait and pray it comes on again."

I noticed that about 10 of the members had cell phones that they said they use for business, "customers call us; I order supplies."

When I asked about challenges they face, Rebecca said, "the food is often too little in our homes and there are so many orphans in this area. There doesn't seem to be enough to pay all the school fees and medicines are now so costly." The majority are caring for orphans in their homes because of the ravages of HIV/AIDs.

When I asked if they had ideas to make more money, so many excitedly spoke at once. The consensus seemed to be that poulty was a profitable idea for many, one mentioned raising pigs and a few wanted to open a hair salon or shop.

Susan

Visiting Margaret's Home, BRAC Uganda VO Member

After observing a regularly scheduled weekly Village Organization meeting of about 30women who were repaying their BRAC microfinance loans, we were invited to visit a few of the women's homes and see their businesses. Ariful Islam, BRAC's Country Manager is pictured above with one of the first BRAC Ugandan Branch Managers, Haijara, and Margaret, a VO member who took a 200,000 Schilling loan for working capital as she sells tomatoes, bananas and other fresh food. She also makes fast food and sells snacks at her roadside wooden stand in front of her home along a dusty village road on the outskirts of Kampala. She rents this 2 room home for 25,000 Schillings a month for herself and 4 children.

Susan

Ugandan BRAC Member Jane, and her husband Samuel, in front of their home with their children

"Life is getting better," reports BRAC member Jane, who along with her husband, supports their 3 children growing and selling vegetables. We visited their home recently as we walked through a village with a BRAC Community Health Promoter. Housing varied considerably in the village. These two small traditional mud and stick huts were used by the least well off families.

Susan

South-South Cooperation in Practice

BRAC Tanzania Microfinance Programme Coordinator, Sohail, with over a decade of experience with BRAC is pictured working with Anita, the first Tanzanian Area Manager who started with BRAC Tanzania as a Branch Manager. She was recently promoted replacing Bangladeshi staff. They were working on annual loan demand projections to discuss with senior management.

Susan

Peter and Jennifer Buffett visit BRAC in Bangladesh

Peter and Jennifer Buffett visited BRAC in early March and spent several days in the Bangladeshi villages meeting with teenage girls and the BRAC staff who support them with life skills training, a safe place to meet, play and maintain their reading skills, and who provide access to savings and credit. Peter made an amazing video while on the trip to Bangladesh and India with colleagues from the Nike Foundation.
Watch this video and see what you think of his original music and images of these beautiful young women. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5wugcG7rJY&feature=related

Susan

BRAC Approach Part of the Solution

See Jonathan Gleenblatt's lovely post on the Huffingon Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-greenblatt/the-best-recipe-for-endin_b_67935.html

It's always nice to see how the country absorbs the candidancy.
best,

Susan

Featuring BRAC Interns

Editors Note: Over that past year, we at BRAC USA have had the benefit of working with some remarkable volunteers and interns who bring passion, energy and fresh ideas to the organization. In this ongoing series, we will be featuring these interns and volunteers - highlight the work they have been doing for BRAC USA and BRAC

Lauren Clay



Lauren Clay, a 2005 graduate of La Salle University, received a Fulbright Scholarship to study microfinance in Bangladesh and at BRAC. She is taking a leave of absence from the New School for General Studies in New York City, where she is studying International Affairs and concentrating in socio-economic development. After graduating from La Salle, Clay spent a year teaching English at Hue University in Vietnam. Before returning to the United States, she went to Bangladesh to visit the Grameen Bank. At La Salle, Clay majored in History and minored in Leadership and Global Understanding. Lauren is interested in studying BRAC’s model of scaling up and expanding internationally

Annie Feighery



Annie is a doctoral fellow researching environment and health in global development. She recently completed an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy at Columbia. Annie is passionate about BRAC’s work in maternal and child health in Bangladesh. She is also passionate about blogging, so we were the perfect match! Annie worked for us as a virtual volunteer and with her expert blogger skills, in 24 hours she set up this blog to raise awareness and donations for BRAC’s work post-Cyclone Sidr. The blog has acted as an important medium to create awareness about BRAC's work and mobilize resources after the cyclone.

Dreams of Zanzibar

This magical island off the coast of Tanzania has a unique and colorful history and conjurs up romantic images with its scent of spices, beautiful blue sky, white sand beaches and Arab architecture. A fare number of tourists find their way to this exotic island, mostly Italians, in search of great fish, fun and a sense of timeless beauty.

There is however another side of Zanzibar. That is the one that Mafouz Rahman, the highly competent and compassionate BRAC Area Manager has discovered over the last 14 months on the island. With a population of roughly 1.5 million, the people on the island struggle to make a living and pay for their basics as they must rely on imports for almost everything. After surveying some 48,000 households, Mahfouz and his locally recruited team of branch managers and credit officers organized 7,900 women as members of BRAC. They are women eager for a chance to improve their family incomes through loans without collateral for vegetable farming, raising poulty, selling various items and operating simple restaurants and shops. I met with several groups of BRAC's microfinance program and listened to a refresher training for women who become 'model farmers' for their neighbors and 'barefoot extension agents' who pass on the tips they learn to boost production. I hit the class when they were covering the ins and outs of growing okra. When I got the chance to chat with the women after their class, they requested that BRAC figure out how to provide them with wells or help them collect rain water since lack of water was a big problem for them. The BRAC Research Farm had just sunk a 30 foot bore well for its farm for about $1,800. As they discussed various ideas, I could see the wheels turning inside the staff and members' heads: creative problem-solving is what they do best.

Mahfouz has been with BRAC for 9 years, having worked his way from the entry level position that organizes poor women into BRAC Village Organizations. He is the only Bangladeshi living full-time on the island and so sometimes missing speaking his mother tongue. But his Swahili is good and his drive undaunted. I first met him in the Leadership Progam for BRAC's middle managers. When I asked him if he had any business ideas of his own after living in Zanzibar, he quickly replied: "I'd open a restaurant and hotel - 24 hours - for middle class people. There's nothing 24 hours for them here."

Entrepreneurial staff dedicated to working with entrepreneurial low-income women seems like the best recipe for fighting poverty I've seen.

Susan
Zanzibar

Putting eye drops in chickens, and other ways to make a living

Caroline is an energetic woman in the Arusha region of Tanzania who has received special training from BRAC to become a poultry and livestock vaccinator. She is a type of para-Vet who provides affordable timely services to her neighbors in the surrounding community to where she lives. Last Tuesday morning, I went with Caroline as she was serving a client, Ndensongosiyo, who needed her chickens vaccinated. Ndensongsiyo is a BRAC Key Rearer who had had 3 days special training and now has 28 birds with a modern feeder and water dish. She was paying Caroline 50schillings a bird for this service. Caroline was inside the poultry shed catching a bird, one at a time, and carefully putting eye drops into the chicken's eyes to vaccinate them. She'd then hand the excited bird out the door to her client (or a BRAC staff member who was nearby given my visit) so that they could be put in another pen to keep them sorted. And before you ask, no, I did not try to take one of the chickens in hand!

I did however accept Ndensongosiyo's invitation to visit another small shed attached to her house and see another source of income for this enterprising women: Gouda cheese! She used part of her 200,000 schilling loan from BRAC to buy more raw materials for cheese making as well as more chickens. She proudly uncovered about 20round Gouda cheeses which she was going to sell for 3,000 each.

Cheese and chickens keep her and her large family going. And a lovely esthetic sense. Her simple wooden home was beautifully landscaped with colorful plants and flowers. You could tell that each thing she undertook, she did with love.

Susan
Arusha

BRAC Tanzania benefits over 430,000 in record time

Bari, BRAC Tanzania County Manager, hands me the February Monthly Report: 71,670 members have been organized since they started forming microfinance groups over 18 months ago. I looked at the number in amazement. I realized that each of these women are supporting at least 5 others (and some support much larger numbers per household due to the high number of orphans due to HIV/AIDS and malaria deaths) so that over 430,000 people were getting some benefit from BRAC's new presence in Tanzania. And this was just from their core program which is the building block for its health, agriculture, poultry and livestock programs. Through the community extension agents that BRAC trains from its microfinance groups, they are extending their impact to hundreds of thousands more people. Moreover the agricultural research now on-going on farms in Arusha and Zanzibar have the potential to impact the country's main sector through the development of improved seed varieties. I walked through rows of okra, aubergine, beans and corn - among dozens of other items - led by Salam, a highly trained and experienced BRAC Ag research manager. With the excitement of a scientist, he waxed eloquently about the promise of finding a way to boost farmer incomes through increased productivity. I learned from Dr. Farah that their community health promoters have detected over 250 cases of malaria and a few dozen TB cases in just these 2 months. This has meant people getting treatment in time and recovering more quickly. I saw a long list of useful health items that they are selling to their neighbors (from mosquito nets to condoms; from paracetamol to worm medicine)and the many thousand health forums that have been conducted on the top 10 health challenges in this beautiful country.

The numbers tell a powerful story. But they don't do justice to it. You have to see it in practice,listen to the dynamic, outspoken women, listen to the shy quiet women and girls, hear the staff and have Justice, the BRAC driver, explain the importance of this work for his country to have the full picture. Justice said this afternoon while driving me back to my hotel, "This country is poor because we have so much corruption. So many trying to worry about just themselves. BRAC is different." He went on to talk more personally with me, "I am worried about HIV. I lost 3 of my brothers. I cared for my big brother as he died. I saw him disappear - once a big, fat man who became a skeleton....I saw a village near where I grew up lose everyone. Everyone died. The houses there are just closed." Justice is a young man who, like so many, just wants a good future.

Susan
Dar es Salaam

From A to Z: Afghanistan to Zanzibar

Dahlia is a determined young professional woman whose serious face occasionally reveals a bright wide smile. I sat with her last night at dinner in Dar es Salaam and asked her to tell me some stories. Coming from Bangladesh, Dahlia spent two years and seven months working in BRAC Afghanistan in their training center and later in the materials development department for the education program. She is now posted in Tanzania and Zanzibar and in charge of developing a special program for teenage girls.

"I had a few jobs before with Unicef and other development projects. I saw that BRAC wanted to recruit women for its Afghanistan program and I thought I should apply. I had read novels and books on the country and situation of women. I feel that I wanted to do something for them," she quietly told me. "When I got there,I asked an Afghan colleague to go out with me on our day off to the market. She did it but with some fear and worry. I later found out her brother was extremely angry with her for going out with me. It was at this point that I realized just how difficult women's lives are in Afghanistan." Dahlia stayed on in spite of increasing violence and challenging circumstances. She learned Dari and worked with women and their children, convinced that they deserve a chance for a better life. When BRAC offered her the opportunity to start the Adolescent Development Program here in Tanzania, she eagerly accepted. "I want to do something for girls, for women. I think better lives are possible."

A river of deep commitment runs through the BRAC staff. The things that bother me - heat, mosquitos, dust, my blackberry not working - don't phase Dahlia or colleagues one bit.

Susan
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania