BRAC Blog

Planning a Fundraiser for BRAC USA!

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:02:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who attended BRAC’s NYC fundraiser this past weekend! The event was held at Sutton Place in Midtown on Friday, Feb. 10. For a minimum donation of $10, 65-70 participants got happy hour drink deals for the night. Through ticket sales and raffle ticket sales, we were able to raise $1001 and an additional $400 in online donations. More importantly, it was a valuable way of raising awareness. Throughout the night BRAC employees mingled with a diverse group of New Yorkers. This group included people working in law, the arts, finance, and medicine and at other NGOs. BRAC employees were approached by a number of individuals interested in partnering with BRAC and in holding their own fundraisers. BRAC has been an exemplary global health organization from their inception in 1972 and it was wonderful to see other people get excited about getting involved.
I encourage others to sponsor similar fundraisers. Planning the fundraiser was a fun opportunity to bring together old friends and new friends. BRAC was incredible at providing support for the event, which would not have been possible without the help of BRAC employees Alissa and Naveen. They spent countless hours creating flyers, pamphlets, and acquiring popular raffle prizes. Organizing a fundraiser happy hour in NYC is very straightforward. Most NYC bars that I reached out to were more than happy to provide night-long happy hour deals for a minimum donation to the NGO sponsoring the event. We will have to make such an event more of a regular thing. There are also many other creative ways to fundraise including wine tastings, silent auctions, or gala banquets. Thanks again to everyone who made it out and to BRAC for continuing to alleviate poverty worldwide through innovative initiatives!

Pooja Gala
BRAC USA Volunteer

BRAC = Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:21:00 +0000

Last week, BRAC friends and family gathered in Dhaka to celebrate 40 years of learning, innovating, and growing into the largest - and, many say, most effective - anti-poverty organization in the developing world. The video below shows the important role that innovation has played in our history.

BRAC hosts 40th Anniversary Gala in Dhaka

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed calls on BRAC to lead battle against justice inequality

In a continuation of the 40th Anniversary celebrations, BRAC’s top leadership hosted a gala event at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Not only was this an occasion for celebration, but re-affirmation of the organization’s commitment to battling the social and economic injustices that still plague our global village.

Political leaders, ambassadors, celebrated civil servants attended the event including Deborpriyo Bhattacharya, Khushi Kabir, Dr. Marty Chen, and Dr. Richard Cash. BRAC leaders staff from all around the globe attended the event, capturing the international flare of the world’s largest NGO.

The man of the hour, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, could not make it to the event due to health reasons. Asif Saleh, Director of Communications read Sir Fazle’s 40th Anniversary message in his absence.

“Outdated approaches to teaching must give way to new techniques that teach our children not to memorize texts but to think critically and solve problems creatively. We must give greater thought and direct greater resources towards childhood development, and social and emotional learning,” declared Sir Fazle.

The Chairperson urged BRAC to remain as a “trailblazing” organization, one that leads by example by constantly innovating and adjusting in order to tackle poverty in the most efficient and large scale manner.

Despite remarkable progress in the last 40 years, in the fields of education, maternal, health, and microfinance his message reminded the BRAC family of several large unaccomplished tasks, the biggest being the eradication of gender inequality. In what he labeled the “greatest injustice in human kind,” he called on BRAC and its associates to lead the charge against ignorance-driven oppression of women.

With the celebratory atmosphere lingering, a now global BRAC must now re-group, reassess, and reinsure the realization of the dream of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. As an organisation, BRAC must continue doing what it does best, “thinking big” and dedicate these next 40 years to leveling the playing field for half the world’s population.

“I am confident the team will ensure BRAC achieves even greater success and impact when I call time on providing leadership to this organization I have built,” said the Chair.

With big shoes to fill, but with a talented global team of innovators, the BRAC family looks to the future while celebrating and remaining inspired from the past.

Presentations from the finalists of the BRAC Innovation Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:21:00 +0000

Here are a few presentations from the top 10 finalists who have moved on to the next round of the BRAC Innovation Competition:

Digits to All by Amadeyr Cloud

Community Playgrounds Project by Daniel Ng

Improving the Quality of Rural Schools by Tonmoy Islam

Education - The Greatest Equalizer by James Arinaitwe

Reflections from the Global Learning Meeting: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:52:00 +0000

“This meeting is a great opportunity to see what’s really going on. In Sri Lanka, right now we only have microfinance. I had no idea what the health, education, and WASH [Water, sanitation, and hygiene] programs would be like. Reading on the website is nothing like coming here and really being able to see it.” Hollupathirage Sajini (BRAC)

“We don’t have these youth programs [in Sierra Leone], but I hope we will in a few years.” Regina Juliana Kain (BRAC)

“I am learning so much! I hope that I can pass everything that I’m getting out of being here to others in Haiti.” Doris Valcin (BRAC)

These are a few of the reflections that participants offered at the beginning of Day two of BRAC’s first Global Learning Meeting on youth. It was clear from the remarks and the murmurs of agreement reverberating around the room that the power of what an organization like BRAC can achieve in 40 years is hard to believe until you see it, in Bangladesh. And having seen it, leaders of BRAC’s programs abroad were hungry to learn more!

There is no better starting point than a reminder of where the focus of BRAC’s programs should be: on helping youth realize their own potential. Susan Davis (BRAC USA) shared words that BRAC’s founder and chairperson, Sir Fazle Abed, about the “shining eyes test” of success. “I don’t worry so much about how to measure whether we’re on the right path or not. What is really comes down to is, when I look in the eyes of the young people in BRAC’s schools and programs, and I see their eyes shining so brightly, I know we are.”

BRAC’s programs with youth are expanding rapidly, within Bangladesh and abroad. Already it has youth-targeted programs operating in six countries and mainstream programs reaching millions more. For example, in Bangladesh the majority of recipients of maternal health services, programs for the ultra-poor, and even human rights and legal services are young women, despite the fact that these programs were designed without a deliberate youth target. The emergent focus on youth arose because of the extent and complexity of their vulnerability. “When we go to a household and ask how old a bride is, the family always tells you that she is eighteen because that’s the legal minimum age. But we know that childbirth is one of the largest killers of adolescents in our country. This is a health problem, but it’s also much bigger than a health problem given the social context surrounding it,” said Faruque Ahmed (BRAC).

The diversity of social contexts was quite from comments and questions of the participants. In South Sudan, still just months old, there are only a handful of functioning government schools. Community members often frown on girls leaving their homes to go to BRAC’s learning centers where they can study or learn livelihood activities. Yet despite the differences, staff everywhere named pregnancy and unemployment as some of the biggest challenges. Other themes, such as the need for increasing and improving the engagement of boys, particularly male partners or spouses, arose as shared areas of urgent attention.

In its decision to expand internationally ten years ago, BRAC was asserting that its integrated, community-based model could work in other contexts. Now the question is, how can we harness the breadth and depth of insights to best work with youth? Imran Matin (BRAC) offered one articulation of the underlying BRAC approach, “Many of our international programs at times have had to operate in conditions of great resource scarcity, forcing us to really identify what is really core to our model. What BRAC has always done is organize people and bring them out of social isolation. To do this, we have to figure out the platform. Once you have the platform, then you can really start to create power.” For youth, given the critical importance of education in promoting a successful adulthood, the platform BRAC chooses may deviate from its more traditional platform of the microfinance village organization. The old strategies, such as building social capital and community empowerment, may also take advantage of the new tools that advancements in technology has made available. New opportunities to work with the public and private sector can further enable BRAC to achieve greater impact, sustainability, and scale.

Though the meeting has come to a close, the learning is just beginning! With these few days of intensive presentations and dialog to draw on, tomorrow BRAC’s leaders sit down to map out BRAC’s first global youth strategy.

By Maria A May, BRAC Social Innovation Lab.

BRAC’s Global Learning Meeting on Youth: Reflections from Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:58:00 +0000

Two billion youth. Six hundred million unemployed. BRAC’s Executive Director, Mahabub Hossain, highlighted these sobering statistics in his opening comments to the participants of BRAC’s first Global Learning Meeting in Rajendrapur, Bangladesh. On February 7^th and 8^th, over 100 people gathered to focus on how BRAC could create its first global strategy for youth. Just days before BRAC’s 40^th anniversary of its founding, the meeting represents an opportunity to harness BRAC’s diversity of experiences, reflections and ideas. The diversity of BRAC’s staff who are attending, representing the 10 countries where BRAC now operates, is symbolic of what the organization has achieved: from a small organization born in Bangladesh, it has flourished into an increasingly global institution exploring new terrain for South-South partnerships.

Youth as a population are largely defined by their transition from childhood to adulthood and the new vulnerabilities that emerge during this period. There is a perceived lack of focus on youth globally, with girls particularly failing to receive support that enables them to sustain paths to successful adulthoods. Citing a variety of data, several speakers called attention to the need for inclusive development. In the midst of economic growth, program design must really consider, who is disadvantaged and unlikely to reap the benefits without additional support? The answers are not straightforward; even within countries there is great variation by region and gender. Increasing urbanization worldwide creates an additional layer of complexity; change will be a constant feature of the socioeconomic landscape in developing countries if the projections are correct. Preparing today’s youth to compete in a global market requires an updated paradigm of technically-focused skills building, expanding to include portable skills that remain relevant, such as a marketing, bookkeeping, and market analysis.

Finding strategic linkages and connection points are key components of effective programs, without which we may fail to see the desired impact. For example, Syeda Sitwat Shahed’s (BRAC) research on youth in Bangladesh suggested that increases in education had not necessarily led to jobs. Munshi Sulaiman’s (BRAC) analysis of members of BRAC’s adolescent empowerment and livelihood program in Uganda (called ELA) highlighted that in the short-run, programs may need to consider trade-offs in what impact they prioritize—for example, should ELA aim to increase school enrollment and attainment, or income generating activity?

The question of the desires and priorities of youth themselves were raised throughout the day. “Do we listen when they say things that we aren’t ready to hear?” Erum Mariam (BRAC University) asked us. When young women asked for fashion magazines to read, the BRAC Educational Programme originally provided literary classics, like Rabindranath Tagore, that collected dust on the shelves. As BRAC thinks about how to engage with and empower youth, it must consider how its values resonate with this younger generation and its programs reflect what it hears from these communities .

Approaching the complex issues of well being from a practitioner’s lens can limit the effectiveness of programming. Sabina Rashid (BRAC University) offered a case study about a couple living in the slums of Dhaka who married quite young in a love marriage and chose to have a child relatively quickly to enhance their bond and extended family’s acceptance of their union. The academic definitions of rights or “family planning” often fail to find roots in the economic contexts and social norms. Young men and women may have other concepts of rights and plans that they exercise—the right to choose one’s partner and create a happy home, for example.

Participants discussed how these issues applied in their own country context. Tomorrow we’ll spend more time on this as we turn the focus into BRAC’s own youth programs and the diversity of approaches being implemented on the ground.

By Maria A. May, BRAC Social Innovation Lab.

Productive Safety Nets for Women in Extreme Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Karishma Huda on the Graduation Program blog. The CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation program is an initiative to adapt the methodology of BRAC's Ultra Poor program in Bangladesh in ten countries across the world. BRAC Development Institute, in partnership with BRAC USA and the MasterCard Foundation, has researched and analyzed the results of these pilot programs.

My name is Karishma Huda, and I am the Research Manager for BRAC Development Institute’s (BDI) qualitative research on the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program. At BDI, the Graduation Research team has been following the lives of pilot participants over the course of a year in Haiti, India (Trickle Up), Pakistan and Ethiopia.

The objective of our research has been to answer the following questions:

How have program participants experienced the Graduation Program?
What have been the critical moments of change in their lives?
What factors have contributed to some participants performed so well, and holding others back from attaining the same kind of progress?

Some of these issues, as well as research findings in general, have been discussed in the qualitative research blog series.

The research from India and Pakistan has just been published by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex. One of the research techniques used to understand the questions posed above was the “ladder out of poverty.” Each respondent was asked to place themselves on a ladder representing the progress they had made over the life of the project. The bottom rung of the ladder represented a state of extreme hardship, while the top represented a state of security and happiness. They were asked which rung of the ladder they had occupied at the start of the project, and where they were currently positioned. This information gave us the self evaluations of the participants, as a supplement to the evaluations made by the programme staff. The India participants self-reported the most progress, and felt that the program gave them a first opportunity to borrow and save on favorable terms; allowed them to move away from precarious, inherited livelihoods to something more secure and stable; enabled them to make plans for the future; and gave them greater mobility and self-confidence. In Pakistan, program participants had experienced some gains, but fewer and more short-term. There are several factors that contribute to this. For instance, state presence is key. In the Pakistan context (rural Sindh), participants’ gains were wiped out by forces which only a functioning state had the capacity to tackle – such as deficits in social and physical infrastructure. The West Bengal context, by contrast, was characterized by a very active state. Health and infrastructure did not pose as structural constraints as they had Pakistan. Secondly, the structure of patriarchy was far more constraining in the Pakistan than in West Bengal, a determining factor for a program targeted to women.

Also, the research showed that pre-existing conditions also matter. Just as extreme poverty in both contexts is not uniform, the research shows that those who had previous experience with their enterprises, the support of spouses, families, and other social networks, fewer dependents and good health were better placed to take advantage of the opportunities that the Graduation Program offered. Those who lacked these inherent resources and were crippled by ill health, lacked support structures, and had too many mouths to feed, found it harder to focus upon their enterprise, save, and plan for the future.

With this being said, it is integral to have appropriately designed interventions that minimize risks, and maximize resources. The West Bengal study shows that the Tribal participants, who were the most impoverished and started off on the weakest footing, were by far the strongest performers. Much of this came down to good program design, implementation, and most importantly, strong mentorship by the field staff. Working with participants to build that “enterprising spirit”, set goals, and create a plan towards achieving them, proved essential in graduating people out of extreme poverty.

Bridging Research and Organizational Practices on Continuous Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:24:00 +0000

This article was originally posted in Stanford Social Innovation Review Blog by Maria May

Recently BRAC was invited to a meeting convened by the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Rockefeller Foundation around the question “What determines the capacity for continuous innovation in social sector organizations?” We used findings from scholarly and practitioner literature on the topic as a foundation for our discussion, which was intended to inform the design of a research program that generates “actionable insights” into these issues.

I realized, when I arrived, that this group—largely comprised of academics from top institutions—was looking to BRAC to provide practitioner perspective and to help determine what research on innovation to prioritize. Most of the literature on innovation thinks of it as a process, or the assembling of fertile factors, rather than an outcome or orchestrated event (meaning you can’t lock people in a room and tell them they must innovate!). Many factors matter, including the vision and values at the highest level, individual personalities, how meetings are conducted, what behaviors get rewarded, and how learning is captured and shared. And yet there is still no universally accepted definition of social innovation. While one participant recommended spending the day just coming up with a definition, we forged ahead to answer the original question posed to us. Here are some of my reflections on the discussion that followed:

Assumptions matter. All research includes assumptions, including expected potential for change resulting from new knowledge generated by a study. Sometimes assumptions map closely to reality, other times they don’t. Sometimes we don’t know, and to choose prematurely can predispose us to certain findings or strategies. For example, what about our assumption that innovation is a good thing? It comes at a cost—it requires change and some level of risk-taking. There is certainly a danger of jumping for new approaches and solutions when the old ones were just fine, or needed some minor improvements.

Think about translation. And I don’t just mean from English to Bangla or Swahili—I mean from research-speak to practitioner-speak. Practitioners are action oriented; simplicity and ease of adoption are important to them. Researchers often produce “thorough” or “exhaustive” descriptions that capture the complexities of systems and phenomenon but that that few read. What are better ways to get information to leaders of development organizations—information that’s biased towards action?

Stop focusing solely on methods. Researchers worry a lot about methods. At business schools, methods often take second priority to common sense and practice. Take something like the value chain, a tool commonly used to map out all of the primary and secondary activities involved in a production process. Companies use it to determine what configuration of all these activities can produce the best product at the lowest cost, sustainably. No one has rigorously tested how the tool operates, but people keep using it because they find it helpful. I find it helpful! There is a balance to strike between seeing things work empirically and disseminating them, and robustly researching new interventions. Research has limitations and can take time; these are serious issues to consider when we have knowledge of practices that could be scaling up and saving lives.

Ongoing dialog can improve research and practice. I learned a lot from collectively learning and discussing innovation with this group. It’s clear that academics have great interest in understanding what practitioners are doing and in helping them improve their work. This type of collaboration can reveal perspectives and solutions that each group may not see without the other.

As a practitioner focusing on innovation, I’m thrilled at the academic support for this line of inquiry. I’m hopeful that the focus on innovation will extend from the research questions to the methodology, opportunities for dialog and communication, and beyond.

Maria A. May is the program manager for BRAC’s Social Innovation Lab based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is a co-author of the recently released book Making Tuberculosis History: Community-based Solutions for Millions and several teaching cases on global health delivery published by Harvard Business Publishing.

Viola: Surviving and thriving in Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Viola

This past week when I visited Haiti, I had the opportunity to meet Viola, one of the first patients at BRAC Haiti's Limb and Brace Center, again.

Two year's after the earthquake, Viola still has her roadside business. She purchases goods wholesale from a warehouse and sells them for a profit at a roadside stand she's set up in the neighborhood where she lives in Port-au-Prince. When I asked her how she gets around to run her business, she smiled and tapped the knee of the prosthetic leg we made her, "With my new leg, of course!"

Her daughter, now 10 years old, is still in school and is thriving - the only subject she doesn't like is math. Science is one of her favorite subjects, as she's still hoping to grow up to be a doctor. "I'll be happy with whatever she wants to be," says Viola.

BRAC Innovation Contest Winners Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:22:00 +0000

The results are in! There were a lot of great ideas and feedback from all of our supporters. Congratulations to the ten innovators who have made it to the next round:

Sydul Sayeed (Organic Farming)
Justin Uniatowski ( Project Maya)
Jannat Ferdous (Self-Defense techniques)
Daniel Ng (Playgrounds)
James Arinaitwe (BRAC Entrepreneurship Academies)
Tonmoy Islam (BRAC Peace Corps)
Rob Wheeler ( Global Ecovillage)
Nadia Afrin (Global Ecovillage Network)
Ahamed Naveed Hasan (Youth Radio)
Masud Khan (Amadeyr Cloud)

If your project is listed above, please contact us at innovation@brac.net to learn about the next steps.

You can still see descriptions of all the innovative projects on BRAC's Facebook page.

BRAC ranked #4 in the TOP 100 NGO list by Global Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:53:00 +0000

This month's issue of The Global Journal ranked BRAC as #4 in its list of top 100 NGOs in the world. Here's what they had to say about us:

Size is not necessarily a reflection of quality. To focus on the fact that BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) has grown into the world’s ‘largest development organization’, therefore, is to miss the real story of this enterprise’s remarkable leadership in the fight against global poverty.

Established by former Shell Oil executive Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC was part of an influential wave of organizations – alongside the Grameen Bank and ASA – that went on to revolutionize development strategies not only in their home countries, but across the world. Unlike its counterparts, however, which focused on refining and expanding their pioneering micro-credit and micro-finance models, BRAC also added a range of social programs to the mix and has continued to diversify and leverage its unique ability to achieve economies of scale over time.

While still involved in micro-finance activities – indeed, having issued approximately $5 billion in micro-loans to date – BRAC reaches more than 110 million people with its holistic, sustainable approach to poverty reduction that uses these micro-finance groups as a social platform to deliver scaled-up services in health, education, business development and livelihood support. Moreover, the organization has expanded its model into nine other countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Currently doing everything from training door-to-door health volunteers, to implementing a mobile health project whereby volunteers can share real-time information about their patients, to running 32,000 informal ‘BRAC Schools’, and giving almost 7 million people access to sanitary latrines, BRAC is in many ways a microcosm of the entire international development sector in one organization. Unlike most of its overseas counterparts, however, BRAC covers almost 80 percent of its $485 million budget through a number of social enterprises, including a dairy project, a chain of retail handicraft stores, a pioneering poultry venture and commercial fish farming.

At the same time – realizing that massive scale also means ample scope for inefficiencies and wastage – BRAC has emerged as a leader in program monitoring and evaluation. The organization has established a standalone Research and Evaluation Division that collaborates with academic and research institutions and other development organizations to gauge the effectiveness of its interventions.

Looking ahead, BRAC is preparing to shift its focus towards city-based schemes in anticipation of the projected one-third growth in Bangladesh’s population over the next five years.

BRAC Kanon makes a Debut at Dhaka International Trade Fair

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:17:00 +0000

A little BRAC flavour has been added to the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2012! A stall for BRAC Green Enterprise Kanon is present at the 2012 fair, imparting a touch of BRAC Enterprises, its values and its mission on all in attendance.

BRAC Kanon is a solar-powered sales and display center that is the country’s first ever green retail outlet promoting environmental responsibility and resources sustainability. As an outlet of BRAC Green Enterprise, BRAC Kanon enables environmentally conscientious consumption by featuring products and services from BRAC Solar, Nursery, Recycled Handmade Paper, and Sericulture. The outlet offers ornamental, medicinal, timber and fruit plants, seedlings, landscaping and plant rental services, silk products crafted by rural artisans, recycled handmade paper products and office stationary, and energy saving solar instant power supply and power solutions.

BRAC Kanon was inaugurated in Dhaka on December 3rd. As a green initiative, BRAC Kanon aims to encourage city-dwellers and corporate offices to help save our planet through the conservation of energy and funds. BRAC Kanon continues to investigate and implement new resource and energy saving materials, products, services and business models.

BRAC Announces its first Global Facebook Competition

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:16:00 +0000

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of BRAC in February, BRAC has announced an innovation challenge competition. You too can take part. Innovation is one of the core values of BRAC, world’s largest development organization. Visit BRAC’s blog and website to get a sense our strategy, previous activities, and the people we work with. Some major issues that we are currently confronted with are climate change, urban poverty, realizing the potential for the young people. See also the facebook album where we are highlighting forty of our best innovations from the past. Come up with your own solution on how you can change the world to a more inclusive and equitable place.

First round: Summarize your idea, in a succinct Facebook post. The first round of submission will be ending on 22nd January 2012. Users will post their innovation ideas. The winners of this round will be decided through the number of ‘likes’ and votes from a panel of judges within BRAC.

Second Round: 10 of the best ideas will be announced via Facebook update/tweet. These individuals will then be encouraged to submit a lengthier summary and explanation of their innovation via email. Based on which, the winner will be announced on February 6.

What Kind of Innovations are we looking for?
“Truly transformative innovations arise from urgent need” -Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.

Remember: Space is limited, so choose your wording carefully. It is important to mention the problem you are addressing, the idea, any evidence that the idea will work and the size of the population that it will be helping. Keep in mind, the winner is partially determined by the amount of ‘likes’ you generate, so be ready to sell the idea to the Facebook community. Also BRAC judges will score ideas based on relevance of problem it is trying to solve, its innovativeness and its potential for scaling.

Dates: You can submit your ideas up until January 23rd. Voting (likes) can continue until 11.59 AM, January 23th. But the earlier you submit the more chances you have to get the votes.

Where: www.facebook.com/bracworld

Eligibility: Anyone in the world with a passion for innovation and development is eligible for the event. In order to participate, you must “like” BRAC on Facebook. Those who want to know the results also have to like the page to get the updates from the BRAC pages.

Grand Prize:

A chance to develop your innovation project further at BRAC's Social Innovation Lab
Aarong (BRAC's retail shopping outlet) Gift Certificate and/or gifts.
Copy of the book 'Freedom From Want' autographed by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairman of BRAC
Ticket to the 40th Anniversary Exclusive Gala Event, 10 February in Dhaka.

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/bracworld
BRAC twitter Page: twitter.com/#!/BRACWorld

Beyond Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:15:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Daniel Vidal on the Whole Planet Foundation blog.

Access to capital for the poor is absolutely critical if we want to eradicate poverty. It’s why at Whole Planet Foundation, this is what we focus on – raising funds to distribute to microfinance institutions (MFIs) who lend the money out to the poor. Unfortunately, the poorest countries also tend lack proper infrastructure, access to public health servants and even plans to protect its citizens from natural disasters. We’ve seen the heart-breaking results of this in Haiti, who has suffered seriously in the past years from earthquakes and hurricanes. Another unfortunate truth is that, because of these exterior influences/factors access to capital isn’t the only thing the poor need.

What if your business is running perfectly, you’re saving money and about to send you children to school, but a flood hits and washes all your product away? Or a family member becomes sick and you need to use to your savings to travel 100 miles to receive medical attention? It’s the unavoidable that can stop any progress the poor make.

This is why it is so great that some of our partners offer services beyond microfinance.

Pro Mujer, a partner in Latin America, offers high-quality, low-cost primary health care in addition to its microfinance services and business and empowerment training. You might remember from the podcast that I posted a little while back. Learn more.

“Pro Mujer believes that health is women’s most precious asset, a key to their wellbeing and success in the home, the workplace, and their community. Health care is particularly crucial for entrepreneurs because an illness can deplete savings and other assets, keep them away from their business, and cause other disruptions that can threaten a business.”

Fonkoze, our partner in Haiti, is also very innovative in their offerings. They have many different programs to help them better serve the poor in their region, but, what might be the most important, at least recently, is their disaster relief programs. Learn more.

“However, our experience has taught us that, while special programs are effective, our clients deserve a permanent solution to help them better protect the assets they work so hard to build. Therefore, in 2009, Fonkoze and its local insurance partner, AIC, began developing the details of a new catastrophic insurance product that would cover the personal and business assets of Fonkoze clients in the case of natural disaster.”

We also partner with BRAC, in several regions around the world. BRAC has an extensive network and many services, but one that I particularly like is their education programs. Watch the video below to learn more.

“To date, nearly 5 million children, mostly girls, have graduated from BRAC schools and an overwhelming majority of them have gone into the public school system, performing, on average, better than their mainstream peers.”

It’s these services and programs that we take for granted, I think especially here in the US, but it’s these services and programs that can make a tremendous difference in the lives of the poor. I think as long as we have continue down this path, we can slowly, but surely, eradicate poverty and empower the poorest of the poor, providing them with ways to reach the quality of life that they all deserve.

Note: Each of these MFIs do more than I have the space to talk about, and we have many more partners that all have their own unique offerings. I encourage you to explore them yourselves by visiting our implementing partners page.

What programs do you think are most important when serving the poor?

Same Continent, Different Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:59:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Tejal Desai, a Kiva Fellow working with BRAC in Sierra Leone, on the Kiva Stories from the Field blog.

Ow de body! Are Sierra Leone and Rwanda still danger zones? What challenges do Ugandans most commonly face? Kiva Fellows from KF16 bring you another unique perspective from the diverse and vast continent of Africa! We patched together an overview of each of our placement countries that includes: basic socioeconomic stats, common stereotypes (and to what extent they are true or false), greatest challenges, most common loan products at our respective field partners, and the borrowers’ most common use of their profits. Our part 2 series follows the Kiva Fellows through Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Uganda. We hope our summaries give you a new perspective on the continent and its distinct countries that we’ve been fortunate to explore, thanks to the Kiva fellowship!

1. Basic country stats

% Living Below Poverty Line: 70.2% (CIA World Factbook)
Average Annual Income: $903 (kiva.org)
% Women in the Workforce: Adult female pop labor force participation: 65.4%, but women only earn 42% as much as men.

2. Most common stereotype about Sierra Leone
One common stereotype is that Sierra Leone is a very dangerous place to live and visit, with rebel crime and diamond smuggling being widespread occurrences.

Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, which ended in 2002, has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences by films like Blood Diamond, and has tainted this beautiful country’s image. Although this war is responsible for over 2,000,000 displaced Sierra Leoneans and 50,000 dead, Sierra Leone as a nation has been making strides forward to leave behind the legacy, has invested in the development of its infrastructure, and is considered one of West Africa’s safest destinations.

3. Greatest challenge
Sierra Leone’s high cost of living creates many challenges, as it is seldom adjusted for inflation, especially with the rising costs of food and fuel. For some perspective: rice, a Sierra Leone staple, runs about $25-30 for 50 kilograms, a taxi ride across town costs $1-2, and almost 70% of the population lives under $1.25 a day. BRAC borrowers cite inflation as the biggest threat to their businesses, as depreciating inventory creates holes in revenue and risk for increasing their quantity of goods. Hassan, picture above, owns a grain shop in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, and says inflation makes it difficult for him to keep up with losses in the value of gari (processed cassava, photo above) and rice.

4. Most common loan product at field partner, BRAC Sierra LeoneThe microloan is the most popular ($100-$300 loans), but another loan product on the rise is the SEP loan – small enterprise loan, which is offered to business owners who want to expand their business (more info here).

5. Clients’ most common use of profitsMany BRAC borrowers utilize their profits to expand their businesses, but a majority cite paying for school fees and education this as the most common use of their profits. The cost of primary education in 2004 was 53,000 SLL (around $26) per student, and has only increased since. Parents struggle to cover the costs of additional costs that come with education: school supplies, increasing costs of transportation, and uniforms.

Whitney Webb & Kathrin Gerner, Rwanda

1. Basic country stats
Rwanda has a population of 10.6 million with 56% of the citizens living below the poverty line. The average annual income is $1000 USD and women make up 53% of the workforce.

2. Most common stereotype about Rwanda
The first things that come to most people’s minds when they hear Rwanda? Genocide. War Zone. Danger. These are some of the key words I heard from people in reaction to hearing where I was placed for my fellowship.

Yes, Rwanda suffered the worst genocides in recent African history. There is no changing the fact that roughly 20% of the Rwandan population was murdered in 1994. However, the country has since moved forward with acceptance and strength. Today, Rwanda is one of the cleanest, safest, and most organized countries in Africa to live or visit.

3. Greatest challenge
One of the big issues in Rwanda right now is the lack of available land. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and the population continues to grow at 3% a year. Roughly 90% of the population makes a living through agriculture. There is simply not enough land to go around.

Every time I visit the land of some of our agricultural borrowers, I am amazed at how small the plots actually are. The average landholder owns 0.5 hectares of farmland. It is unbelievable to see these plots stretch up the side of a hill that seems too steep to even climb.

There have been several government programs established such as land consolidation, improved seeds and fertilizers, and the irrigation of unusable land. Progress has been made, but as the population is set to double in 24 years, Rwanda will continue to fight an uphill battle.

4. Most common loan product at field partner, Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda (UOB)
The most common loan product at Urwego is the group loan. These loans are usually used to grow businesses selling vegetables, clothing, kitchen goods, or textiles. The group members are accountable for each other and guarantee one another’s debt.

5. Clients’ most common use of profits
The most common intended use of profits from a loan is to create a savings account. Many borrowers state that they wish to put money away to create a better future for their families.

Andrew Huelsenbeck, Uganda

1. Basic country stats

Population: 34,612,250
Languages: English (schools, law and some newspapers and radio), Luganda, and many others
Religions: Roman Catholic (41.9%), Protestant (42%), Muslim (12.1%)
Age Structure: 0-14 (49.9%), 15-64 (48.1%), 65+ (2.1%)
Population living below the poverty line: 35%
Average Family Income: about $200 per year
Sex division in the work force: Nearly three quarters of all formal salaried positions are held by men. But if we also count the informal sector, then the numbers are much closer to being equal, with women constituting about 47% of the workforce.

Sources include the CIA world factbook, Gorilla Safari, and Taxation and gender equity: a comparative analysis of direct and indirect taxes in developing and developed countries by Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia.

2. Most common stereotypes about Uganda

Ugandans are short-sited and will not succeed at paying back loans because they will use the money on other side projects.
Ugandans are difficult to employ because they often misappropriate company funds.

Both of these are actually fairly common problems in Uganda, but the problem seems to have less to do with the Ugandan people, and more with incentive structures. Many Ugandans have a lot on pressing issues on their plates: hungry and sick family members, school fees, houses and other construction projects, expensive funerals, etc. It makes sense that they would get money any way they can and then use it to cover the costs of these things in the short term. It also makes sense for Ugandans to not work hard and to take money if they are not monitored and are not in danger of losing their jobs, or worse, in danger of facing serious legal repercussions. Without penalties, I think many people elsewhere in the world would act similarly.

BRAC Uganda has done a fantastic job of creating incentive structures to prevent this kind of behavior. They train their borrowers in financial management and make them sign formal promissory notes before receiving any money. In addition, BRAC has many program managers and an entire department devoted to constantly monitoring borrowers and employees. When, for example, there is any evidence that an employee has misappropriated funds, managers in the Country Office will launch a full-scale investigation and will terminate the employee if necessary. These measures help immensely in navigating around stereotypically Ugandan tendencies.

3. Greatest challenges

Power outages: At the BRAC Uganda Country Office, the power is out about 50% of the time. This is because the hydroelectric dam on the Nile is not producing enough energy to power all of Kampala all the time. At BRAC, we are lucky in that we have a back up generator, which kicks on every time the power goes out. But for other business owners who don’t have the luxury of owning a generator, these outages can substantially reduce productivity. This is especially true for business owners just outside of Kampala, who sometimes see only a few hours of power each week.

Inflation: Inflation has been a huge problem in Uganda recently. Hovering at around 30%, it has reduced real incomes and has substantially increased the costs of living and doing business. This, in conjunction with regional droughts, has caused the prices of staples like matooke, sweet potatoes and charcoal to skyrocket.

4. Most common loan product at field partner, BRAC Uganda

Standard group microloans, which range anywhere from 100-800 USD. They are given to more than 125,000 women who are members of around 6,000 community-based microfinance groups throughout Uganda. BRAC also provides these women with training, technical assistance and helps them find ways to save. The women that receive the loans are often between 20 and 50 years old with little or no education. Virtually none of them have access to the formal financial sector or even to other microfinance products.

5. Clients’ most common use of profitsThere are a number of ways that Ugandans are using the profits they are gaining from microfinancing. These mainly include sending their children to school, reinvesting in their businesses, and buying plots of land to build houses for their families.

Pathways to Secure and Sustainable Livelihoods

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The following was originally posted on The MasterCard Foundation blog.

The MasterCard Foundation has partnered with BRAC USA and BRAC Development Institute to test a new model to move people out of extreme poverty. This project is conducted in collaboration with CGAP and Ford Foundation. Michelle Chaplin, Program Manager at BRAC USA, highlights progress and impact of the project in Ethiopia.

In October 2011, Ann Miles (Director of Microfinance at The MasterCard Foundation) and Susan Davis (President and CEO of BRAC USA), visited the Ethiopia CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program in Tigray. This program is a global effort to understand how safety nets, livelihood training and microfinance can be sequenced to create a pathway to help the poorest move, or “graduate,” out of extreme poverty. The CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program is helping to implement ten Graduation Pilots in eight countries, in partnership with local organizations.

The MasterCard Foundation partnered with BRAC USA to support BRAC Development Institute (BDI) in conducting qualitative research on the pilot programs as well as monitoring the implementation of the programs. What effect do the programs have on the lives of the participants? What are the challenges that the participants face? To what extent have their lives improved? In collaboration with CGAP and the Ford Foundation, BDI has conducted qualitative research in Ethiopia, Haiti, India and Pakistan.

Through the qualitative research, we have learned that program participants in the Ethiopia pilot are saving formally for the first time and productive assets given to them from the program are generating income. Participants can now envision coming off the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program and graduating into a secure and sustainable livelihood. The Ethiopia qualitative research paper will be published in January 2012 and all other papers can be accessed on the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program website.

While on their visit in Ethiopia, Ann and Susan attended a workshop that assessed the early successes and challenges of the program in the wider context of programs in Ethiopia that aim to reach the poorest and regions affected by food insecurity. The following short film highlights key takeaways from that workshop. It captures the stories of the participants and insights from facilitators of the Ethiopia pilot program.

The Year in Microfinance

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:01:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by BRAC USA President & CEO Susan Davis on the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) blog.

Critics of microfinance have knocked down an army of straw men in recent years, and 2011 was no different. But it’s high time for microfinance practitioners stop being defensive. We know enough about the perils and potentials of poverty-focused microfinance to address the real needs of the poor.

Early champions, including Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, Mohammad Yunus of Grameen and Ela Bhatt of India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association, recognized that financial services alone would not be sufficient to break the bonds of poverty. Critics of microfinance became more shrill in 2011, but as a recent article in The New Republic points out, “the growing backlash is in danger of overcorrecting.”

Going into 2012, the microfinance field faces three key challenges:

Serving the ultra-poor. We’ve seen that in poor countries, those at the bottom 10 percent of the economic pyramid too often remain impervious to microfinance-based solutions. With pilots in eight countries worldwide, CGAP and Ford Foundation are now adapting and testing “graduation programs,” a holistic and rigorous approach to helping the ultra-poor get on a pathway out of poverty. Based on BRAC initiatives launched in Bangladesh in the 1990s, the programs involve asset transfers, consumption stipends, savings, social support, financial education and coaching to bolster self-confidence. BRAC research showed that 80 percent of the ultra-poor “graduate” and stay out of extreme poverty five years after these programs ends. The majority then take advantage of micro-finance.

Advancing “microfinance multiplied.” Major philanthropies have already caught on to the BRAC approach of “microfinance multiplied,” which amplifies the impact of microfinance services by using networks of self-employed entrepreneurs to provide additional livelihood development services to the poor. The MasterCard Foundation, for example, is expanding BRAC’s programs in Uganda, with interventions across livelihood and education value chains. (See our chapter on “Using Microfinance Plus Agricultural Services to Improve Rural Livelihoods and Food Security,” in New Pathways out of Poverty.) The partnership is well on track to reach 4.2 million people, or 12 percent of the country’s population, by 2016.

Using technology appropriately. In a world enamored of technology, it’s often the low-cost, low-tech solutions that have proven the most viable. But mobile solutions have finally arrived in microfinance and will see increased emphasis in 2012. This year saw the launch of bKash Limited, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, allowing easier reach of financial services to those previously deemed “unbankable,” including the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.

As Yale economist Dean Karlan points out, microfinance still offers “a range of valuable economic tools,” but the key is to focus on the actual needs of the poor: not just loans, but real opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.

Susan Davis is President and CEO of BRAC USA. FAI invited Ms. Davis and others to offer her insights and reflections on the important events, opportunities and challenges facing microfinance this past year. This post is the first in an ongoing series featuring guest bloggers on the Year in Microfinance. These contributions will be posted weekly on the FAI site into the New Year. FAI also invites you to participate by telling us your own thoughts and opinions about the year in microfinance via comments.

Year in review 2011

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:47:00 +0000

2011 has been a pivotal year for BRAC, in almost every aspect.

Providing warmth in times of drastic weather change

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:31:00 +0000

Last week, multiple individuals in Bangladesh’s northern regions lost their lives due to lack of adequate warm clothing. The temperature recently significantly dropped, leaving many villagers unprepared for the elements, often leading to tragedy.

BRAC Education Programme immediately responded by distributing a clothing package worth two crore BD taka ($250,000). Clothing was distributed in in 15 districts amongst 108,750 recipients of underprivileged backgrounds.

BRAC is also hosting a “warm clothes drive” in Dhaka, in which individuals can donate old/used clothes. The donation bin is located on the ground floor of BRAC Centre, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

BRAC-ing Barriers to Development

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:03:00 +0000

The following was originally posted on the Kravis Prize blog. BRAC's founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, won the Karavis prize in 2007.

It’s evident in their work that Kravis Prize winners are making great strides towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. One example is BRAC, which offers programs around the world that span topics from microfinance to girls’ education and health care. BRAC USA CEO Susan Davis recently was featured on ABC News and discussed BRAC’s involvement in the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health:

“Things have really improved. Just look at the number of deaths that have happened from women dying from childbirth. We’ve been able to almost halve it to 12,000 a year to 7,300. … So in terms of setting a goal for the year 2015 that the whole world is striving to achieve, we’ve gotten there, at least in these few areas. And I think for Bangladesh, we’re on track to get there and that is dramatic.”

She also discussed BRAC’s strategy to implement change:

“BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particularly high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.”

To read more of what Davis has to say, click here for her op-ed and a brief video.

To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our page.

Help her make a future of her own design

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:02:00 +0000

In the village in Bangladesh where Shumi grew up, it was considered taboo for parents to let their daughters go outside. That meant no access to education, no freedom, and probably an early marriage to a much older man.

Instead of succumbing to this fate, Shumi joined BRAC's adolescent girls program, where we provided her with a safe space to meet other girls, life skills education, a microfinance loan of $37 and training on how to start a business running a beauty salon.

Thanks to your support, Shumi is generating income for herself and her family. Now, she has the courage to stand up for herself and the girls in her village — she's even a mentor in her local BRAC girls club!

Help Shumi and BRAC provide the same guidance and opportunities to other women and girls by making a gift to BRAC today. A gift of $100 will help a girl like Shumi change her own life, and she will multiply your gift by forging a pathway out of poverty for her family and her community. This is the Girl Effect.

40 Years of Freedom: A Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (BRAC Blog) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:46:00 +0000

16th December 2011, Bangladeshis around the world, celebrated the 40th Victory Day. Four decades earlier, the state of East Pakistan was dissolved; resulting in the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. Nine months of bloody civil war, marked by atrocities, genocide and vicious war-crimes left an already struggling nation in shambles, both socially and economically.

The return of millions of refugees, along with the lack of necessary foreign aid further deteriorated the already drastic situation. It was out of this seemingly hopeless situation, that UK expatriate Sir Fazle Hasan Abed formed the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC).

BRAC and Bangladesh are joined at birth. The bond is inseparable and an emotional one. As Bangladesh modernized, developed infrastructure, received global recognition for innovative practices, so did BRAC. There is a lot of room to grow for both Bangladesh and BRAC, but there is certainly much to celebrate. Considering the circumstances and unfavourable odds, Bangladesh and BRAC remarkably grew.

BRAC conducted nation-wide programmes to honour this milestone. In the Dhaka metropolitan area, a “mobile photo exhibition” toured the city on rickshaws vans. The rare and breathtaking photographs, contained images of the War of Liberation, the atmosphere around the revolutionary movement, the devastation and suffering of war, as well as the growth and relief efforts in nearly every segment of Bangladeshi society. The photographs are eye opening. A country which just 40 years ago was emerging from ashes is now sending its citizens by the thousands to assist in other nation’s post-war relief.

Outside of Dhaka BRAC hosted cultural programmes in all Bangladeshi divisional cities. Cultural programmes, including popular theatre, traditional music, dance, and a screening of the documentary Mukhti Gaan (Freedom Songs) were the highlights of the event. Bengali culture, which just 41 years ago was heavily repressed by totalitarian regimes, was celebrated in full in pomp and circumstance. Participants from all segments of society flocked to the BRAC events which were held in Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur, Chittagong, and Rajshahi.

This was a tribute to the visionaries, freedom fighters, and every day people who made the vision of Bangladesh a reality, a humble offering to their immortal shrines.

We are indebted to their struggle and sacrifice, and vow to continue making their vision a reality by investing our time, effort, and minds into developing this nation socially, and economically.

Hope In The Slums: Inside A Birthing Hut with Deborah Roberts

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:29:00 +0000

The following post was written by ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts on the Million Moms Challenge blog about her recent trip to Bangladesh to see BRAC's programs working to save the lives of mothers and children.

ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts visits a Bangladeshi slum to learn more about grassroots programs to save the lives of moms and newborns. (Shumon Ahmed/ABC NEWS)

When I went into labor with my first child 13 years ago, I expected, like many moms- to-be, smooth sailing. It wasn’t. After 18 intense hours, my labor had not progressed much. So my skilled and trusted obstetrician ordered a cesarean section. My disappointment over having major surgery soon gave way to joy over my beautiful daughter. Three years later, I had a second C-section with my son. I healed well and didn’t think much about the medical intervention surrounding my birthing experiences, until last month.

As I prepared for a story on maternal mortality, I realized that what happened to me could have been life-threatening if I lived in another part of the world. The statistics are stunning: Every 90 seconds a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. That’s 1,000 girls and women a day… more than half a million women every year. And experts say more than 80% of these deaths are preventable.

And I made another shocking discovery. The United States, a country which spends nearly $3 trillion annually on healthcare has an astoundingly high maternal mortality rate. One international group ranks us 50th in the world, behind countries like Albania and South Korea. Two women in this country die each day due to pregnancy-related problems. And for black women the number is four times higher for reasons that are unclear.

My birth state of Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. I visited the Atlanta Medical Center where Dr. Bradley Bootstaylor offered a stunning, and controversial theory: that we may be leaving women vulnerable to complications by turning childbirth into a medical event instead of allowing it to happen more naturally. He worries about the routine reliance on ultrasounds, epidurals and C-sections. His hospital is now taking a low tech approach to childbirth. They have eight midwives on staff who discourage painkillers and offer alternatives like massage, walking during contractions and warm tubs of water to allow women to get through the birth experience more naturally. While there are no published studies to suggest that medical intervention leads to maternal deaths, there is no arguing that maternal mortality is a problem in the U.S.

Some countries, however, are making extraordinary progress. Believe it or not, one of them is in the developing world. Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries on the planet - nearly 150-million people in an area the size of Iowa – is somehow creating a miracle. Over the last decade the deaths of new mothers has dropped dramatically – by 40 percent! Today Bangladesh is one of just 16 countries on the path to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals – including cutting maternal deaths by 75% by the year 2015.

I traveled 8,000 miles to the capital city of Dhaka to see what was happening. There I met Dr. Kaosar Afsana. She’s an academic working with BRAC, an international aid group, which has had a major role in saving the lives of Bangladeshi women. In a country where close to 80 percent of women give birth at home, BRAC has discovered that the lack of skilled medical care during childbirth is at the heart of the problem.

Afsana took me by boat to a local slum called Korail. As we wound our way through narrow alleyways I met young mother after young mother. Afsana explained how women, often teens, really, die at alarming rates in Bangladesh due to hemorrhaging, obstructed labor, infections, poor nutrition and lack of knowledge about childbirth. And worse, most don’t trust the medical system to help them. So BRAC decided that the key to change is in delivering medical attention to the doorstep of expectant women.

We visited a birthing hut where eight pregnant women, wrapped in colorful saris, were being instructed on the basics of what to expect during delivery and how to recognize a possible complication before it’s too late. I asked how many of them planned to come back to the hut to deliver, and all raised their hands. The hut was clean and had a warm feeling. Then, we got word of a birth happening in a hut nearby. We raced through the litter strewn streets to another birth center to find a bright-eyed, beautiful baby boy who was just delivered by 25-year old Rina. Both mother and child, surrounded by four skilled female birth attendants, were doing fine. A nice safe birth. Six hours later, Rina was on her way home. She was escorted by two women who helped with the birth and possibly spared her life threatening complications. We could call them Rina’s guardian angels.

On the last day of my visit, I met with Richard Greene, an official with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government’s humanitarian aid arm. A Virginia resident now living in Dhaka, Greene is one of the architects for a new cell phone program that has enormous promise to improve health outcomes for pregnant women and new moms. Its success makes sense: more than half the population carries a cell phone

The plan is to text or call pregnant women to give them critical alerts about their pregnancies timed to their due date. They get reminders to take vitamins, see a health worker or eat healthy food (poor nutrition is a big problem in Bangladesh). Once the baby is born, they get text messages about breastfeeding and potential problems to look out for. Health workers also carry cell phones, and with a few keystrokes can upload data on specific patients to a server so doctors can monitor a pregnant woman health throughout the pregnancy.
The pilot program, called MAMA, is still in its infancy. It’s an idea that’s catching on. When I returned home I learned of a similar texting program in the U.S.

It’s called Text4Baby, and it’s a free messaging service. All a mother has to do is text 511411 and put in the word BABY or BEBE (for Spanish service), along with her due date or her child’s birthday, and she’ll receive three personalized, health-related text messages a week through her entire pregnancy and the first year of her baby’s life.

There’s an old African proverb: to be pregnant is to have one foot in the grave. The hope among those engaged in the fight against maternal mortality is that those ancient words will soon be forgotten.

Find out more about saving the lives of moms and babies, watch ”20/20″ Friday at 10 p.m. ET

Helping Women In Bangladesh And Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:46:00 +0000

The following was originally posted by Susan Davis, President & CEO of BRAC USA, in support of the Million Moms Challenge.
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You may not have heard about BRAC. As a development success story, it’s one of the world’s best-kept secrets: Founded 40 years ago in Bangladesh by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, we’re the world’s largest antipoverty nonprofit, reaching an astounding 138 million people with programs in microfinance, health care, girls’ education and other fields in 10 countries.

We’re also a pioneer in the field of maternal health — and we believe it’s time to put an end to preventable deaths during childbirth. We salute the Million Moms Challenge and we’re proud to be a part of this campaign to do so.

BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particular high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.

Just a few years ago, for instance, home births in unsanitary conditions were the norm in the slums of Bangladesh. In the areas in which we work, we’ve managed to reduce the percentage of home births from 86 percent to 25 percent over the course of just three years. We did this by setting up “birthing huts” in the slums themselves – places with a sterilized mattress, a trained midwife and a low-cost birthing kit. And we trained an army of 80,000 poor women to delivery low-cost medical services to their own villages and slums, while allowing these women to earn extra income doing so. We’ve started providing them with mobile phones, with simple applications that help them keep accurate patient records – and allowing them to call a doctor when complications arise.

Formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC has been called not only the largest but also the most efficient non-governmental organization in the world. Our maternal, neo-natal and child health programs have reached 24.5 million people – about the population of the state of Texas. We’re making a real difference, and we believe we can multiply these numbers by spreading the BRAC approach worldwide.

Things are changing. We invite you to help us spread the good news with the Million Moms Challenge.

Take Action: Find how you can help BRAC by visiting them on Global Giving.

Members of BRAC's girls club help write a book

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Chaplin) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Based on stories written by 20 participants in BRAC’s Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SoFEA) Program in Bangladesh, Shuba and the Cyclone is a playful children’s book about the adventures of an endangered Ganges river dolphin in the wake of a cyclone. The book also highlights the inspirational work of BRAC’s programs in Bangladesh and features BRAC’s Farzana Kashfi as an inspirational female role model.

Shuba and the Cyclone is the tale of a Ganges River dolphin who must find her way home after a cyclone. Published by the nonprofit organization Dot-to-Dot Children’s Books, the book is based on stories written by participants in BRAC’s SoFEA program in Damrai, Bangladesh. Dot-to-Dot’s creative writing team selected favorite elements written during the workshop and combined them into a single story, making Shuba and the Cyclone an expression of the collective creativity of the young women who helped write it.

Please join us in giving a global voice to BRAC’s newest young authors and spreading the word about BRAC by sharing Shuba and the Cyclone with children in your life and recommending it to your friends and family. 40% of the proceeds will be donated to BRAC when you enter the promo code BRAC at the time of purchase.

Click here to purchase your copy now!