BRAC now worlds largest NGO BRAC has been the worlds largest non-governmental development organisation by number of staff. Established by Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the liberation of Bangladesh. BRAC is currently present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, with over 7 million micro-finance group members, 37,500 non-formal primary schools and more than 70,000 health volunteers. The organisation now employs over 120,000 people, the majority of whom are women. BRAC operates various programmes such as those in microfinance, education and human rights in over nine countries across Asia and Africa, reaching more than 110 million people. The organization is 80 percent self-funded through a number of commercial enterprises that include dairy, salt and other food projects, bank, nursery, and a chain of retail handicraft stores, Aarong BRAC maintains offices in 14 countries throughout the world, including BRAC USA and BRAC UK. BRAC is a few years into their initiative to operate in ten African countries in the next ten years. BRAC tackles poverty from a holistic viewpoint, transitioning individuals from being aid recipients to becoming empowered citizens in control of their own destinies. Over the years, BRAC has organised the isolated poor and learned to understand their needs by piloting, refining and scaling up practical ways to increase their access to resources, support their entrepreneurship and empower them to become active agents of change. Women and girls have been the central analytical lens of BRAC’s anti-poverty approach; BRAC recognizes both their vulnerabilities and thirst for change. BRAC always strives to find practical and scalable approaches to eradicate poverty wherever it is. BRAC runs microcredit programme and at present it is prominent among the biggest NGOs in terms of microcredit activities. It provides collateral-free credit using a solidarity lending methodology, as well as obligatory savings schemes through its village organisations. Reaching nearly 4 million borrowers, village organizations provide different levels of loans to different poverty groups. Through a recent initiative, BRAC has reached out also to those who, due to extreme poverty cannot access microfinance. BRACs Rural Development Programme incorporated four major activities â€" institution building including functional education and training, credit operation, income and employment generation and support service programmes. In 1991 the Womens Health Development programme commenced. The following year BRAC established a Centre for Development Management (CDM) in Rajendrapur. The organisation carry on Social Development, Human Rights and Legal Services Programme with the aim to empower women with legal rights and assist them in becoming involved with community and ward level organizations. It has a Dairy and Food project and an Information Technology Institute. BRAC established a university called BRAC University with the aim to create future leaders and the BRAC Bank was started to cater primarily to small and medium enterprises. BRAC also runs a programme called Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction â€" Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) designed specifically for those that BRAC defines as the ultra poor - the extreme poor who cannot access conventional microfinance. BRAC provides five-year primary education course in four years to poor, rural, disadvantaged children and dropouts who cannot access formal schooling under its Non-Formal Primary Education Programme. These one-room schools are for children between eight and fourteen years of age. Each school typically consists of 33 students and one teacher. Core subjects include mathematics, social studies and English. As of June 2008, 37,500 primary schools and 24,750 pre-primary schools have been established by BRAC enrolling nearly 3 million children, 65 percent of whom are girls. The schools have a dropout rate of less than 5 percent. BRAC carries on Human Rights And Legal Services (HRLS) Programme. The programme underwent restructuring and redesigning, including modification of the legal education classes, strengthening of staff evaluation and accountability and incorporation of greater community participation in the legal aid process. In 2008, the Human Rights and Legal Empowerment shebikas (volunteers) provided legal education to 138,194 poor women, while 23,335 community members were assisted in taking legal action to secure their rights. BRAC provides public healthcare with an initial focus on curative care through paramedics and a self-financing health insurance scheme. The organisation currently provides a range of services that reach an estimated 31 million rural poor and include services for mothers in reproductive health care and infants. BRAC operates in nine countries across Asia and Africa. Apart from Bangladesh, it has operations in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Asia, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone in Africa. The organisation has technical advisors in Haiti, India, and Indonesia, and affiliate organizations in the UK and US. BRAC has got many awards in recognition to its activities. They include the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize (2008), Independence Award (Shadhinata Puroshkar-2007), Gates Award for Global Health (2004) Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award and CGAP Financial Transparency Award (2005 & 2006) At its founder Fazle Hasan Abed also got various awards. They include the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980), the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award (1990), the Maurice Pate Award by UNICEF (1992), the Olof Palme Prize (2001), the Social Entrepreneurship Award by the Schwab Foundation (2002), the International Activist Award by the Gleitsman Foundation (2003), the United Nations Development Programme Mahbub ul Haq Award (2004), the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007), the Clinton Global Citizen Award (2007), and the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2008). http://www.newstoday-bd.com/business.asp?newsdate=7/15/2009#10291 |
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