Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
BRAC (formerly short for: Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee ) is one of the world's largest non-governmental development aid organizations based in Dhaka , Bangladesh . It was founded in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed (1936–2019) shortly after Bangladesh gained independence.
The organization is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh and has over 7 million members in the microfinance group, 37,500 elementary schools and more than 70,000 volunteer health workers. The organization is the world's largest NGO with over 120,000 employees, most of whom are women. BRAC offers numerous programs such as microfinance and education in more than 9 countries in Asia and Africa , reaching 110 million people. The organization is funded 80% from its own resources from commercial companies, such as the manufacture and sale of dairy products and food, as well as a chain of handicrafts called Aarong. BRAC has offices in 14 countries around the world, including BRAC US and BRAC UK. BRAC plans to become active in 10 African countries in the next 10 years (status 2007).
The organization “fights” poverty from a holistic point of view. In doing so, individuals become capable citizens of beneficiaries who take their fate into their own hands. Over the years, BRAC has helped the poor out of isolation and learned to understand their needs by finding practical ways to give them access to resources, support for entrepreneurship, and the power and ability to make change themselves. Women and girls are at the center of BRAC's poverty reduction; BRAC recognizes both their vulnerability and their need for change. BRAC always tries to find a practical and scalable way to eradicate poverty.
history
At the time known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC was founded in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed in Sulla in the Sylhet district as a small aid project to help returning refugees from the 1971 war of independence in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Within nine months, 14,000 houses were repaired and several hundred fishing boats built, medical centers opened and other public services established. At the end of 1972 the first phase of the auxiliary work was finished and BRAC turned to longer-term projects. To this end, it reorganized into a versatile development aid organization with a focus on strengthening the independence of the poor and landless, but above all of women and children.
In 1974 the organization began offering microcredit and researched the benefits of credit for the lives of the poor. Until the mid-70s, BRAC focused on community development through a diverse rural development , including agriculture, cooperatives, rural craftsmanship, literacy of adults, health, including family planning, vocational training for women and building community centers. A Research and Evaluation Division (RED) was set up in 1975 to analyze and evaluate its own activities and provide direction for future expansion of the organization. In 1977 BRAC changed its approach from local community work to a more targeted approach by setting up village groups, the "Village Organizations" (VO). This approach was aimed at the poorest of the poor - the landless, the small farmers, the artisans and the particularly vulnerable women. Those who owned less than half an acre and made a living from selling their labor were considered BRAC's target audience. In the same year, BRAC opened a commercial printing company to finance its activities. The "Aarong" chain of shops for handicraft products was set up over the next year.
In 1979 the organization became active in the health sector on a large scale. It established the national Oral Therapy Extension Program (OTEP), a campaign against diarrhea , a major cause of high child mortality in Bangladesh. Over a period of 10 years, over 1200 BRAC employees went door-to-door teaching 12 million mothers how to make their own oral saline solution. Bangladesh today has one of the highest rates of oral rehydration therapy use , and child mortality has decreased from 285 per thousand to 75 per thousand. This initial success encouraged the rapid expansion of other BRAC programs such as Non Formal Primary Education, which provides elementary education in simple schools, in 1985. The school program has been adopted in more than a dozen countries.
In 1986 the organization began a Rural Development Program, which comprised four main activities: building facilities such as school and vocational training, credit, income generation and employment, and auxiliary services. The Women's Health Program followed in 1991. In the following year BRAC established the Center for Development Management (CDM) in Rajendrapur. The programs for social development, human rights and legal advice were launched in 1996 with the aim of equipping women with enforceable rights and promoting their active participation in community and health organizations. In 1998 the dairy and food project began. BRAC established an information technology institute the following year. In 2001 a university opened, BRAC University, to train future leaders, and BRAC Bank, to give priority to supporting small and medium-sized businesses.
In 2002 a program called "Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction" began, which was aimed at the extremely poor ("Ultra poor"), by which BRAC understands people who cannot be reached with conventional microfinance products. In the same year, BRAC went to Afghanistan with an aid program.
In 2009 the organization was a founding member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annual Report, 2007, BRAC
- ↑ Annual Report, 1990, BRAC
- ↑ Chowdhury, M., & Cash, R., A Simple Solution, 1996.
literature
- M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Dipak Ghosh, Robert E. Wrigh: The impact of micro-credit on poverty: evidence from Bangladesh