The New Nation - Internet Edition

Md. Masum Billah

The year 2010 dawns with the happiest news for Bangladesh in general and BRAC in particular. Really it's wonderful news for all the people of Bangladesh and the BRAC people proudly share this prestigious honour offered by Queen Elizabeth. Yes, the news that our chairperson and founder of BRAC, Fazle Hasan Abed was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II makes us abnormally elated and excited. This is not the first time that his outstanding and significant contribution to promote humanity and his untiring efforts to drag the poor from the chill penury have been globally recognized through offering him the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the UNDP Mahbub Ul Award and the inaugural Clinton Global Citizenship award. Another glorious son of this soil makes this developing nation known to the global community by achieving the Nobel Peace Prize. Hats off to both the sons of this proud soil.

Abed is the first person of Bangladesh origin to be honoured with a knighthood by the British Crown since 1947. Of course, he is the second person in his family to be honoured with a knighthood. His grand uncle Justice Nawab Sir Syed Shamsul Huda was knighted in 1913.

Within the span of thirty years BRAC has emerged as the largest development organization in the world in terms of the range and scope of its programs and the size of the workforce by his able and firm guidance. BRAC has successfully reached to 110 million people across Bangladesh.

BRAC's vision is to enlighten, a healthy and democratic world free from hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex and ethnicity. It works with a holistic approach for those whose lives are dominated by extreme poverty, illiteracy, disease and other disadvantages.

BRAC strives to achieve its mission by working with the poor, especially women and children, engaging in multifaceted development interventions, to promote positive changes in quality of life, working towards attaining socially, financially and environmentally sustainable programs. It actively promotes human rights, human dignity and gender equity and helps shape national and global policies on poverty reduction and social progress. BRAC launched its journey in the field of micro finance in Bangladesh in 1974. Today it is the largest poverty focused microfinance provider in the world with 8 million members and USD660 million in outstanding loans.

The micro-finance program has achieved this success by implementing a model that focuses on building the structure and system for sustainable microfinance with the ability to reach, scale and organising the poor in a manner that enables them to form a compact for empowerment and growth through micro-finance.

BRAC boasts of a huge non-formal primary education with 38,250 one-room primary schools which presently impart education to 1.12 million children. 4.11 million Students have already graduated from these schools. It also runs 8250 primary schools through 782 NGOs. These schools enroll children often deprived of the option of continuing schooling due to poor economic background, ethnic backgrounds and disabilities. The schools employ local women as teachers and above 60 percent of the students are girls. BRAC runs 26, 350 pre-primary schools and so far 3 million children have been promoted to primary schools. In the first public examination for class five BRAC schools occupied the second position. It has a special life skill courses for both adolescent boys and girls at the village level.

It provides scope for socializing, access to reading materials and develops leadership skills. There are 8868 ADP centers all over the country. Its Post-primary basic education intervention develops the capacity of rural secondary school teachers in English, Mathematics, Science and Management.

This intervention also works to increase the self esteem among students by engaging in co-and extra curricular activities that again contribute to improving the quality of education.

The multi purpose community learning centers or popularly known as Gonokendras provide continued learning and IT facilities for all of the people in the community with minimum education and foster community contribution in spreading education.

Gonokendras extend education facilities to the doorstep of the village women, disabled and people deprived of formal education.

BRAC offers primitive, preventive, limited curative care and reproductive health services to more than 100million people in rural and urban Bangladesh through its Essential Health Care services. Community Health Workers and Volunteers of BRAC Health Program make regular household visits to raise awareness on basic health and hygiene issues. They apply the techniques of inter-personal communication, arranging health forums and providing treatment for common diseases and pregnancy related care. 85000 Community Health Volunteers popularly known as Shasthya Shebika and more than 7000 Community Health Workers are trained to offer these services. In partnership with the Government of Bangladesh BRAC is implementing the community based Tuberculosis Control Program covering 88million population.

WASH program intends to ensure improved supplies and sanitation facilities to individual households, schools and communities.

This program ensures access to sanitation services for 17.5million people of 150 upazials, hygiene education for 38.5 million people and safe water services for 8.5million people across rural Bangladesh.

" Translating Awareness into Action" is the motto of the Social Development Program aiming at enabling the rural poor especially women to build secure and use socio-political assets to improve their well being, reduce vulnerability ,take advantage of new opportunities, exercise their rights and play a more active role in pubic life. BRAC promises to protect and promote rights through legal empowerment especially for the poor and marginalized through its Human Rights and Legal Services. It creates awareness on human rights and laws to empower the poor and marginalized through community mobilization and capacity building.

BRAC gathered experience in its thirty-five years of journey which it wants to utilize in the global perspective of poverty alleviation. With this end in view it started its first international operation in Afghanistan in 2002. Today BRAC Afghanistan is one of the largest development organizations with programs in micro-finance, health, education, and agriculture and livestock development. In 2005 it began operations in Sri Lanka to help post-tsunami rehabilitation and livelihood regeneration.

In 2006 it expanded its work in Africa, starting with Tanzania and Uganda and then in Southern Sudan in 2007.

In 2008 it started working in Sierra Leone and Liberia with microfinance, health, education agriculture program. With a view to mobilizing support and resources BRAC has sponsored the establishment of BRAC UK and BRAC USA, both registered as independent charities in these respective countries. In 2008 BRAC has also established a separate legal entity named BRAC International and registered as a charity in the Netherlands. This will enable BRAC to operate its global programs with greater focus, clarity and effectiveness.

All these success stories in the soil of Bangladesh and beyond came because of the visionary chairperson. When contacted Abed has expressed his reaction in this way, "I am humbled by the honour to be conferred on me. I thank my colleagues in BRAC, who are at the forefront of the struggle to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh and abroad and I share this honour with them."

Our heartfelt felicitations go to chairperson for bringing this enviable fame for the organization as well as for the whole nation. May God allow him a happier, longer and further highly prosperous future so that poorer community both at home and across the globe can see the real and meaningful hope of living by his further innovative strategies. Long, long live this icon.

Love and profound respect gushes out from millions of hearts of the socially disadvantaged community in and beyond the border. We, the members of BRAC family, have developed the addressing system as ' Bhai' instead of ' Sir' which is his introduction to foster real brotherhood and closeness among the colleagues irrespective of rank and position. This is a rare example. Though our chairperson has been conferred 'Sir', still he is our beloved Abed Bhai.

(The writer is a Senior Manager: BRAC Education Program, PACE.)