BRAC (NGO)

BRAC (formerly abbreviation for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee ) is one of the world's largest non-governmental development organization based in Bangladesh. It was founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh. BRAC is currently present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, with over 7 million members of the microfinance group, 37,500 primary schools and more than 70,000 volunteer health workers. BRAC is the largest NGO with more than 120,000 employees, most of whom are women. BRAC offers numerous programs such as microfinance and education in more than 9 countries of Asia and Africa, reaching 110 million people. The organization is funded to 80% of its own funds from commercial enterprises, such as the production and distribution of dairy products and foods as well as a retail chain for crafts article called Aarong. BRAC has offices in 14 countries around the world, including U.S. and BRAC BRAC UK. BRAC is planning over the next 10 years to become active in 10 African countries (as of 2007 ).

BRAC fight poverty from a holistic point of view. The detail of aid recipients to eligible citizens who take their fate into their own hands are. Over the years, BRAC has helped the poor out of isolation and learned to understand their needs, were found in the practical ways to give them access to resources, support for entrepreneurship and the power and ability to become agents of change. Women and girls are at the center of Bracs poverty reduction; BRAC recognizes both their vulnerabilities as well as their desire for change. BRAC always tries to find a practical and scalable way to eliminate poverty.

History

His time as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee named, BRAC was founded in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed in Sulla in the district of Sylhet as a small aid project to (then East Pakistan ) to help returning refugees from the war of independence of Bangladesh from 1971. Within nine months, 14 000 houses were repaired and built several hundred fishing boats, medical centers was opened and established other public services. The end of 1972 the first phase of relief work was completed and BRAC turned to longer-term projects. There reorganized itself into a versatile development organization with a focus to strengthen the self-reliance of poor and landless, but especially of women and children.

1974 BRAC began offering microloans and examined the benefits of loans for the life of the poor. Until the mid- 70s, BRAC concentrated on community development through a diverse rural development, including agriculture, cooperatives, rural crafts work, adult literacy, health, including family planning, vocational training for women and building community centers. A research and observation center (RED, Research and Evaluation Division ) was established in 1975 to analyze and evaluate their own activities and to specify a direction for future expansion of the organization. BRAC 1977 changed his approach of local community work to a more targeted approach through the establishment of community groups, the " Village Organizations" (VO). This approach was aimed at the poorest of the poor - the landless, small farmers, artisans and the particularly vulnerable women. Those who had less than a half acre ( about 0.4 hectares) and lived by selling their labor power, were considered Bracs target group. In the same year BRAC opened a commercial printing company in order to finance its activities. The chain store " Aarong " for Crafts was set up next year.

1979 BRAC was active on a large scale in healthcare. It established the national " Oral Therapy Extension Program" ( OTEP ), a campaign against diarrhea, a major cause of high infant mortality in Bangladesh. Over a period of 10 years over 1200 BRAC staff went door to door to teach 12 million mothers in how oral saline solution itself can be manufactured. Bangladesh today has one of the highest rates of use of Oral rehydration therapy, and the infant mortality rate fell 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 offers elementary instruction in basic schools in 1985. The school program has been taken up in more than a dozen countries.

In 1986 BRAC a rural development program ( Rural Developement Program ), which included four main activities: construction of facilities such as for school, training, credit, income generation and employment, and auxiliary services. In 1991 he was the program for women's health. The following year established the BRAC Centre for Development Management (CDM, Centre for Development Management) in Rajendrapur. The programs of Social Development, Human Rights and Legal Services were established in 1996 with the aim to equip women with enforceable rights and to promote their active participation in community and health organizations. In 1998 the project for dairy products and foods. BRAC founded an institute for information technology in the following year. Opened in 2001, a university, BRAC University to train future leaders, and to preferentially support the BRAC Bank small and medium enterprises.

2002 launched a program called " Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction ", which was aimed at the extremely poor ( "ultra poor" ), by which BRAC understands people that can not be achieved with conventional microfinance products. In the same year BRAC went to Afghanistan with an auxiliary program.