A league of extraordinary women

Yesterday, in honor of BRAC’s work with women all over the world, BRAC USA president and CEO Susan Davis was listed in Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women. The award focuses on BRAC’s partnership with the MasterCard Foundation in Uganda.

We thought about creating our own league of extraordinary women within BRAC, but there would be millions of names on the list. Women and girls are the driving force behind BRAC’s success. They take the tools and training we give them and begin to lift their entire communities out of poverty.

These women are, in a word, extraordinary.

Women like Beatrice Nambuzo. BRAC provided her with a loan and she grew her roadside business by 700 percent. We trained her on better farming techniques and gave her access to better quality seeds, and she spread the knowledge to her neighbors, who are now producing “more than double” the amount of corn that they used to.

Annet Nalugo

Girls like Annet Nalugo, who had to drop out of school after 5th grade. She joined BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents program, where she got financial and life skills training as well as a micro-loan. Now she runs a business making energy-efficient cookstoves and employs four people.

What’s more, there are thousands of women (and men!) on our staff who’ve dedicated themselves to providing women and their families with the tools they need to defeat poverty.

Who are the extraordinary women in your life?