Community Empowerment

January 25, 2018

Tune in to Bangladesh’s most awarded community radio

The radio is on full blast as we drive down the winding roads of north-eastern Bangladesh. News, music, discussions. As we come closer to Moulvibazar city, the young people we are travelling with turn up the volume even more. The dialect changes. Everything is suddenly in their local tongue - Sylheti.
November 12, 2017

A pioneer in public health policy wins US Medical Award of Excellence

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), a global nonprofit that creates, finds and supports programmes that directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families around the world, honoured Dr Mushtaque Chowdhury for his leadership in community-based primary healthcare, poverty alleviation programmes, education for children and women’s empowerment.
October 31, 2017

Of dignity and dream homes: Transforming a slum in 3 steps

Chinta Didi just got a new, two-storied house. It costs less than USD 1,500 - and her neighbours built it for her. She has been partially blind since birth, and relies on the little income that her husband earns from working at a welding shop.
November 26, 2015

Violence against women and girls: How long are we to remain silent?

Two out of three Bangladeshi women are forced to deal with some form of violence during their lifetime. This can be domestic violence, rape, acid attacks, trafficking or sexual harassment, these being the most prominent forms. If you are a woman, chances are you, or someone you know have already faced harassment or some other form of violence.
November 18, 2014

Voices from across South Asia: sharing stories on scaling up what works

Nothing draws an audience faster than a good story.  The best stories transport the listener to a new perspective, down a journey of twists and turns, moments of despair, and of course, triumph. What better way to start to untangle the complexities of scaling social impact in the context of South Asia than to focus on the stories of organisations that have made it there?  Theories are great, but without deep grounding in experiences and practice, they often have little application.
April 3, 2013

Literacy and legal empowerment in the workplace for Aarong artisans

The fashion and garments industry of Bangladesh, employing the largest labour force, has become a national pride. A huge fraction of the labour force is women, which has brought about a revolutionary change in the concept of women’s empowerment and economic independence. But a few of the recent garments and fashion house fire incidents have changed this whole notion of national pride into death traps.
August 15, 2012

The power of the collective

Boragari Union Parishad chairman, 69-year-old Isahaq Ali, is a person of dedicated spirit to social service delivering speech to 4,000 villagers on July 7, 2012 in a premises of a govt. primary school.
June 28, 2012

Journey through the grassroots: Inspiration from rural Bangladesh

It was the year 2010. I had been working with the BRAC community empowerment programme for only six months back then, when I embarked upon a trip up at North Bengal, exploring BRAC’s community based grassroots forums of poor women, called Polli Shomaj.
April 19, 2012

Shalighor Polli Shomaj Pre-Primary School, A Light for the Future

The government run pre-primary schools at Shalighor Village have limited capacity for talented students. Also there is no BRAC school in the locality. It is very difficult for poor families to enroll their children to school here.