Economic Empowerment

October 4, 2015

Global goals: A girl from Uganda has made it her mission to change lives

As world leaders shepherd in a new era of international development with the UN's Global Goals, Basemera, a young girl in rural Uganda dreams about her future and that of her friends and family.
August 12, 2014

The safe space intervention

Around 20 girls sit in a small room, decorated with messages about leadership, reproductive health and family planning along with pictures they have drawn themselves. This is a BRAC Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) club. This particular club called Bwebajja is located in a semi-urban area, under BRAC’s Kajjansi branch in Uganda. Huddled together, the girls look up at us, muzungus (foreigners) with awe and anticipation. They know who we are. They know BRAC. They call it “Blaca.”
April 26, 2012

Investing in youth; financing dreams

About one third of the population of Bangladesh belongs to the young generation and there is no doubt about the increasing number. We are also aware of the fact that about 40% of the population is underemployed, many participants in the labor force work only a few hours a week, at low wages.
September 26, 2011

BRAC’s MEJNIN Seminar

A huge number of media photographers piled into a seminar arranged by BRAC’s Safe Citizenship for Adolescent Girls Programme, “MEJNIN” on the September 13th, 2011. Due to the congestion caused by press personnel, it was difficult to spot the notable guests.
July 25, 2011

Launch of Bkash marks a new era on financial inclusion

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime” is an old saying. Let me extend this old saying this evening by adding – “Give a man a mobile phone and you have changed his life.”
July 21, 2011

The Story of Miss Lalbanu

The following was originally posted by Alison Horton on America's Unofficial Ambassadors. Alison is a recipient of the AUA Mosaic Scholarship and is currently volunteering with BRAC in Bangladesh.
July 19, 2011

Letter from South Sudan

The world has just witnessed the birth of South Sudan. During this historic time, we thought we would share this letter from our colleagues Nicola Banks and Munshi Sulaiman working at BRAC, the world’s largest development organization which has been working in South Sudan for the past three years.
July 18, 2011

Expanding Access to Microfinance in Uganda

It was 7:30 in the morning the members of Kiwafu (A) microfinance group were gathering for their first group meeting. The group was officially formed two days ago, on the 16th of July 2011. 21 women who lived in the surrounding areas were sitting neatly in a courtyard. For the next four weeks, they will be going through an orientation programme. After the orientation, they will become the newest borrowers under BRAC’s microfinance programme.This group was formed under the newly established BRAC branch in Entebbe. This newly established branch is one of 20 new branches, being set-up as a part of BRAC’s ground-breaking partnership with the MasterCard Foundation in Uganda.
June 30, 2011

Cornell MBA student pursues her dream internship at Aarong

I am a first year MBA student at the Johnson School at Cornell University. This past year I was studying Sustainable Global Enterprise and social entrepreneurship and am so thrilled to be doing my internship with BRAC-Aarong this summer. Most first-year MBA students take internship positions with large banks, consumer package goods companies or other corporations. And while many of my classmates came to b-school to purse these more traditional paths, I envisioned a career where I would be able to merge my creative background with my newly honed business skills and work for a company that considered social and environmental needs in addition to the bottom line. But honestly, when I first started looking for an internship, I thought that this was a pipe dream.
June 27, 2011

In Commemoration of the Day of the African Child, the Honorable State Minister of Karamoja Visits BRAC Uganda Programs

The below post was written with contributions from Dr. Nicola Banks. Dr Banks works with BRAC's Research and Evaluation Unit in Uganda. She previously worked for BRAC Research and Evaluation Division in Bangladesh, before completing her PhD in Development Policy and Management with The Brooks World Poverty Institute, The University of Manchester. She remains an Honorary Research Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute.
June 17, 2011

A Tough Graduation: Graduating Out of Poverty, III

This post, originally posted on the Jolkona website, is a reflection of Saman Nizami’s experiences and observations during her internship for BRAC’s “Targeting the Ultra-Poor” program in Bangladesh. This is the last in a series of posts from Saman Nizami about her experiences and observations while interning for BRAC’s “Targeting the Ultra-Poor” program in Bangladesh. You can read her previous posts in the series, A Tough Graduation, part I and part II.
April 22, 2011

Afghan returnees forgetting fear, finding fortune

The following article was originally published by the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA).  Click here to read the original article. A joint study conducted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and BRAC show that contrary to their fears about coming home, many Afghan returnees found a better life through microfinance.