“The garment industry is the largest export earning sector in Bangladesh, and our workers are the backbone that we depend on. We must take care of their health if we want to take care of the health of our country,” stated Mr. Masud Quader Mona, Chairman of Standing Committee on TB for Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Export Association (BGMEA).
America’s Unofficial Ambassadors (AUA) is a citizen’s initiative, which seeks to encourage Americans to volunteer in Muslim World communities to support local initiatives in human development areas such as education, community needs, health and civil society. It is an initiative to improve relationships between America and the Muslim world by understanding and respecting cultural differences, forming partnerships of mutual interest and building peace.
The following article, written by Jenna Nicholas, was originally published on April 6, 2011 on the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) Blog. One of the most exciting announcements at the Skoll World Forum was revealed during the opening plenary: BRAC and MasterCard Foundation announced a $45 million partnership, created to scale BRAC’s innovative microfinance multiplied model in Uganda (more about the partnership here).
On March 16, 2011 BRAC Uganda’s Research and Evaluation Unit held a workshop, which provided a platform for BRAC to present the concept for the 2011 Youth Watch report titled “Problem or Promise: Harnessing Youth Potential in Uganda.”
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 9, 2011, BRAC Uganda asked it’s staff and program participants to think about the meaning of International Women’s Day. Specifically, the initiative aimed to create awareness and explore widely held perceptions of International Women’s Day. Broadly, the initiative sought to bolster BRAC’s commitment to establish a gender sensitive working environment.
GAIN – the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition – organised a partnership discussion “Innovative Partnerships to Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition in Bangladesh” on 13th February 2011 in Dhaka. The conference was held to fight against maternal and child mal-nutrition by working together BRAC and GAIN aim to use their partnership to “fight against maternal and child mal- nutrition” (Executive Director for Gain March Van Ameringen).
I must commend BRAC Haiti for its steady progress and accomplishments. This is certainly one of – or perhaps our most – challenging operating environments and I think the BRAC team in Haiti is finding creative ways to overcome those challenges.
Saturday morning, Good Morning America will feature BRAC’s partnership with Visionspring as part of ABC’s year-long series on global public health, Be the Change: Save a Life. The segment will highlight how this innovative partnership is bringing the transformational power of affordable eyeglasses to poor communities across Bangladesh.
How BRAC has contributed to saving Bangladeshi mothersOn February 13, 2011, Bangladeshis woke up to some wonderful news: a significant nationwide Maternal Mortality Survey showed that Bangladesh has achieved tremendous improvement in reducing maternal mortality in the last 9 years – a whopping 40% drop, from 322 to 194 per 100,000 live births, putting the nation on track to meet the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 by 2015. Percentage-wise, the rate of decline is about 5.5 percent each year on average, 0.1 percentage point lower than the required 5.4 percent for attaining MDG 5.
This month, Forbes profiled BRAC partner, VisionSpring, in an article titled, “New vision for non-profits.” In it, VisionSpring Founder & CEO Jordan Kassalow discusses how the organization’s model has evolved and how he intends to make the organization increasingly self-sustaining. VisionSpring is a social enterprise dedicated to reducing poverty and generating opportunity in the developing world through the sale of affordable eyeglasses.
BRAC began working in Africa in 2006 with the goal of accelerating solutions for poverty reduction and empowerment in the poorest and toughest parts of the continent. While BRAC’s focus has been on implementing programmes and building solid local institutions, we also view ourselves as a knowledge organization – helping to create and disseminate lessons and knowledge that would inform Africa’s development.
We at BRAC realize that creating useful knowledge and making it work for poverty alleviation is a critical challenge for Africa. Knowledge becomes useful when it contributes to solving problems. This is possible when it is contextual, internally driven and evolves through application and critique.