Friends and supporters have reached out to BRAC with concern and support. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, we have 907 full-time staff, and about as many self-employed community health promoters. Our staff is safe, though sadly, some of our microfinance clients are among the more than 1,000 who have died.
When you first meet Jackie, it is difficult not be to be taken by her charm. She sat opposite me in her calm, collected, yet casual poise, occasionally breaking out in laughter. But she still managed to exhibit a stern resolution as we discussed what it meant to part of BRAC’s first batch of international young professionals.
Fears are rising in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea that the deadly Ebola virus is spreading out of control. I spoke to Tapan Karmakar, country representative of BRAC Sierra Leone. “People are now afraid,” he told me. Additional funding is needed for community health workers to reach remote areas.
After the mass destruction during the civil war in Sierra Leone, I had a desire to give back to my country and help in nation building. Starting off as a child activist for Search for Common Ground, I have represented the vulnerable war-affected children of Sierra Leone both nationally and internationally, ensuring that their voices are heard and attended to. Working in development was always my utmost desire.
Progress can go beyond “inclusive growth.” The poor themselves can be relied upon to help make the world a better place for us all.
Whenever we think about health services, the things that typically come to mind are doctors, paramedics, nurses or even hospitals. In Bangladesh, for decades women have been creating a new norm for how primary health care can look by delivering health care services using a door-to-door approach without the typical doctor, paramedic or even nurse. Besides providing basic health care services, these women are expanding their communities’ perceptions of women’s potential and importance in society.
BRAC USA launched a campaign called No Mother Stands Alone to rally support for adapting BRAC’s proven maternal health program in Bangladesh to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
100,000 in 1990 to just 194 in 2010, while other indicators like neonatal and under-five mortality have also fallen.
While those numbers are still too high (in many developed countries, the rates for all are in single digits), the change is still staggering. Bangladesh is close to reaching the fourth and fifth of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals regarding child and maternal mortality.
Bangladesh, Malawi and Nepal have been highlighted in a new UNICEF report as three countries on track to meet their child survival targets, incorporated in MDG 4 that aims to reduce under-5 deaths worldwide to a third of their 1990 levels by 2015.
This article was originally posted by Duncan Green in the From Poverty to Power BlogThinking Big, Going Global is a new IDS working paper on what is arguably the first fully fledged international NGO from the South. Since 2002, BRAC, a Bangladeshi NGO
In this highly partisan political season, where economic calamity is deemed inevitable if the wrong party is elected, “The Coming Prosperity” is a refreshing new entrant on the bookshelf. It is a book at odds with political rhetoric, but squares nicely with emerging global trends.
Somehow I managed to get from Rwanda to Zambia over the last week by a combination of boda, matatu, feet, bus, hitchhiking, and ferry, which is a subject for another entry – but now I finally have time to write a bit about how I spent most of my three weeks in Uganda.