Meet Jalaluddin Ahmed, Associate Director of BRAC's Health Program

Jalaluddin Ahmed, Associate Director of BRAC’s Health Program in Bangladesh and former country program head of BRAC Afghanistan, recently visited BRAC USA. He is one of BRAC’s senior most managers and speaks from experience of many milestones in the organization’s development.

Born and brought up in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Mr. Ahmed studied economics with Nobel laureate Professor Yunus and joined the Research and Development department of BRAC in 1980. Over time, he conducted a wide range of health-related research. He was involved in early Vitamin A distribution to poor rural families - now a global effort credited with saving millions of children - and in research demonstrating the extent that sickness impacts microfinance outputs.

As part of BRAC's strategy to build local capacity, it sponsored him to complete a Master's degree in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1996. Mr. Ahmad returned to BRAC's health program where he oversaw BRAC community health vounteers (Shasthya Shebika) and helped to shape a sustainable, cost effective grassroots dissemination strategy for health-related initiatives.

Community health volunteers are BRAC village organization members who receive special training to provide basic health care services and health related education. Over 70,000 now operate in Bangladesh. She visits from 100 to 250 households every month and sells health-related products to supplement her income. Some recent programs utilizing the community health promoters have been related to promoting exclusive breast feeding, nutrition for women and children and HIV prevention.

In 2002, Mr. Ahmad was part of the first team of senior managers who went to Afghanistan to explore ways to support the people of that country spark social and economic development. BRAC is now one of the largest nongovernmental organizations operating in 23 of 34 provinces in Afghanistan.

Mr. Ahmad is an incredible resource. In our time together, he provided a wealth of narratives from BRAC’s past and valuable insights into its future.