BRAC Tanzania: Exceeding Expectations

A few years ago, a program staffer at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made a due diligence trip to Tanzania to evaluate a bold proposal by BRAC to start from scratch a microfinance program combined with health, agriculture, poultry and livestock development.

Today that staff person, Dr. Rajiv Shah, heads USAID. And the Senior Program Officer who completed the deal and placed the bet on BRAC, Dr. Melanie Walker, is beginning to see it payoff.

Three years into this 5 year $15 million start up grant, BRAC Tanzania is on track or exceeding its targets to create a national development organization. With over 100 branches, serving over 112,000 with microfinance, BRAC Tanzania now employs 1,200 staff and benefits over 1 million people.

In addition, it has over 1,600 community health promoters (CHP) who promote health through education, prevention, referral and selling simple health-related products. Over 800,000 people have benefited. One CHP that I met, Emmanuela Rwekaza, said that her top selling items are "sanitary napkins, paracetamol and condoms." Her highest margin is on the anti-fungal cream.

BRAC has also trained an army of agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers who are blazing a trail to improve productivity, yields and incomes. There are thousands of self-employed poultry and livestock service providers, artificial inseminators, model rearers and farmers. Over 32,000 farmers have been trained.

I interviewed Aziz, a young man who said that he "earns a good living now from inseminating cows." He charges between 15,000 (US$7.50) and 25,000 (US$12.50) schillings per service.

BRAC has caught the eye of the Tanzanian President, reported board members Dr. Harun Kashali and Dr. Hassan Mshinda over dinner. We talked about how many young people have received training, become employed, and started paying taxes for the first time in their lives. While the discipline of turning up on time for work at 7 am and walking the hot dusty roads is not for everyone, whether they stay with BRAC months or years, it is a net gain for the country.

Two branch managers hired at the start were promoted to Area Managers two years ago. Rose and Emma are indicative of the potential of Tanzanians, particularly young women, to seize this opportunity for themselves and the nation's development.

- Susan Davis

If you care about Peace, Now is the time to invest in Southern Sudan

This entry was also posted on The Huffington Post.

Traveling around Juba on deeply rutted, dusty red dirt roads in blazing 100 degree-plus heat drives home the paramount importance of water. Though the mighty Nile river runs through this fertile country, the people live without enough water. Women and girls spend hours a day fetching water from community borehole wells. They line up their yellow plastic jerry cans and buckets in long queues to wait for their turn at the spicket. Then, they carry heavy loads back home carefully balanced on their heads, often with their arms full.

Water and sanitation is one of the new program priorities that BRAC Southern Sudan would like to pilot with financial help from BRAC USA. Drilling more borehole wells costs roughly $7,000 each and can serve dozens of households. BRAC runs a massive WASH program in Bangladesh, so has lots of expertise to offer.

I visited all the programs supported by BRAC USA grants including microfinance, health, education and agricultural development. BRAC is now the largest microfinance provider in the country operating in 7 of 10 States and serving over 23,000 clients and benefiting 138,000 people, and about 138 million people worldwide.

Training teachers, teaching children
I went to the BRAC schools for out-of-school children, ages 8 to 11 years old, and was impressed with the vibrant methods to engage students in teaching math and English. Michael, the teacher trainer, was a clear leader who supported his teacher in carrying out lessons. We now have 110 schools serving over 3,000 students, 60% of whom are girls.

I sat in on the last day of a 6-day teacher training as they moved from primary 1 to 2. Over half were extremely dynamic and spoke English with me. Others were more shy about their language skills but welcoming in their native tongue. All were women who lived in the community where they taught, who adored their profession and who spoke passionately about their students. One woman named Sunday was particularly outspoken. She said that the children "have much to offer their country."

Growing the future
I met with a group of 20 farmers who had cultivated a 10 acre plot collectively. With a 6,500 Sudanese pound investment they generated 40,000 pounds, which they split equally. They were eager to continue with BRAC and requested a school for their children.

BRAC's agriculture pilot in Southern Sudan has trained almost 3,000 farmers and demonstrated the viability of this strategy.

Getting healthy
I dropped in on a health forum on sanitation and talked to a group of women and the dynamic BRAC community health staff about the health needs in that area. They spoke about the government plans to bulldoze part of their community for a road project and showed me the red X marks on homes condemned. The community health volunteer was not present as her brother had just suffered a motorbike accident and she was tending to his care.

Building partnerships
We concluded my visit with a dinner at which over a dozen partners and potential funders participated along with key government officials.

The BRAC training center has not yet been built because of liquidity problems at Nile Commercial bank. We are hopeful that this $1.5 million will be released soon, along with other funds trapped in this bank. I was assured that BRAC is on the priority list.

BRAC has created a buzz in the community, it seems, for being able to deliver under adverse conditions. The Sudan Recovery Fund just awarded BRAC the responsibility to implement its grant fund of $2.5 million to 70 community-based organizations in all 10 states. BRAC has screened these groups and supported their capacity building and direct implementation of agriculture, education, water and other initiatives.

In a country of some 10 million people, BRAC is having an impact in all 10 states. While having 7 times the land of Bangladesh and only a fraction of its 150 million people, the BRAC team faces daily hardships to accomplish its mission.

The series of elections coming up to address the independence issue should not make people shy away from investing in Southern Sudan. As our agriculture officer said from Torit, "We are tired of fighting. Nothing is going to happen in 2011."

Note: Since independence in 1956, factions in Sudan had engaged in a north-south civil war. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement based in the South and the Sudanese government based in the North, was the culmination of years of peace negotiations. The accord ended the civil war and granted Southern Sudan autonomy until a referendum, scheduled to be held in 2011. Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held before then, in April 2010, in an event that will undoubtedly mark a significant point in the Sudanese peace process.


-Susan Davis

Providing long-term relief in Haiti

While many NGOs in Haiti are concentrating exclusively on emergency relief, BRAC hopes to be involved in both relief and rehabilitation. In that effort, BRAC will be operating a brace and limb center to provide for the many thousands handicapped by the devastating earthquake.

The necessity of such a project was reiterated on the front page of today's New York Times.

The moving profile centered on Fabienne Jean, a dancer with the Haitian National Theater who lost her leg in the earthquake. The article began with Fabienne's harrowing pleas that her leg somehow be spared and closed with her saying "I am waiting" when told a high performance prosthetic could enable her to dance again.

BRAC will draw on its experience operating brace and limb centers in Bangladesh and will be collaborating with Fonkoze, Partners in Health, and others. In so doing, BRAC hopes to respond to Fabienne's call and the needs of so many whose lives have been tragically altered.

Ethical and sustainable consumption through Aarong

This past January, I was fortunate to attend the celebration of Aarong's 30 years of operation in Bangladesh. The celebration concluded with a Jamdani exhibit attended by various politicians, socialites and rural artisans, last month in Dhaka.

Jamdani textiles are beautiful nets and laces, woven on a hand-loom, by Bengali artisans whose families have been practicing the craft for hundreds of years. Each Jamdani sharee can take several months or even a year to complete.

Aarong has provided a platform for hundreds of rural artisans to showcase their talents and earn a fair living wage while doing so. Aarong is a social enterprise of BRAC that currently supports 6,5000 rural Bangladeshi artisans. Some of the artisans are directly employed by Aarong's production centers, some work at sub-centers located in remote parts of rural Bangladesh; others interact with Aarong as micro-entrepreneurs whose goods are sold at Aarong's retail stores in Bangladesh.

Aarong currently owns nine lifestyle stores in Bangladesh which sell textiles, apparel, accessories, herbal skincare, housewares and fine jewelery. Every single product in the store is hand-crafted by rural artisans.

I have worked in the New York fashion industry for over ten years for some of the most prominent American fashion labels, and I can tell you that these products can rival some of the best brands sold in New York. The selection array is wide, encompassing beautifully crafted leather briefcases to finely embroidered scarves, and strands of exquisite pink pearls, to choose from. What's best is the guilt free shopping, knowing that every single dollar you spend at Aarong is going towards supporting the artisan who crafted the products.

During my visit to Bangladesh, I was conducting a design and production process evaluation for some of Aarong's departments. I had the chance to interact with the dedicated people who make Aarong work, the design staff that support the artisans, and the rural artisans themselves.

I visited some of the remote sub-centers that employ artisans who are mostly women. It was heartwarming to see the confident faces of women who run these production centers. I stayed a while because it was wonderful to interact with them. The BRAC solidarity that binds them together was plain as day on their faces. They seemed happy, talking and laughing as they worked together. It was noteworthy that some of the have worked at these sub-centers for the past fifteen years. The small-framed rural woman who ran one of the sub-center's has worked with BRAC for 30 years!

I spent six weeks in Bangladesh working at Aarong's headquarters and production centers. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the experience has been the highlight of my fashion career. In this consumption driven society and culture, where we have all heard plenty of stories of worker exploitation, Aarong provides me with a beacon of hope, an example of the consumer goods industry can be restructured to be ethical, and promote sustainable consumption.

- Richa Agarwal

BRAC Founder Fazle Abed has tea with The Economist

While in London, BRAC Founder Fazle Hasan Abed was interviewed by The Economist for their video series, "Tea with The Economist." See the video below:



The Economist also wrote an article on BRAC, calling us "one of the world's most commercially-minded and successful NGOs."

BRAC Founder Fazle Hasan Abed knighted at Buckingham Palace

Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of BRAC, was knighted today in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London. The Knighthood, announced in the Queen’s New Year's Honours List, was awarded in recognition of Sir Fazle’s services to reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally.

February 16, 2010 -- Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of BRAC, was knighted on Tuesday in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London. The Knighthood, announced in the Queen’s New Year's Honours List, was awarded in recognition of Sir Fazle’s services to reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally.

The Investiture Ceremony was held by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, who represented Queen Elizabeth II. While conferring the knighthood, Prince Charles mentioned to Sir Fazle that he remembered visiting BRAC in Bangladesh and thanked him for his long service in reducing poverty.

Leaders from around the world have congratulated Sir Fazle on his Knighthood. Queen Rania of Jordan, in her message to Sir Fazle, wrote:

“More than just recognition of your tireless efforts to relieve poverty and disease in Bangladesh and abroad, this Knighthood gives further momentum to your reputation as one of the most dynamic and selfless humanitarians of our time.”

Sir Fazle was appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (KMCG). Following tradition, Sir Fazle knelt on a velvet Investiture Stool to receive the accolade, which was bestowed using the sword which King George VI used when, as Duke of York, he was Colonel of the Scots Guards. Sir Fazle was then invested with a Neck Badge and Star carrying the Insignia of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

Sir Fazle is the first person of Bangladesh origin to be honored with a Knighthood by the British Crown since 1947. Sir Fazle’s wife, Lady Sarwat Abed, and daughter and son, Tamara and Shameran, were present at the ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

About BRAC
BRAC, an international development organisation, was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed. Today, BRAC has grown to become the world’s largest NGO employing more than 120,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaching more than 110 million people with development interventions in Asia and Africa.

Since 2002, BRAC has been using its experiences of innovating and scaling up multifaceted anti-poverty programmes to energise and accelerate poverty alleviation efforts in other countries. Currently BRAC has country programmes in Afghanistan, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda. BRAC also provides support to other NGOs in Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Peru.

Noble Laureate Amartya Sen on child mortality and gender discrimination

This week, Noble Laureate Amartya Sen, who is also on the BRAC USA Advisory Council, drew attention to the link between child mortality and gender discrimination during an Indo-Bangla Dialogue on Health and Education. This two-day event was a joint venture of BRAC’s Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Pratichi Trust, with assistance from UNICEF Bangladesh.

During the dialogues, Sen said that gender discrimination in Bangladesh and India is the reason for the lack of investment in nutrition for pregnant mothers, leading to high infant mortality rates. He stressed that governments in both countries should learn internally from the private sector and NGO’s that utilize their resources strategically to bring about positive change. Sen suggested that Indian and Bangladeshi governments should focus on the best practices of the European and Japanese governments; both of them made massive strides in improving public health and education in the 19th century.

"Both health and education are two burning issues in south Asia, especially in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India," said Sen. He urged the governments in both countries to invest in school lunch programs which decrease dropout rates, and help children stay focused in class-rooms.

The dialogues were well attended; the Chairman of Center for Policy Dialogue Prof. Rehman Sobhan, Head of BRAC Health Programme Faruque Ahmed, political scientist Prof. Rownaq Jahan, Nobel Laureate Prof. Mohammad Yunus and UNICEF's country representative Carel de Rooy were among the participants.

It's all about progress - BRAC volunteer Drew Kinder reports from Sri Lanka

Drew Kinder, a long-time volunteer and friend of BRAC, first in Uganda, recently volunteered with BRAC's programs in Sri Lanka and Aghanistan. Below is a post about a BRAC borrower he met in Sri Lanaka.


For 33 year old Champika, an agricultural entrepreneur in the Kurenegala Distirict of central Sri Lanka, progress means breaking free from financial dependence on your husband. She was so intent on independence that she opted to take a microfinance loan not from the government run Samurdi Bank where her husband works as an assistant manager, and instead opted to do business with BRAC where she could sign for a no-collateral loan in her own name.

Champika is the owner/operator of Kathmina Mushrooms, where she grows and packages white and black mushrooms for distribution to local food outlets. The mushrooms are packed in 200 gram sealed see-thru plastic bags with a paper label identifying the Kathmina brand. One bag retails for 35 Rs. ($.30) and costs Chanpika about 15 Rs. to produce.

BRAC and Champika met through BRACs survey process, when the Branch Manager of a newly established BRAC Branch in the Kurunegala Area came down her dusty rural lane conducting house-to-house interviews to find poor women in need of financing for small businesses. Champika had just completed a training course on growing mushrooms at Peradeniaya Agricultural College, a 5 hour round trip bus ride from her home. She needed a loan to get started.

She joined the BRAC village organization and was granted a no-collateral start-up loan of 20,000 Rs. ($175) which she used to buy building materials for two 10 X 12 ft. mushroom houses and one dark room as well as ingredients for her first batch of mushrooms. Her husband and a friend built the two houses. A windowless space in her 3 room mud brick house was converted into a mushroom dark room.

Chanpika is a very bright woman. A grade 11 plus graduate, you quickly gain respect for her intelligence as she methodically explains the complicated process of growing mushrooms. It starts with four basic ingredients. After completing 15 discrete steps, each of which must be done correctly and in sequence, she produces a crop of mushrooms which can be harvested every other day for about 3 months.

Chandika has been very successful. Demand exceeds her ability to produce mushrooms in her two mushroom houses. Once she pays off her first BRAC loan, she intends to apply for another loan to build a third mushroom house and purchase additional raw materials.

Chandika has boundless energy. This mother of three; a 6 month old baby, a 2 ½ year old girl, and a 6 year old boy in school, began a second income generating project in her spare time. Using cash from mushroom sales, she purchased cloth and a sewing machine. Now she and another mother from the village organization sell clothing in the weekly village market.

Thanks to her BRAC loan, a mushroom brand named Kathmina, and unlimited drive and determination, Chandika is well on her way of realizing her potential of financial independence. That’s real progress, or as they say in her native Sinhalese language, real Kathmina.

You can read more about Drew's travels in Asia on his blog.

Reflections on Partnering with The Mastercard Foundation

I recently spent a week traveling and visiting the microfinance multiplied program of BRAC Uganda with Reeta Roy and Peggy Woo of The Mastercard Foundation. As a new foundation, most people don't know much about it. Let me share a few reflections.

Our partnership is exemplary. Not only did Mastercard remove the capital constraint for BRAC to scale up its microfinance, livelihoods and youth programs, but its rigorous yet caring approach has made us better. I value the open communication and frank detail-oriented exchanges.

We also benefit from the generous way they share what they learn and network us with other good organizations. The partnership thus becomes an efficient learning network for best practices around microfinance in Africa and youth livelihoods development.

As BRAC International's Deputy Executive Director Imran Matin said, the partnership is also about "co-diffusion." The Foundation works with us to share insights and learning from the Uganda program. We value the strategic discussions, respect for our implementation abilities and overall trust.

Mastercard Foundation President Reeta Roy posted a daily blog on their website about our visit to Uganda from January 24 through 29. Her poignant writing captured not only the numerical results but also progress that matters to real people we got to meet.

In addition to all the people Reeta wrote about, I remember her saying after meeting with the adolescent club in a Kampala slum, "they were amazing-such energy. It was really hard to say goodbye, wasn't it?"

- Susan Davis

"We are now independent from our husbands."

BRAC started its microfinance program in Pakistan in August 2007 with 12 branches in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), an area that borders Afghanistan and one of the riskiest provinces for NGOs to operate in. A BRAC branch manager, Ghazala, comments: I am happy that BRAC came to Peshawar in NWFP. There are great opportunities here for women, especially for widows. It is a good first step for them to improve their lives. I have seen in Bangladesh what BRAC does in microfinance, and BRAC Microfiance is really the only alternative that the women in our province have. Banks are not accessible to women here.”

When first starting out, overcoming the social hurdles to start a microfinance program was not easy. As Ghazala recalls, “When we first got started in Peshawar with door-to-door surveys, many women that we visited in Peshawar were afraid. They were afraid that the information was going to the police. One credit officer was chased out of a home by a dog.” However they were persistent. “We explained to them that we are not working with any police. We told them that we are native to this area, we live here, and our fathers live here too. This helped to start getting clients to trust us.”

After the trust barrier was overcome, it has not very difficult to convince husbands to let their wives become BRAC clients, even in a very conservative, male dominant society of North West Frontier Province. “Husbands know that if the wife generates income, the burden of supporting the family gets halved. They can also afford to send their children to school,” says one Credit Officer in Peshawar.

“Our work environment is like home because it is based in our community,” says Atifa; she is the branch manager in Chamkani, Peshawar. “We spend most of our day seeing borrowers, and there is no problem in our mobility because everyone we serve is female, and they know us well. Everyone is within walking distance. Everyone is a close part of this local village. Word of mouth spreads very quickly. Everyone knows us and trusts BRAC.”

One client served by BRAC in Peshawar is Bahat Zaree, a widow. She has seven children, ranging in ages from 2 to 12. She became a BRAC microfinance client to build her family’s livelihood after her husband passed away. With a BRAC loan, she started a business to sell cosmetics, door to door. Considering that women in Peshawar are customarily restricted from leaving their homes, she provides a needed service by bringing products for sale to people’s homes. “I carry all my inventory in a basket on my head. Sometimes my son carries extra inventory and walks with me house to house. I visit about 20~25 houses per day, started at about 8:30 in the morning. I make about 200~300 rupees in profit per day. My children are now eating better, and now three of my children are in school. I want more BRAC loan to grow my business.”

Another client in the same area, Liaqat Bibi, already received her third loan from BRAC. “Before I used to be a day laborer, cleaning homes and washing clothes. Now I am independent. With my first loan I helped my son start a seed store. With a second loan, I bought a donkey cart so my son could be a transporter of cargo and people. With the third loan, together with the money from selling off the donkey cart, my family rear cattle at home, selling off its milk. Life used to be very messy before. Now, I’ve been able to marry off my daughters and send my remaining school-aged children to school. I want to open a proper farmhouse to become a large milk wholesaler. I will keep my children in school longer. I want to take out more loans from BRAC.”

Apart from the traditional businesses such as embroidery and cattle raising, BRAC clients in cities have entered into more unique businesses. Yasmin in Lahore has yarn recycling business. She obtains old sweaters and unravels them into balls of yarns. She then twines different strands of yarns to a thicker and tougher string for use as ropes or making hammock beds (a common sleeping surface in Pakistan). “The sale price of my recycled yarn is 3 to 4 times greater than the material costs (the old sweaters). From my business, I save about 6000 rupees per month, after living expenses. My school-age daughter now attends school.”

Wherever they are, women who are BRAC clients have a greater effect on making their family members more productive. “With profits from my grocery store, I was able to give my son money to start a barber shop.” Says Zubaida from Lahore. In Zubaida’s same neighborhood, Irshad Bibi says, “My husband quit his low-salary job to help me full time. My henna business our family busy and creates enough income to support all 9 of us.” In Peshawar, Rabiya employs her sons for her snacks business. “I make snacks at home and sell them to canteens of local schools. With profits from my business I purchased two rickshaw cycles so my sons can take the snacks I make at home and sell them at schools.”

With only a short history in Pakistan, BRAC microfinance is working well. It has the loyalty of staff and members. Saima Mukhter, branch manager in the Qunchi Ammar Sadhu Branch in Lahore, says “I like the working conditions here. I like that fact that all staff members are women and we serve only women clients.” Sabrina, another branch manager. “I want to make a career at BRAC.”

For clients, the microfinance service revolving around the VO system makes BRAC an attractive microfinance partner. One client says “Applying for a loan at BRAC is simple, and the loan sizes are small. The service charges are lower, too. BRAC’s weekly installment system really makes it easy for us to repay the loans.” The VOs also serve as social support structures. It is a space in which members freely help and teach each other. Any problem a member faces – be it with the business or family – members openly discuss them and offer means for help.”

Just like every VO meeting in Bangladesh, the VO meetings in Pakistan also begin with the reading of the 18 promises. Credit officers notice marked changes in life routines of the women they serve. “People know about the merits of the messages behind the 18 promises, but by reciting it weekly behavior change is happening,” says one officer.

One such example is a collective action taken locally by all members of one VO based in Lahore. “Our members are also taking cleanliness and hygiene more seriously, which is one of the important messages behind the 18 promises. The members of one VO discussed how clogged overflowing gutters make their living conditions very unsanitary and make their children sick all the time. So one day everyone in this VO came together and cleaned it out on their own. Normally, it is the responsibility of the local government to clean out gutters, but these women took matters into their own hands.” One client in Lahore says “No one else does VO meetings. We get a lot out of these meetings.”

VO members share for discussion every problem that arises, be it in the business or in their families. They are happy with BRAC staff. “The BRAC officers are like our daughters,” says one client in Multan.

-Malik Rashid

BRAC re-affirms its mission to fight poverty

On the 38th anniversary of its Foundation Day, BRAC announced the release of its strengthened mission, vision and values in re-affirmation of its commitment to fighting poverty in Bangladesh and globally.

Our vision is “A world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realize their potential.”

Our mission is “To empower people and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease and social injustice. Our interventions aim to achieve large scale, positive changes through economic and social programs that enable men and women to realize their potential.”

Our values - Innovation, Integrity, Inclusiveness and Effectiveness - are core to our organization and we will be guided by them in our everyday work.

BRAC is now a global and well known development organization that achieves large scale, rapid change by working with individuals, families, communities and institutions to overcome poverty. Our approach is comprehensive – with financial services, capacity building, and livelihood development as well as health, education and social justice – enabling people to realize their potential.

To portray a consistent image of BRAC and its multidimensional work, we have evolved our logo to reflect our vision and our unique approach. The logo and its color also represent our southern roots and our focus on women.

Henceforth, our new logo will be used in all communication materials, signs and other internal and external media.

Learning ABCs in the North West Frontier Province, Pakistan

“A B C D E F G…” From a cold, open-air classroom where temperatures are below 40oF (4oC), passersby’s can hear enthusiastic pre-primary schoolchildren practicing the English alphabet. These are sounds from one of BRAC’s pre-primary schools in the town of Haripur in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The children are both ethnic Pathan and Hazara groups, the predominant ethnicities of the province.

When starting out one year ago, BRAC conducted door-to-door field surveys and held a number of town hall meetings with communities to understand their needs. “No one did community meetings like this. Not even the government. Only BRAC did”, says Shahzia Younis, one of the program officers. This was a confidence building exercise – BRAC heard from the parents first-hand of how lacking schools were in their locality, and they learned about the successes of BRAC schools in neighboring Afghanistan. This paved the way for BRAC to find spaces to rent for schools, recruit and train local staff (all of whom are women), and persuade parents from marginalized families to send their children to school.

“Why are you taking inn so many girls?” Mr. Gaffar, the BRAC area manager, recalls being asked this question by someone in the community. His reply was simple: “Islam teaches girls to be better Muslims via education. But schools are not accessible to girls. Girls live too far away from schools.”

Iqra is one of the girls who attends a BRAC school. Her parents pleaded with Mr. Gaffar to take her in. “Iqra suffered from a debilitating fear of speaking to anyone, including her own family. This fear was brought on by her learning disability, and resulted in her being expelled from other schools. Her parents asked me if BRAC could work with her, so we took her in. Now Iqra is a motivated student. Every BRAC pre-primary school in Haripur has at least one child with a learning disability.” When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Iqra says “Doctor”, in no uncertain terms.

Government officials are surprised at successful cases like Iqra’s. “What kind of magic did you cast on these children?” a visiting local official asked one of the BRAC teachers. The trick is to “Treat kids well, make learning fun, and keep kids busy with the curriculum and extra-curricular activities”, says Mr. Gaffar. This is the formula taken from BRAC Bangladesh’s education programs.

Sumbal, one of the program officers in Haripur says: “Because of the kids who attend BRAC pre-primary schools, their mothers have become more disciplined. Before, students could not get to school on time in the morning. Now, parents send the kids to school on time, maintain regular bath and sleep schedules, and ensure that children ‘salaam’ and greet people properly. Every child’s family has learned the importance of a regularized routine.”

“By 9 o’clock we are in the field, visiting the schools” explains Shahzia. “We make sure that all the schools are on track with their lesson plans, and we take note of which kids are absent. In the afternoons, we visit the homes of absent children, and speak to the mothers to understand why their children did not attend school. If a child misses school because of sickness, we tell the mothers to take special care or call a doctor to ensure the child is better and can resume school soon.

“Often, mothers discourage children from attending school because they fear that English is too difficult a subject to learn. We as program officers convince mothers to allow their children to return to school. We tell them not to interrupt their child’s education, and that BRAC teaches kids of all learning levels. We also stress these values when we hold special monthly meetings with children’s mothers (and fathers, if available).” Such close engagement by the staff ensures the retention of children in schools and minimizes drop-out cases.

Speaking to the children allows one to see their motivation and enthusiasm for coming to school daily. Sofia, one of the girls in the pre-primary program, says “Today my mother is sick. She told me to skip school and stay home to watch my little brother. But I didn’t want to miss school. So I brought my little brother to school so I can study and watch him at the same time.”

In NWFP, one of the riskiest places for NGOs to operate in Pakistan, and even in the middle of winter as cold winds blow in to the classrooms, learning is alive and well at the BRAC pre-primary schools. When the program first started, many children could not do art work beyond drawing straight lines on paper. Now they draw flowers, write ABCs, and make miniature ‘Tandoori’ ovens with clay. They even make their own pencil holders from used plastic beverage containers.

On his way home, Ahsad Naz sings in English, “Apple, Apple, Red Apple. Apple, Apple, Eat Apple. Ball, Ball, Big Ball, Ball Ball, Play Ball….” That day his mother probably needed a helping hand in caring for Ahsad’s ailing father, but she sent him to school anyway because he does not want to miss a single day. .

“Mothers say they want schools for their kids near their homes, especially for daughters. The short distance is important so the girls can walk to school easily. Schools are too far away, too few, and private schools are too expensive.” – Gaffar, BRAC Manager, Education, in Haripur, North West Frontier Province.

- Malik Rashid

US Government flies cash to Fonkoze

The below article is from America.gov.

by Katherine Lewis

The U.S. government has put cash in the hands of Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution in Haiti, in a mission that required close cooperation of the U.S. military, the United Nations and multiple U.S. government agencies.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, Fonkoze was the only bank able to stay open for customers making withdrawals and receiving money transfers. While goods were available for purchase in Port-au-Prince and other locations, many people had no money and commercial bank automatic teller machines were not functioning, according to news reports.

As Fonkoze grew short of cash, its chief executive, Anne Hastings, developed a plan to retrieve $2 million in its reserves from City National Bank of New Jersey (CNB) and distribute the cash to the 34 Fonkoze branches still operational in Haiti. The plan would require tight logistics and a military escort.

“We got an urgent request for help” on Friday morning [January 22], said Jennifer Harris, a member of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s policy planning staff. Fonkoze wanted to withdraw the cash that day, before the banking window closed at 5 p.m.

The mission was approved at 4:52 p.m. on Friday, with consent from officials from the U.S. military, the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and with advice from the Federal Reserve, Harris said. By 5:17 p.m., funds had been transferred from CNB to JP Morgan Chase in Miami, divided into 34 packets of cash and placed in office supply boxes to camouflage the contents.

An armored truck took the boxes to Homestead Air Force Base in Miami, where a C-17 military aircraft picked them up and took them to Haiti overnight, for distribution by military helicopter on Saturday morning.

“We are indebted to many individuals and government agencies that helped make this happen,” Fonkoze President John Mercier said in a statement on the Fonkoze Web site. Mercier mentioned “unprecedented cooperation from civilian government, the military and civil society, including Fonkoze — toward the end of ensuring that rural Haitians have access to their own resources so they could begin the process of rebuilding their country.”

While $2 million may not seem like much, Fonkoze’s distribution network is unmatched in reaching into the population of Haiti, especially the poor and underserved, Harris said. Fonkoze serves more than 55,000 women borrowers, more than 175,000 savers and 1 million families who receive remittances from relatives and friends abroad.

“Fonkoze is essentially the way in which Haiti’s most vulnerable populations get cash,” Harris said. “They have a reach in that population that it would take years to recreate if they went under. As a priority of stabilizing the banking sector, Fonkoze matters as much, if not more than … the Citibanks and Sogebanks.”

Traditional commercial banks have begun to reopen in Port-au-Prince, and at least one was limiting withdrawals in order to have enough cash for the long lines of customers, according to news reports. The earthquake killed at least 111,400 people and displaced 1 million, according to a fact sheet from USAID, which has been distributing blankets, kitchen sets, water purification tablets, fuel and other relief supplies. Food prices outside Port-au-Prince have doubled.

Harris expressed gratitude for the efficient military response to Fonkoze’s request for help. “They jumped in, and it was amazing to see them turn this around on absolutely zero formal notice,” she said.

RESULTS brings US congressional staff to visit BRAC's programs in Bangladesh

Jen Maurer, Sr. Policy Associate for RESULTS, writes about the organization's recent trip to see BRAC's programs in Bangladesh with several US congressional staffers.

In January, RESULTS Educational Fund organized an educational trip to Bangladesh and India for congressional staffers who work on global health and foreign affairs. The purpose of these educational trips is to provide congressional staff with a firsthand experience of the progress and challenges faced by developing countries trying to addressing these issues, as well as the impact of U.S. government support for these programs.

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We had the extreme fortune to visit with BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the world’s largest — and probably most impressive — NGO. It’s playing a critical role in reducing poverty in Bangladesh: its programs reach 110 million of the 150 million Bangladeshis. We spent a day with BRAC visiting a rural area outside of Dhaka to see their TB and microfinance programs, but first were lucky enough to meet with Mr. Fazle Abed, the founder and chairperson of BRAC and a truly inspiring man who is globally honored and recognized as a leader in fighting poverty). Mr. Abed and BRAC firmly believe that public health and social services should be provided by the government; as a result, BRAC’s goal is not to replace government services, but to support and expand services in partnership with the government. For example, BRAC is spearheading a successful and innovative national TB control effort in conjunction with the government. An interesting note: BRAC first started working on TB because it realized that the prime reason its microfinance clients were defaulting was due to TB illness in their family.

Mr. Abed told us that when they first wanted to expand TB services on a national scale, they requested funding from the World Bank, but were denied, with Bank staff explaining there just wasn’t money for TB. However, once the Global Fund was created, there was finally funding to support expansion of TB programs in Bangladesh. Thanks to the Global Fund and BRAC’s work with the government, Bangladesh has made great strides; for example, TB case detection rates have increased from 49 percent to 78 percent and from 46 percent to 73 percent in BRAC and government programs, respectively, between 2003 and 2009!

Never an NGO to rest on its laurels, BRAC continues to expand and improve its services in Bangladesh (its programs are too numerous to list here!) and now globally: started after the civil war with Pakistan ended in 1971, BRAC is taking its post-conflict development expertise to other countries in need, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, southern Sudan, and Liberia.

Read the full post on the RESULTS blog.