The following was originally posted by BRAC USA President & CEO Susan Davis on the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) blog.
Critics of microfinance have knocked down an army of straw men in recent years, and 2011 was no different. But it’s high time for microfinance practitioners stop being defensive. We know enough about the perils and potentials of poverty-focused microfinance to address the real needs of the poor.
Early champions, including Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, Mohammad Yunus of Grameen and Ela Bhatt of India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association, recognized that financial services alone would not be sufficient to break the bonds of poverty. Critics of microfinance became more shrill in 2011, but as a recent article in The New Republic points out, “the growing backlash is in danger of overcorrecting.”
Going into 2012, the microfinance field faces three key challenges:
Serving the ultra-poor. We’ve seen that in poor countries, those at the bottom 10 percent of the economic pyramid too often remain impervious to microfinance-based solutions. With pilots in eight countries worldwide, CGAP and Ford Foundation are now adapting and testing “graduation programs,” a holistic and rigorous approach to helping the ultra-poor get on a pathway out of poverty. Based on BRAC initiatives launched in Bangladesh in the 1990s, the programs involve asset transfers, consumption stipends, savings, social support, financial education and coaching to bolster self-confidence. BRAC research showed that 80 percent of the ultra-poor “graduate” and stay out of extreme poverty five years after these programs ends. The majority then take advantage of micro-finance.
Advancing “microfinance multiplied.” Major philanthropies have already caught on to the BRAC approach of “microfinance multiplied,” which amplifies the impact of microfinance services by using networks of self-employed entrepreneurs to provide additional livelihood development services to the poor. The MasterCard Foundation, for example, is expanding BRAC’s programs in Uganda, with interventions across livelihood and education value chains. (See our chapter on “Using Microfinance Plus Agricultural Services to Improve Rural Livelihoods and Food Security,” in New Pathways out of Poverty.) The partnership is well on track to reach 4.2 million people, or 12 percent of the country’s population, by 2016.
Using technology appropriately. In a world enamored of technology, it’s often the low-cost, low-tech solutions that have proven the most viable. But mobile solutions have finally arrived in microfinance and will see increased emphasis in 2012. This year saw the launch of bKash Limited, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, allowing easier reach of financial services to those previously deemed “unbankable,” including the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
As Yale economist Dean Karlan points out, microfinance still offers “a range of valuable economic tools,” but the key is to focus on the actual needs of the poor: not just loans, but real opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.
Susan Davis is President and CEO of BRAC USA. FAI invited Ms. Davis and others to offer her insights and reflections on the important events, opportunities and challenges facing microfinance this past year. This post is the first in an ongoing series featuring guest bloggers on the Year in Microfinance. These contributions will be posted weekly on the FAI site into the New Year. FAI also invites you to participate by telling us your own thoughts and opinions about the year in microfinance via comments.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Providing warmth in times of drastic weather change
Last week, multiple individuals in Bangladesh’s northern regions lost their lives due to lack of adequate warm clothing. The temperature recently significantly dropped, leaving many villagers unprepared for the elements, often leading to tragedy.
BRAC Education Programme immediately responded by distributing a clothing package worth two crore BD taka ($250,000). Clothing was distributed in in 15 districts amongst 108,750 recipients of underprivileged backgrounds.
BRAC is also hosting a “warm clothes drive” in Dhaka, in which individuals can donate old/used clothes. The donation bin is located on the ground floor of BRAC Centre, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
BRAC-ing Barriers to Development
The following was originally posted on the Kravis Prize blog. BRAC's founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, won the Karavis prize in 2007.
It’s evident in their work that Kravis Prize winners are making great strides towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. One example is BRAC, which offers programs around the world that span topics from microfinance to girls’ education and health care. BRAC USA CEO Susan Davis recently was featured on ABC News and discussed BRAC’s involvement in the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health:
To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our page.
It’s evident in their work that Kravis Prize winners are making great strides towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. One example is BRAC, which offers programs around the world that span topics from microfinance to girls’ education and health care. BRAC USA CEO Susan Davis recently was featured on ABC News and discussed BRAC’s involvement in the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health:
“Things have really improved. Just look at the number of deaths that have happened from women dying from childbirth. We’ve been able to almost halve it to 12,000 a year to 7,300. … So in terms of setting a goal for the year 2015 that the whole world is striving to achieve, we’ve gotten there, at least in these few areas. And I think for Bangladesh, we’re on track to get there and that is dramatic.”She also discussed BRAC’s strategy to implement change:
“BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particularly high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.”To read more of what Davis has to say, click here for her op-ed and a brief video.
To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our page.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Help her make a future of her own design
In the village in Bangladesh where Shumi grew up, it was considered taboo for parents to let their daughters go outside. That meant no access to education, no freedom, and probably an early marriage to a much older man.
Instead of succumbing to this fate, Shumi joined BRAC's adolescent girls program, where we provided her with a safe space to meet other girls, life skills education, a microfinance loan of $37 and training on how to start a business running a beauty salon.
Thanks to your support, Shumi is generating income for herself and her family. Now, she has the courage to stand up for herself and the girls in her village — she's even a mentor in her local BRAC girls club!
Help Shumi and BRAC provide the same guidance and opportunities to other women and girls by making a gift to BRAC today. A gift of $100 will help a girl like Shumi change her own life, and she will multiply your gift by forging a pathway out of poverty for her family and her community. This is the Girl Effect.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
40 Years of Freedom: A Reflection
16th December 2011, Bangladeshis around the world, celebrated the 40th Victory Day. Four decades earlier, the state of East Pakistan was dissolved; resulting in the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. Nine months of bloody civil war, marked by atrocities, genocide and vicious war-crimes left an already struggling nation in shambles, both socially and economically.
The return of millions of refugees, along with the lack of necessary foreign aid further deteriorated the already drastic situation. It was out of this seemingly hopeless situation, that UK expatriate Sir Fazle Hasan Abed formed the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC).
BRAC and Bangladesh are joined at birth. The bond is inseparable and an emotional one. As Bangladesh modernized, developed infrastructure, received global recognition for innovative practices, so did BRAC. There is a lot of room to grow for both Bangladesh and BRAC, but there is certainly much to celebrate. Considering the circumstances and unfavourable odds, Bangladesh and BRAC remarkably grew.
BRAC conducted nation-wide programmes to honour this milestone. In the Dhaka metropolitan area, a “mobile photo exhibition” toured the city on rickshaws vans. The rare and breathtaking photographs, contained images of the War of Liberation, the atmosphere around the revolutionary movement, the devastation and suffering of war, as well as the growth and relief efforts in nearly every segment of Bangladeshi society. The photographs are eye opening. A country which just 40 years ago was emerging from ashes is now sending its citizens by the thousands to assist in other nation’s post-war relief.
Outside of Dhaka BRAC hosted cultural programmes in all Bangladeshi divisional cities. Cultural programmes, including popular theatre, traditional music, dance, and a screening of the documentary Mukhti Gaan (Freedom Songs) were the highlights of the event. Bengali culture, which just 41 years ago was heavily repressed by totalitarian regimes, was celebrated in full in pomp and circumstance. Participants from all segments of society flocked to the BRAC events which were held in Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur, Chittagong, and Rajshahi.
This was a tribute to the visionaries, freedom fighters, and every day people who made the vision of Bangladesh a reality, a humble offering to their immortal shrines.
We are indebted to their struggle and sacrifice, and vow to continue making their vision a reality by investing our time, effort, and minds into developing this nation socially, and economically.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Hope In The Slums: Inside A Birthing Hut with Deborah Roberts
The following post was written by ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts on the Million Moms Challenge blog about her recent trip to Bangladesh to see BRAC's programs working to save the lives of mothers and children.
When I went into labor with my first child 13 years ago, I expected, like many moms- to-be, smooth sailing. It wasn’t. After 18 intense hours, my labor had not progressed much. So my skilled and trusted obstetrician ordered a cesarean section. My disappointment over having major surgery soon gave way to joy over my beautiful daughter. Three years later, I had a second C-section with my son. I healed well and didn’t think much about the medical intervention surrounding my birthing experiences, until last month.
As I prepared for a story on maternal mortality, I realized that what happened to me could have been life-threatening if I lived in another part of the world. The statistics are stunning: Every 90 seconds a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. That’s 1,000 girls and women a day… more than half a million women every year. And experts say more than 80% of these deaths are preventable.
And I made another shocking discovery. The United States, a country which spends nearly $3 trillion annually on healthcare has an astoundingly high maternal mortality rate. One international group ranks us 50th in the world, behind countries like Albania and South Korea. Two women in this country die each day due to pregnancy-related problems. And for black women the number is four times higher for reasons that are unclear.
My birth state of Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. I visited the Atlanta Medical Center where Dr. Bradley Bootstaylor offered a stunning, and controversial theory: that we may be leaving women vulnerable to complications by turning childbirth into a medical event instead of allowing it to happen more naturally. He worries about the routine reliance on ultrasounds, epidurals and C-sections. His hospital is now taking a low tech approach to childbirth. They have eight midwives on staff who discourage painkillers and offer alternatives like massage, walking during contractions and warm tubs of water to allow women to get through the birth experience more naturally. While there are no published studies to suggest that medical intervention leads to maternal deaths, there is no arguing that maternal mortality is a problem in the U.S.
Some countries, however, are making extraordinary progress. Believe it or not, one of them is in the developing world. Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries on the planet - nearly 150-million people in an area the size of Iowa – is somehow creating a miracle. Over the last decade the deaths of new mothers has dropped dramatically – by 40 percent! Today Bangladesh is one of just 16 countries on the path to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals – including cutting maternal deaths by 75% by the year 2015.
I traveled 8,000 miles to the capital city of Dhaka to see what was happening. There I met Dr. Kaosar Afsana. She’s an academic working with BRAC, an international aid group, which has had a major role in saving the lives of Bangladeshi women. In a country where close to 80 percent of women give birth at home, BRAC has discovered that the lack of skilled medical care during childbirth is at the heart of the problem.
Afsana took me by boat to a local slum called Korail. As we wound our way through narrow alleyways I met young mother after young mother. Afsana explained how women, often teens, really, die at alarming rates in Bangladesh due to hemorrhaging, obstructed labor, infections, poor nutrition and lack of knowledge about childbirth. And worse, most don’t trust the medical system to help them. So BRAC decided that the key to change is in delivering medical attention to the doorstep of expectant women.
We visited a birthing hut where eight pregnant women, wrapped in colorful saris, were being instructed on the basics of what to expect during delivery and how to recognize a possible complication before it’s too late. I asked how many of them planned to come back to the hut to deliver, and all raised their hands. The hut was clean and had a warm feeling. Then, we got word of a birth happening in a hut nearby. We raced through the litter strewn streets to another birth center to find a bright-eyed, beautiful baby boy who was just delivered by 25-year old Rina. Both mother and child, surrounded by four skilled female birth attendants, were doing fine. A nice safe birth. Six hours later, Rina was on her way home. She was escorted by two women who helped with the birth and possibly spared her life threatening complications. We could call them Rina’s guardian angels.
On the last day of my visit, I met with Richard Greene, an official with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government’s humanitarian aid arm. A Virginia resident now living in Dhaka, Greene is one of the architects for a new cell phone program that has enormous promise to improve health outcomes for pregnant women and new moms. Its success makes sense: more than half the population carries a cell phone
The plan is to text or call pregnant women to give them critical alerts about their pregnancies timed to their due date. They get reminders to take vitamins, see a health worker or eat healthy food (poor nutrition is a big problem in Bangladesh). Once the baby is born, they get text messages about breastfeeding and potential problems to look out for. Health workers also carry cell phones, and with a few keystrokes can upload data on specific patients to a server so doctors can monitor a pregnant woman health throughout the pregnancy.
The pilot program, called MAMA, is still in its infancy. It’s an idea that’s catching on. When I returned home I learned of a similar texting program in the U.S.
It’s called Text4Baby, and it’s a free messaging service. All a mother has to do is text 511411 and put in the word BABY or BEBE (for Spanish service), along with her due date or her child’s birthday, and she’ll receive three personalized, health-related text messages a week through her entire pregnancy and the first year of her baby’s life.
There’s an old African proverb: to be pregnant is to have one foot in the grave. The hope among those engaged in the fight against maternal mortality is that those ancient words will soon be forgotten.
Find out more about saving the lives of moms and babies, watch ”20/20″ Friday at 10 p.m. ET
 |
| ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts visits a Bangladeshi slum to learn more about grassroots programs to save the lives of moms and newborns. (Shumon Ahmed/ABC NEWS) |
As I prepared for a story on maternal mortality, I realized that what happened to me could have been life-threatening if I lived in another part of the world. The statistics are stunning: Every 90 seconds a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. That’s 1,000 girls and women a day… more than half a million women every year. And experts say more than 80% of these deaths are preventable.
And I made another shocking discovery. The United States, a country which spends nearly $3 trillion annually on healthcare has an astoundingly high maternal mortality rate. One international group ranks us 50th in the world, behind countries like Albania and South Korea. Two women in this country die each day due to pregnancy-related problems. And for black women the number is four times higher for reasons that are unclear.
My birth state of Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. I visited the Atlanta Medical Center where Dr. Bradley Bootstaylor offered a stunning, and controversial theory: that we may be leaving women vulnerable to complications by turning childbirth into a medical event instead of allowing it to happen more naturally. He worries about the routine reliance on ultrasounds, epidurals and C-sections. His hospital is now taking a low tech approach to childbirth. They have eight midwives on staff who discourage painkillers and offer alternatives like massage, walking during contractions and warm tubs of water to allow women to get through the birth experience more naturally. While there are no published studies to suggest that medical intervention leads to maternal deaths, there is no arguing that maternal mortality is a problem in the U.S.
Some countries, however, are making extraordinary progress. Believe it or not, one of them is in the developing world. Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries on the planet - nearly 150-million people in an area the size of Iowa – is somehow creating a miracle. Over the last decade the deaths of new mothers has dropped dramatically – by 40 percent! Today Bangladesh is one of just 16 countries on the path to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals – including cutting maternal deaths by 75% by the year 2015.
I traveled 8,000 miles to the capital city of Dhaka to see what was happening. There I met Dr. Kaosar Afsana. She’s an academic working with BRAC, an international aid group, which has had a major role in saving the lives of Bangladeshi women. In a country where close to 80 percent of women give birth at home, BRAC has discovered that the lack of skilled medical care during childbirth is at the heart of the problem.
Afsana took me by boat to a local slum called Korail. As we wound our way through narrow alleyways I met young mother after young mother. Afsana explained how women, often teens, really, die at alarming rates in Bangladesh due to hemorrhaging, obstructed labor, infections, poor nutrition and lack of knowledge about childbirth. And worse, most don’t trust the medical system to help them. So BRAC decided that the key to change is in delivering medical attention to the doorstep of expectant women.
We visited a birthing hut where eight pregnant women, wrapped in colorful saris, were being instructed on the basics of what to expect during delivery and how to recognize a possible complication before it’s too late. I asked how many of them planned to come back to the hut to deliver, and all raised their hands. The hut was clean and had a warm feeling. Then, we got word of a birth happening in a hut nearby. We raced through the litter strewn streets to another birth center to find a bright-eyed, beautiful baby boy who was just delivered by 25-year old Rina. Both mother and child, surrounded by four skilled female birth attendants, were doing fine. A nice safe birth. Six hours later, Rina was on her way home. She was escorted by two women who helped with the birth and possibly spared her life threatening complications. We could call them Rina’s guardian angels.
On the last day of my visit, I met with Richard Greene, an official with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government’s humanitarian aid arm. A Virginia resident now living in Dhaka, Greene is one of the architects for a new cell phone program that has enormous promise to improve health outcomes for pregnant women and new moms. Its success makes sense: more than half the population carries a cell phone
The plan is to text or call pregnant women to give them critical alerts about their pregnancies timed to their due date. They get reminders to take vitamins, see a health worker or eat healthy food (poor nutrition is a big problem in Bangladesh). Once the baby is born, they get text messages about breastfeeding and potential problems to look out for. Health workers also carry cell phones, and with a few keystrokes can upload data on specific patients to a server so doctors can monitor a pregnant woman health throughout the pregnancy.
The pilot program, called MAMA, is still in its infancy. It’s an idea that’s catching on. When I returned home I learned of a similar texting program in the U.S.
It’s called Text4Baby, and it’s a free messaging service. All a mother has to do is text 511411 and put in the word BABY or BEBE (for Spanish service), along with her due date or her child’s birthday, and she’ll receive three personalized, health-related text messages a week through her entire pregnancy and the first year of her baby’s life.
There’s an old African proverb: to be pregnant is to have one foot in the grave. The hope among those engaged in the fight against maternal mortality is that those ancient words will soon be forgotten.
Find out more about saving the lives of moms and babies, watch ”20/20″ Friday at 10 p.m. ET
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Helping Women In Bangladesh And Beyond
The following was originally posted by Susan Davis, President & CEO of BRAC USA, in support of the Million Moms Challenge.
You may not have heard about BRAC. As a development success story, it’s one of the world’s best-kept secrets: Founded 40 years ago in Bangladesh by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, we’re the world’s largest antipoverty nonprofit, reaching an astounding 138 million people with programs in microfinance, health care, girls’ education and other fields in 10 countries.
We’re also a pioneer in the field of maternal health — and we believe it’s time to put an end to preventable deaths during childbirth. We salute the Million Moms Challenge and we’re proud to be a part of this campaign to do so.
BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particular high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.
Just a few years ago, for instance, home births in unsanitary conditions were the norm in the slums of Bangladesh. In the areas in which we work, we’ve managed to reduce the percentage of home births from 86 percent to 25 percent over the course of just three years. We did this by setting up “birthing huts” in the slums themselves – places with a sterilized mattress, a trained midwife and a low-cost birthing kit. And we trained an army of 80,000 poor women to delivery low-cost medical services to their own villages and slums, while allowing these women to earn extra income doing so. We’ve started providing them with mobile phones, with simple applications that help them keep accurate patient records – and allowing them to call a doctor when complications arise.
Formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC has been called not only the largest but also the most efficient non-governmental organization in the world. Our maternal, neo-natal and child health programs have reached 24.5 million people – about the population of the state of Texas. We’re making a real difference, and we believe we can multiply these numbers by spreading the BRAC approach worldwide.
Things are changing. We invite you to help us spread the good news with the Million Moms Challenge.
Take Action: Find how you can help BRAC by visiting them on Global Giving.
You may not have heard about BRAC. As a development success story, it’s one of the world’s best-kept secrets: Founded 40 years ago in Bangladesh by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, we’re the world’s largest antipoverty nonprofit, reaching an astounding 138 million people with programs in microfinance, health care, girls’ education and other fields in 10 countries.
We’re also a pioneer in the field of maternal health — and we believe it’s time to put an end to preventable deaths during childbirth. We salute the Million Moms Challenge and we’re proud to be a part of this campaign to do so.
BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particular high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.
Just a few years ago, for instance, home births in unsanitary conditions were the norm in the slums of Bangladesh. In the areas in which we work, we’ve managed to reduce the percentage of home births from 86 percent to 25 percent over the course of just three years. We did this by setting up “birthing huts” in the slums themselves – places with a sterilized mattress, a trained midwife and a low-cost birthing kit. And we trained an army of 80,000 poor women to delivery low-cost medical services to their own villages and slums, while allowing these women to earn extra income doing so. We’ve started providing them with mobile phones, with simple applications that help them keep accurate patient records – and allowing them to call a doctor when complications arise.
Formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC has been called not only the largest but also the most efficient non-governmental organization in the world. Our maternal, neo-natal and child health programs have reached 24.5 million people – about the population of the state of Texas. We’re making a real difference, and we believe we can multiply these numbers by spreading the BRAC approach worldwide.
Things are changing. We invite you to help us spread the good news with the Million Moms Challenge.
Take Action: Find how you can help BRAC by visiting them on Global Giving.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Members of BRAC's girls club help write a book
Based on stories written by 20 participants in BRAC’s Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SoFEA) Program in Bangladesh, Shuba and the Cyclone is a playful children’s book about the adventures of an endangered Ganges river dolphin in the wake of a cyclone. The book also highlights the inspirational work of BRAC’s programs in Bangladesh and features BRAC’s Farzana Kashfi as an inspirational female role model.
Shuba and the Cyclone is the tale of a Ganges River dolphin who must find her way home after a cyclone. Published by the nonprofit organization Dot-to-Dot Children’s Books, the book is based on stories written by participants in BRAC’s SoFEA program in Damrai, Bangladesh. Dot-to-Dot’s creative writing team selected favorite elements written during the workshop and combined them into a single story, making Shuba and the Cyclone an expression of the collective creativity of the young women who helped write it.
Please join us in giving a global voice to BRAC’s newest young authors and spreading the word about BRAC by sharing Shuba and the Cyclone with children in your life and recommending it to your friends and family. 40% of the proceeds will be donated to BRAC when you enter the promo code BRAC at the time of purchase.
Click here to purchase your copy now!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Malaria Dreams: Tales from a Kiva Fellow
The following blog post was originally written by Tejal Desai, a Kiva Fellow finishing her fellowship with BRAC in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
As my Kiva fellowship winds down, I reflect on the memorable journey I’ve been privileged to experience through the Kiva Fellows Program as a member of its 16thclass. Through personal revelations and humbling lessons in adaptation, microfinance work, cultural differences (and a unique incidence of malaria), I’ve grown attached to beautiful Sierra Leone. Throughout the fellowship, I’ve found my journey paralleling that of a character in a humorous novel, Malaria Dreams by Stuart Stevens, in which a man travels through the Central African Republic in one mission in mind: to find a friend’s Land Rover and drive it back to Europe — only to find that his 3-month journey has a lot more in store for him than he anticipated, and nothing goes exactly as planned. My fellowship similarly followed suit with its own surprises, bumps in the road, and memorable moments.
This journey started with a phone call. Much like the experience of my KF 16 friend, DJ Forza, this call arrived out of the blue, and was received with some degree of hesitation. As I was daydreaming about my placement relocation (first placement was planned for the Philippines) to the South Pacific gem, Samoa, two weeks before Kiva Fellows training, Kiva Fellows Program staff informed me that there was an urgent matter we needed to discuss.
A ball of tension immediately struck me in the gut. As the conversation progressed, I learned that, due to unforeseen circumstances, I wouldn’t be going to Samoa… and I wouldn’t be going to the Philippines. I would be going somewhere for this fellowship, but the location was yet to be determined, and I would find out in a few days.
Three days later, KFP informed me that Sierra Leone was the most available placement, and that I would have to make the decision and shift gears as soon as possible. I think my response at that moment was, “Wow. Ok. Can I think about it?”
My family started to wonder what I had gotten myself into, what I signed up for. There was a lot of head shaking and concerned looks shared amongst my family and friends, and a lot of pity faces that conveyed, “Oh jeez, Tejal, you’re nuts. What ARE you doing?” I recalled images and scenes from the movie “Blood Diamond,” reports in the news about corruption, documentaries about civil war, and tried to push them far out of my mind. Kiva Fellow alum assured me to relax and do more research, and shared their overwhelmingly-positive experiences in “Swit Salone.” Shortly after, at KF16 training, I met over 20 amazing individuals who signed up for the same experience of spending almost 4 months in unfamiliar surroundings, and realized that if I’m crazy, I have many crazy friends right by my side to help me through this exhilarating journey. And so it began…
A warm welcome
Salone undoubtedly welcomed me with open arms, with its people being some of the warmest and most accommodating I’ve ever met, and its weather being comparable to a rainforest sauna. On my first day at BRAC, I was pleasantly shocked at how quickly the staff took me under their wing, instructing me how to take public transit around the city, taking me to beaches and local football matches, and planning weekend outings.
Additionally, the Kiva Coordinator, Mbalu, and I found ourselves inseparable: we stuck side by side on field visits, trainings, even for fun weekend cooking sessions. And when I wasn’t at the office, I found new friends in local business owners, school kids in the neighborhood, and families that religiously welcomed guests with a friendly, “How de body?” (Krio for “How is your health?”).
The rainy and humid weather forecast made for exciting adventures navigating through Freetown on the back of motorbikes and cramming into poda-podas to jet across town to complete Kiva deliverables with Mbalu. There really is nothing quite like taking a motorbike ride through a torrential storm in Freetown!
Speed bumps, pot holes, and the trough of disillusionment
Like every journey, mine hit quite a few bumps and pot holes along the way. In Kiva Fellows training, we were told to expect a trough as we progressed through our Fellowship workplan. My “fall” into the trough occurred slightly early, around week two, while I was starting a large project that would help take BRAC Sierra Leone from Pilot to Active status in their partnership with Kiva. A few of the catalysts that induced my “falling” into the trough were a combination of understanding cultural differences, adjusting to a new work environment, and finding a groove to personal productivity.
At first, I tried absorb and observe as much as possible in the new work environment: work culture, policies, traditions, best practices, hierarchy, field work, microfinance products and programs – without passing judgment on what could be “better” or more efficient. But little did I know that my KF-powered brain was already in go-mode, looking for ways to improve things and not actually taking the time to understand how systems worked, and more importantly, why they were the way they were. This resulted in major frustration, miscommunication, misunderstandings, and many hand-on-forehead moments.
Those six weeks in the trough, although very difficult, proved to be some of the most eye-opening of the entire fellowship, and brought to light a very humbling and important lesson: modifying my definition of success and using different benchmarks to measure productivity will in turn change the way I viewed efficiency. As soon as I realized this (thanks to the help of family and friends who gave the golden advice!), everything seemed more manageable, clear, and sensible.
A third struggle I encountered, and unfortunately have never quite overcome, was understanding the weight of poverty and economic conditions in Sierra Leone, and realizing as a Kiva Fellow, as a foreigner, and as an individual, there were few things I could change on my own and had control over, but many more that I could not change. This has by far been the hardest reality to digest. And although microfinance work does help hundreds of thousands of people in Sierra Leone, the reality is that microfinance alone won’t solve all problems, it won’t heal an entire nation.
Reflection
Despite these challenges, the growth, knowledge and friendships I’ve gained in Sierra Leone have made this fellowship a memorable and life-altering experience I won’t forget. The wonderful people I’ve met, the warmth of the people, the food, the natural beauty, and of course the work I’ve done at BRAC Sierra Leone will always remain fondly with me.
I think back to that memorable day in August when Kiva called me to introduce me to this opportunity, and have never been more thankful to have given the chance to find a home in Sierra Leone during my fellowship. I’m very sad to leave, but know that soon enough, I will find myself back in the embrace of Swit Salone.
 |
| Beautiful Freetown sunset |
This journey started with a phone call. Much like the experience of my KF 16 friend, DJ Forza, this call arrived out of the blue, and was received with some degree of hesitation. As I was daydreaming about my placement relocation (first placement was planned for the Philippines) to the South Pacific gem, Samoa, two weeks before Kiva Fellows training, Kiva Fellows Program staff informed me that there was an urgent matter we needed to discuss.
A ball of tension immediately struck me in the gut. As the conversation progressed, I learned that, due to unforeseen circumstances, I wouldn’t be going to Samoa… and I wouldn’t be going to the Philippines. I would be going somewhere for this fellowship, but the location was yet to be determined, and I would find out in a few days.
Three days later, KFP informed me that Sierra Leone was the most available placement, and that I would have to make the decision and shift gears as soon as possible. I think my response at that moment was, “Wow. Ok. Can I think about it?”
My family started to wonder what I had gotten myself into, what I signed up for. There was a lot of head shaking and concerned looks shared amongst my family and friends, and a lot of pity faces that conveyed, “Oh jeez, Tejal, you’re nuts. What ARE you doing?” I recalled images and scenes from the movie “Blood Diamond,” reports in the news about corruption, documentaries about civil war, and tried to push them far out of my mind. Kiva Fellow alum assured me to relax and do more research, and shared their overwhelmingly-positive experiences in “Swit Salone.” Shortly after, at KF16 training, I met over 20 amazing individuals who signed up for the same experience of spending almost 4 months in unfamiliar surroundings, and realized that if I’m crazy, I have many crazy friends right by my side to help me through this exhilarating journey. And so it began…
A warm welcome
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| With the BRAC SEP staff in Kenema. |
Additionally, the Kiva Coordinator, Mbalu, and I found ourselves inseparable: we stuck side by side on field visits, trainings, even for fun weekend cooking sessions. And when I wasn’t at the office, I found new friends in local business owners, school kids in the neighborhood, and families that religiously welcomed guests with a friendly, “How de body?” (Krio for “How is your health?”).
The rainy and humid weather forecast made for exciting adventures navigating through Freetown on the back of motorbikes and cramming into poda-podas to jet across town to complete Kiva deliverables with Mbalu. There really is nothing quite like taking a motorbike ride through a torrential storm in Freetown!
Speed bumps, pot holes, and the trough of disillusionment
Like every journey, mine hit quite a few bumps and pot holes along the way. In Kiva Fellows training, we were told to expect a trough as we progressed through our Fellowship workplan. My “fall” into the trough occurred slightly early, around week two, while I was starting a large project that would help take BRAC Sierra Leone from Pilot to Active status in their partnership with Kiva. A few of the catalysts that induced my “falling” into the trough were a combination of understanding cultural differences, adjusting to a new work environment, and finding a groove to personal productivity.
At first, I tried absorb and observe as much as possible in the new work environment: work culture, policies, traditions, best practices, hierarchy, field work, microfinance products and programs – without passing judgment on what could be “better” or more efficient. But little did I know that my KF-powered brain was already in go-mode, looking for ways to improve things and not actually taking the time to understand how systems worked, and more importantly, why they were the way they were. This resulted in major frustration, miscommunication, misunderstandings, and many hand-on-forehead moments.
Those six weeks in the trough, although very difficult, proved to be some of the most eye-opening of the entire fellowship, and brought to light a very humbling and important lesson: modifying my definition of success and using different benchmarks to measure productivity will in turn change the way I viewed efficiency. As soon as I realized this (thanks to the help of family and friends who gave the golden advice!), everything seemed more manageable, clear, and sensible.
A third struggle I encountered, and unfortunately have never quite overcome, was understanding the weight of poverty and economic conditions in Sierra Leone, and realizing as a Kiva Fellow, as a foreigner, and as an individual, there were few things I could change on my own and had control over, but many more that I could not change. This has by far been the hardest reality to digest. And although microfinance work does help hundreds of thousands of people in Sierra Leone, the reality is that microfinance alone won’t solve all problems, it won’t heal an entire nation.
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| Swit Salone, it's been real. |
Reflection
Despite these challenges, the growth, knowledge and friendships I’ve gained in Sierra Leone have made this fellowship a memorable and life-altering experience I won’t forget. The wonderful people I’ve met, the warmth of the people, the food, the natural beauty, and of course the work I’ve done at BRAC Sierra Leone will always remain fondly with me.
I think back to that memorable day in August when Kiva called me to introduce me to this opportunity, and have never been more thankful to have given the chance to find a home in Sierra Leone during my fellowship. I’m very sad to leave, but know that soon enough, I will find myself back in the embrace of Swit Salone.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
BRAC’s Adolescent Clubs: Raising HIV Awareness among Youth
Despite being one of the low HIV- prevalence countries, Bangladesh still remains exceedingly vulnerable to an HIV epidemic due to overpopulation, gender inequality, and the grim state of poverty in the country. Experts have predicted that without any proper prevention, the prevalence in the general adult population could rise to as high as 2% in 2012.BRAC’s Adolescent Clubs (Kishori Kendro) and Adolescent Peer Organised Network (APON) offer life skills based education- facilitated by their peers- on different social and health related issues, such as reproductive health, sexual abuse, children’s rights, gender, HIV/AIDS, STI, eve teasing (verbal sexual abuse), child trafficking, substance abuse, violence, family planning and many others. The purpose is to develop adolescent life skills and raise awareness of important but stigmatised issues. The Special Network for Adolescent Photographers (SNAP) allows girls to not only receive training on digital photography but are given the option of taking it up as their profession. The girls take photos relevant to social issues, such as HIV/AIDS, and organise exhibitions to raise awareness within their communities.
Sports are an integral role to play in helping to bring people together and to address key issues and encourage social changes. BRAC’s Adolescent Development Programme uses sports as a means of communication to disseminate important information to the mass audiences. Communication activities such as a rallies, courtyard meetings, interactive theatre, multimedia shows and cultural programmes are organised in the playground besides sports to reinforce the message delivered through the competition, related to HIV/AIDS prevention and stigma reduction. To support this process, appropriate communication/campaign materials were developed and distributed to the participants.
The programme is observing World AIDS Day across Bangladesh by actively engaging the people in communities from all spheres of the society. A rally, IPT shows, complementary football/cricket matches and discussion forums are taking place throughout the day. The whole event will create awareness about the significance of the day. To generate mass awareness, different communication materials, such as banners, festoons, leaflets, T-shirt slogans for children etc. are also produced.
Asqual and Mehrat climb out of extreme poverty
The below article was originally posted by Ann Miles, Director of Microfinance at The MasterCard Foundation, and Susan Davis, President & CEO of BRAC USA on the CGAP-Ford Graduation Program blog. Earlier this month, Ann and Susan visited one of the Graduation Program pilot projects in Ethiopia.
Her hand shot up each time we asked a question. Asqual, a 25 year old single mother, is a beekeeper and lives outside Wukro in northern Tigray, Ethiopia. We visited her to learn more about her experience in the ‘graduation’ program being implemented by an NGO called REST in collaboration with DECSI, a microfinance organization. Through a partnership with The MasterCard Foundation and BRAC USA, BRAC Development Institute is conducting qualitative research about the pilot program in Ethiopia and other countries as they aim to help extremely poor households ‘graduate’ from the bottom 10% to being moderately poor and able to take advantage of microfinance.
Asqual’s daughter is 7 years old and her mother lives with them, too. We visited her home, a stone house and a small yard where she keeps her beehives, and had an opportunity to hear her story. Asqual started with two beehives and has since expanded to ten. She is optimistic about the future. She plans to purchase five more beehives with a microfinance loan.
She also participated in a focus group discussion with us and other young people later that day. We asked the group what is best about life in Ethiopia. The group was puzzled about this question and didn’t know how to respond. The best educated, Asqual, who has completed Class 10 answered:
Meherat received 2 cattle from REST worth 4700 birrs. She is fattening them and will sell them for meat. She has .25 hectare of farm land. In the past, she rented it out to someone else to farm using a sharecropping arrangement. But the person who had the oxen to plow the land got to keep 3/4 of the harvest. Now that she has cattle, she plowed the land herself and got to keep the entire harvest. Meherat wistfully said, “If this project had come at my young age, my life would have been so much better.”
She received income from the safety net program and the land. She will also get money from the animals once sold. She has been saving with DECSI, the local microfinance institution serving 60% of households in Tigray. Meherat said that in the future, she plans to take a loan from DECSI and keep growing her profits.
As we were preparing to leave, we asked this bone thin woman with weathered skin, ‘What did you eat today?” Somewhat surprised, she answered, “Who me? Bread. I had bread. I will eat some vegetables from the garden with injera (bread) later today. Food is expensive. Pulses and beans have been going up. One kilo of beans is now 12 birr.” I asked about the eggs from the chickens I see in the yard. She said “I sell the eggs for salt and coffee. I use them to buy this.” She added, “I know the way of life, I know what a balanced diet is. My plan is to save as much as I can to keep upgrading my life.”
Meherat proudly showed us her passbook; it said she has 2,078.81 birr (USD 122.28) in savings.
Her hand shot up each time we asked a question. Asqual, a 25 year old single mother, is a beekeeper and lives outside Wukro in northern Tigray, Ethiopia. We visited her to learn more about her experience in the ‘graduation’ program being implemented by an NGO called REST in collaboration with DECSI, a microfinance organization. Through a partnership with The MasterCard Foundation and BRAC USA, BRAC Development Institute is conducting qualitative research about the pilot program in Ethiopia and other countries as they aim to help extremely poor households ‘graduate’ from the bottom 10% to being moderately poor and able to take advantage of microfinance.
Asqual’s daughter is 7 years old and her mother lives with them, too. We visited her home, a stone house and a small yard where she keeps her beehives, and had an opportunity to hear her story. Asqual started with two beehives and has since expanded to ten. She is optimistic about the future. She plans to purchase five more beehives with a microfinance loan.
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| Asqual standing in front of her beehives from the program. She hopes with the help of a microfinance loan she can purchase more beehives. |
Meherat is a 38 year old mother of two girls, aged 15 and 19. Growing up, Meherat had a very difficult life. She never went to school, not even a day. She said, “There were 7 of us. All of us worked in other people’s homes to get food. We had no chance for any education or exposure to learning.” She has rented her labor to better off households until now. Meherat explained, “Now I am better. I have a bright future. I’ve improved my life situation. I send my children to school, in class 8 and 11. We have enough to eat.” Meherat planned for her two children and then stopped. She said that she wanted to be able to provide for them, “whatever is necessary.” She hopes her daughters have a life much better than hers.“Living here all things are available but we were unaware of how to use the natural resources around us, how to get money, how to change lives. We have everything it takes, the resources, the labor- this area is good- it’s just a lack of awareness. My only regret is that I didn’t start earlier- it’s about knowledge, to know and seize opportunities.”
Meherat received 2 cattle from REST worth 4700 birrs. She is fattening them and will sell them for meat. She has .25 hectare of farm land. In the past, she rented it out to someone else to farm using a sharecropping arrangement. But the person who had the oxen to plow the land got to keep 3/4 of the harvest. Now that she has cattle, she plowed the land herself and got to keep the entire harvest. Meherat wistfully said, “If this project had come at my young age, my life would have been so much better.”
She received income from the safety net program and the land. She will also get money from the animals once sold. She has been saving with DECSI, the local microfinance institution serving 60% of households in Tigray. Meherat said that in the future, she plans to take a loan from DECSI and keep growing her profits.
As we were preparing to leave, we asked this bone thin woman with weathered skin, ‘What did you eat today?” Somewhat surprised, she answered, “Who me? Bread. I had bread. I will eat some vegetables from the garden with injera (bread) later today. Food is expensive. Pulses and beans have been going up. One kilo of beans is now 12 birr.” I asked about the eggs from the chickens I see in the yard. She said “I sell the eggs for salt and coffee. I use them to buy this.” She added, “I know the way of life, I know what a balanced diet is. My plan is to save as much as I can to keep upgrading my life.”
Meherat proudly showed us her passbook; it said she has 2,078.81 birr (USD 122.28) in savings.
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