The Government of the Netherlands entered into a multi-million Euro agreement with BRAC in a signing ceremony held at the BRAC Centre in Dhaka on February 16th between H.E. Mrs A.M. Agnes van Ardenne-van der Hoeven, Minister for Development Cooperation, The Netherlands, and Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson, BRAC.

The agreement, which covers the BRAC Education Programme, will provide, over a course of 3 and ½ years, more than 14 million Euros to expand the programme’s reach in Bangladesh. Through this agreement more than 125,000 drop-out/non-enrolled children - 60% of whom will be girls – from poor families across the country will be provided with primary education through 3,200 BRAC Primary Schools/BRAC Adolescent Primary Schools and 1,200 Education Support Programme schools, for a total of 4,400 new schools. An additional 3,200 Children With Disabilities (CWD) will be enrolled into BRAC Schools and benefited through the provision of assistive devices. Cooperation with local NGOs will be extended to reach remote areas with higher proportions of ethnic students. 800 Kishori Kendros (Adolescent Centres) will be operated over the 3.5-year period giving access to life-skills courses and continuing education opportunities to 24,000 adolescents, most of whom are girls. A further 800 secondary schools will be covered under the Post Primary Basic Education component to improve their management and provide Head Teachers, subject teachers and School Management Committee (SMC) members with the appropriate in-service or management training. The Continuing Education component of BRAC’s Education programme will open an additional 480 Gonokendros (Community Libraries) in under-served areas and equip 480 existing Gonokendros with Information Technology services with funding from this agreement. Expressing his gratitude, Fazle Hasan Abed stated, “By committing additional funds to our Non-formal Primary Education Programme, you will enable us to provide educational opportunities to thousands of children who would otherwise remain deprived.”

In addition to the signing of the agreement on education, an ambitious programme to address the multiple challenges faced by Bangladesh in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors was also announced. The Minister for Development Cooperation noted that, “In Bangladesh you don’t have to look very far to see water. Water is everywhere, similar to the Netherlands. Yet good-quality drinking water is not available to all, and floods have caused devastation and suffering.” The BRAC Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme, to be implemented by the BRAC Health Department and funded by The Netherlands, is in the final stages of development. Chairperson, BRAC, elaborated that the proposed programme will initiate a holistic hygiene promotion and education programme to reach out to 37.5 million people, ensure that 17.6 million people - spread over 150 Upazilas - have access to sanitation services that are effectively used, including consistent hygiene practices. In addition to this, more than 8.5 million people will be provided with safe water supply services, 1 million people will get access to safe water supply through new water supply facilities, and 7.5 million people will get access to safe water through the repair of existing water supplies. The NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh has already approved the WASH Programme and an agreement will be signed within the next few weeks.

© 2005 BRAC Bangladesh
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Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh