Updated May 28, 2009

New York/Dhaka, May 28, 2009 - BRAC staff have been working around the clock since before Cyclone Aila hit the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on Monday to evacuate people and immediately launched relief efforts. The storm, with tidal waves caused by winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, has rendered hundreds of thousands homeless, and many are still missing.

Over 10,800 people took shelter in 15 BRAC cyclone shelters constructed after Cyclone Sidr struck this same region in 2007. BRAC staff are providing dry food rations, consisting of chira (dried and flattened rice), molasses and bottled water to the most distressed; oral rehydration solution (ORS) packets to people suffering from diarrhea, along with water purification tablets, although most water sources are contaminated with saline water and will still be undrinkable. As many of the cyclone-hit areas were also affected by Cyclone Sidr, BRAC was already conducting rehabilitation work in the region, and quickly shifted into emergency relief mode.

Though wind speed was much lower than during Cyclone Sidr, Aila occurred during high tide which made the impact more significant.  Extensive damage has occurred as mud embankments have been breached, leaving several areas under water.  Dr. Babar Kabir, Director of BRAC's Disaster, Environment and Climate Change Program (DECC) who is overseeing the relief effort, is assessing the damage and relief needs in Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira.

“Clean water will become a public health concern as the local ponds (which are the only source of drinking water) have become inundated with saline (salt) water,” says Kabir.   “As BRAC begins to see the extent and severity of the damage, it is clear that a greater response is urgently needed.”

Click here to read the full press release. 

April 14, 2009

Fazle Hasan Abed returned to Bangladesh in 1972 following a devastating cyclone and liberation war to launch a small disaster relief effort. His organization, BRAC, still headquartered in Bangladesh, now touches the lives of over 100 million poor people. Today it is showing women, girls and their communities, from Afghanistan to Uganda, a path to hope and prosperity.

Freedom from Want tells the story of how – in a country where economic crisis is far from new – a small relief initiative became a development powerhouse. It takes us from Abed’s kitchen in Bangladesh, where he experimented with a solution that would eventually save hundreds of thousands of lives from the number-one child killer, diarrhea, to the caves in Afghanistan where BRAC micro-banker Noor Islam was held by kidnappers. The book describes how painstaking trial and error led to innovative social enterprise in tens of thousands of villages and a billion dollar organization that is today 80% self-financing in Bangladesh.

Ian Smillie, who has worked in international development for 30 years, is the perfect person to tell this truly amazing story. His writing goes beyond the statistics and technicalities to bring the people, heart and lessons of BRAC alive. Smillie is donating all royalties to BRAC.

Click here to read the full press release. 

Click here to order a copy of the book. 

March 5, 2009

“Ian Smillie insightfully chronicles the work of BRAC and its founder, Fazle Hasan Abed, whom I was proud to present with a Clinton Global Citizen Award. Dr. Abed’s story proves just how much people with vision and commitment can change the world.”

– Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States

“Ian Smillie's excellent book on BRAC is a gripping account of how the practical intellect of a person and the trail-blazing activities of an organization have been able to achieve something close to a miracle."

– Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate in Economics

“This book is a must for anyone who thinks that foreign aid doesn’t work, that ordinary people can’t pull themselves out of poverty, or that sustainable development can’t happen at a large scale.”

– Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia

Click here to pre-order an advanced copy of Freedom from Want, the new tell-all book about BRAC – all royalties will benefit BRAC, helping serve millions more poor individuals in need of health, education, social services and financial capital.

Click here to find out more and how you can help promote the book. 

March 26, 2009

"Before, when a visitor would come, even if they were BRAC officers, I would shake with nerves. Now I have become courageous; now I stand confidently.”

–Shadia Khatun, community health volunteer

Last summer, nine students from Duke University traveled to Bangladesh to see BRAC's multitude of poverty alleviation programs in action.

The myBRAC website showcases the narratives, videos, and photographs they produced while traveling across Bangladesh and meeting BRAC members. Through multi-media profiles, the site tells the stories of people like Shadia whose lives have been impacted by BRAC.

Click here to visit myBRAC.

January 6, 2009

(Dhaka, Bangladesh and Chicago, Illinois)

BRAC, a leading international development organization founded in Bangladesh announced that it has successfully raised $62.6 million of debt capital to provide microfinance loans to poor borrowers in Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan.  The BRAC Africa Loan Fund provides long-term, local-currency funding that will enable BRAC to scale up its microfinance operations to reach over 700,000 borrowers through over 200 branches across the three countries.  The Fund represents the largest single financing to date of a southern hemisphere development organization expanding into Africa. 

Click here to read the full press release.

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