04 August 2013, Dhaka. BRAC and National Eye Care- Directorate General of Health Services (NEC-DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have launched the second phase of the eye care project- Vision Bangladesh. The launching ceremony was held on the 4th August, 2013 at BRAC Centre auditorium.

In two and a half years of Vision Bangladesh Phase-I, about 95 per cent of the target of 100,000 cataract surgeries and 200,000 refractive error corrections have been achieved.  Moreover, with the aid of frontline community health workers, BRAC has been able to deliver eye care at the doorstep of one million people across Sylhet division.

Based on the enormous success of that partnership and lessons learned in operating in rural areas, BRAC is now going to expand the eye care services in the slums of 10 city corporations of Bangladesh, covering an estimated 7.25 million people.

This project, which will run from July 2013 to December 2015, is aligned with Bangladesh Government’s national goal of eliminating avoidable blindness from Bangladesh by 2020.It will be implemented through a partnership approach and will foster collaboration between BRAC, NEC-DGHS, and other partner organizations including NGOs and hospitals. This project will develop capacity of the eye care providers and institutions; deliver eye care services and establish and sustain referral networks between the slum community and functional government hospital/private/NGO facilities for eye care. 

Prof. Dr. A.F.M Ruhal Haque MP, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), attended the ceremony as the Chief Guest. Prof. Syed Modasser Ali, Advisor to the Honourable Prime Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Dr. Capt. (Rtd.) Mozibur Rahman Fakir MP, Honourable State Minister, MoHFW, attended as Special Guests. The event was chaired by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson, BRAC.

The Minister said, “The effective leadership in National Eye Care and BRAC’s widespread network of frontline community health workers would equate to the certain success of this project.”  

Prof. Syed Modasser Ali pointed out that the immense success of Sir Fazle in implementing a diverse range of development projects is the indicator that this project will also be a success.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed said, “BRAC and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have been involved in a number of partnerships for a long time to provide a range of healthcare services, including eye care.” He emphasised on scaling up Vision Bangladesh project across the country to eliminate cataract backlog by 2020.      

A memorandum of understanding was signed by Dr. Prof. Deen Md. Nurul Huq, Line Director, National Eye Care and Director cum Professor NIO&H and Dr. Kaosar Afsana, Director, Health Nutrition and Population Programme, BRAC.
 

BRAC University is offering Diploma in Midwifery in collaboration with implementing partner organisations in respective areas of Dhaka, Dinajpur, Cox's Bazar, Khulna, Mymensingh and Sylhet. The Diploma in Midwifery Programme is a 155-credit, full-time, 36-month residential programme taught by experienced faculties trained by Jhpiego and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and OGSB.

BRAC University is admitting students to its three year residential Diploma in Midwifery programme with generous scholarships. Interested students may apply online via bracu.ac.bd/apply  or call 880 172620726 for further information. Deadline for application is August 18, 2013.

Bangladeshi poverty fighter Fazle Abed is the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize. (Courtesy photo)

Sometimes called the “Nobel Prize for food and agriculture,” the World Food Prize recognizes people who have made breakthrough contributions towards improving the world’s food supply. This year’s winner is a former accountant from Bangladesh.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, knighted for his work by the British crown, founded BRAC (formerly known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) in 1972 following Bangladesh’s devastating cyclone and war of independence.  More than 40 years later, BRAC has helped nearly 150 million people out of poverty.

Focus on women and children

Beyond supporting a range of businesses, including fish hatcheries, tea plantations and milk processing centers, Abed has made it his business to help women in rural villages. They learn modern farming techniques, such as how to efficiently apply fertilizer to crops. Abed established programs that have enabled millions to disburse more than $1 billion through microfinance organizations. The loans have allowed women to create small, sustainable businesses producing iodized salt or raising cows, along with dairy and poultry farming. 

BRAC’s innovations helped cut Bangladesh’s child mortality rate from 25 percent to 7 percent. How? Abed trained women to teach others how to mix a solution of water, salt and sugar — a combination that prevents dehydration. Instructors’ wages were based on how well households understood this lesson, in essence making this effort one of the world’s earliest incentive-based social entrepreneurship programs.

“Only by putting the poorest, and women in particular, in charge of their own destinies, will absolute poverty and deprivation be removed from the face of the earth,” Abed said after he learned of his nomination for the award. 

Take Christina John, a farmer in Dodoma district in Tanzania. As a result of the vegetable seeds and field management lessons she received from BRAC, which began operations in the large East African nation in 2006, her income increased fourfold. She now earns enough money to send her children to school.

Feeding millions

Today, BRAC operates in Bangladesh and 10 other countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, reaching an estimated 135 million people. 

“At a time when the world confronts the great challenge of feeding over 9 billion people,” said World Food Prize President Kenneth Quinn, Abed and BRAC “have created the pre-eminent model being followed around the globe on how to educate girls, empower women and lift whole generations out of poverty.”

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that “Sir Fazle’s and his organization’s recognition that engaging women in STEAM fields — science, technology, engineering, agriculture and math — benefits our local and global communities.”

The roots of the World Food Prize

The World Food Prize was conceived in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Norman Borlaug, an agronomist who grew up on a farm in Iowa. The father of the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, he crossbred thousands of wheat varieties, created “dwarf wheat” and developed a new agriculture technique that saved hundreds of millions of people from death and famine.

Recipients of the award have hailed from all over the world, including India, China, Cuba, Denmark, Sierra Leone, Brazil and Ethiopia, where Gebisa Ejeta brought drought-resistant sorghum to Africa. U.S. winners include food scientist Philip Nelson, who revolutionized bulk food transportation and storage.

Abed will receive the World Food Prize on October 15 in Des Moines, Iowa, during the Borlaug Dialogue, a three-day international symposium that attracts agriculture and development experts from more than 65 countries.

As world leaders shepherd in a new era of international development with the UN's Global Goals, Basemera, a young girl in rural Uganda dreams about her future and that of her friends and family.

Basemera comes from a Catholic family and is one of seven children. Her father is a primary school teacher and tried to earn enough to keep his kids in education, but didn't succeed; Basemera had to drop out of secondary school after only four years.

Yet she dreams big. Despite her challenging circumstances, she wants to start a business, so she can ensure that the next generation is fed and educated. She knows first-hand that food and schooling aren't a given for girls. And she is determined to change things.

Life-changing moment
Basemera is a leader, a dreamer, a change maker. But that wasn't always the case. Once, she was resigned to living in the kitchen and worrying about her prospects and those of her brothers and sisters with no solutions, no course of action. Life was bleak, the future uninspiring.

Then Basemera met Rosemary Akello. Rosemary works for BRAC, an organisation dedicated to bringing financial inclusion and economic empowerment to vulnerable populations. In her words, "It's important to invest in girls, because even if men build houses, women will always build homes."

That's why Rosemary runs financial inclusion and economic empowerment programmes, such as Goal, across 156 villages in Uganda, She knows firsthand that financial inclusion will ensure girls stay in school, keep them from early and forced marriages, and grant them the opportunity to determine their own future.

Feeling empowered
Basemera joined the Goal programme and her world opened up. She learned about her human rights; she learned about her body; she learned about effective communication, and she learned that she matters. Perhaps most importantly, she learned that she had options. She could be financially independent if she had the right tools, capabilities and resources.

Rosemary taught Basemera how to budget, save and plan her family finances. Basemera became financially literate - a critical milestone to achieving financial inclusion. And because BRAC is a microfinance institution that provides microloans to poor and vulnerable individuals, Basemera learned about entrepreneurship. She discovered that she could start her own business and control her economic destiny. That was the game changer.

Empowering others
Now, Basemera is not only dreaming about her future business, but also mentoring and coaching other girls in her community. She is encouraging them to make informed personal and financial decisions; she is pushing them to pursue their ambitions; she is ushering in the new generation of girl entrepreneurs across Uganda.

Basemera wants every girl to have a goal, as well as the right tools to achieve them, such as financial education and access to finance. As the Global Goals are celebrated around the world this week, let's remember Rosemary and Basemera in Uganda. They prove that if we invest in girls and women, we will change the world.