The Economist says, Sir Fazle's BRAC is world's fastest growing NGO

Smiling and dapper, Fazle Hasan Abed hardly seems like a revolutionary. A Bangladeshi educated in Britain, an admirer of Shakespeare and Joyce, and a former accountant at Shell, he is the son of a distinguished family: his maternal grandfather was a minister in the colonial government of Bengal; a great-uncle was the first Bengali to serve in the governor of Bengal's executive council. This week he received a very traditional distinction of his own: a knighthood. Yet the organisation he founded, and for which his knighthood is a gong of respect, has probably done more than any single body to upend the traditions of misery and poverty in Bangladesh. Called BRAC, it is by most measures the largest, fastest-growing non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the world—and one of the most businesslike.
   Although Mohammed Yunus won the Nobel peace prize in 2006 for helping the poor, his Grameen Bank was neither the first nor the largest microfinance lender in his native Bangladesh; BRAC was. Its microfinance operation disburses about $1 billion a year. But this is only part of what it does: it is also an internet-service provider; it has a university; its primary schools educate 11% of Bangladesh's children. It runs feed mills, chicken farms, tea plantations and packaging factories. BRAC has shown that NGOs do not need to be small and that a little-known institution from a poor country can outgun famous Western charities. In a book on BRAC entitled "Freedom from Want", Ian Smillie calls it "undoubtedly the largest and most variegated social experiment in the developing world. The spread of its work dwarfs any other private, government or non-profit enterprise in its impact on development."
   None of this seemed likely in 1970, when Sir Fazle turned Shell's offices in Chittagong into a refuge for victims of a deadly cyclone. BRAC—which started as an acronym, Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, and became a motto, "building resources across communities"—surmounted its early troubles by combining two things that rarely go together: running an NGO as a business and taking seriously the social context of poverty.
   BRAC earns from its operations about 80% of the money it disburses to the poor (the remainder is aid, mostly from Western donors). It calls a halt to activities that require endless subsidies. At one point, it even tried financing itself from the tiny savings of the poor (i.e., no aid at all), though this drastic form of self-help proved a step too far: hardly any lenders or borrowers put themselves forward. From the start, Sir Fazle insisted on brutal honesty about results. BRAC pays far more attention to research and "continuous learning" than do most NGOs. David Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World", called it "as near to a pure example of a learning organisation as one is likely to find."
   What makes BRAC unique is its combination of business methods with a particular view of poverty. Poverty is often regarded primarily as an economic problem which can be alleviated by sending money. Influenced by three "liberation thinkers" fashionable in the 1960s—Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich—Sir Fazle recognised that poverty in Bangladeshi villages is also a result of rigid social stratification. In these circumstances, "community development" will help the rich more than the poor; to change the poverty, you have to change the society.
   That view might have pointed Sir Fazle towards left-wing politics. Instead, the revolutionary impetus was channelled through BRAC into development. Women became the institution's focus because they are bottom of the heap and most in need of help: 70% of the children in BRAC schools are girls. Microfinance encourages the poor to save but, unlike the Grameen Bank, BRAC also lends a lot to small companies. Tiny loans may improve the lot of an individual or family but are usually invested in traditional village enterprises, like owning a cow. Sir Fazle's aim of social change requires not growth (in the sense of more of the same) but development (meaning new and different activities). Only businesses create jobs and new forms of productive enterprise.
   After 30 years in Bangladesh, BRAC has more or less perfected its way of doing things and is spreading its wings round the developing world. It is already the biggest NGO in Afghanistan, Tanzania and Uganda, overtaking British charities which have been in the latter countries for decades. Coming from a poor country—and a Muslim one, to boot—means it is less likely to be resented or called condescending. Its costs are lower, too: it does not buy large white SUVs or employ large white men. Its expansion overseas may, however, present BRAC with a new problem. Robert Kaplan, an American writer, says that NGOs fill the void between thousands of villages and a remote, often broken, government. BRAC does this triumphantly in Bangladesh—but it is a Bangladeshi organisation. Whether it can do the same elsewhere remains to be seen.
   Courtesy: The Economist www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15546464

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Losing a son like him is unbearable for us

Habibur Rahman

A bright star of our army, Colonel Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique, ndc, psc, was killed at Peelkhana during the BDR mutiny in 2009. He was spreading his radiance in Bangladesh Army and was supposed to be promoted to Brigadier General by the Army Promotion Board in July 2009. Death is inevitable but losing a loving son like Shafique is utterly unbearable for us.
   Commissioned in 1983, he stood first in B.Sc. examination from Chittagong University. He was sent to the School of Infantry and Tactics in Sylhet and appointed an instructor which post is given only to the first boy in each course. At the Military Institute of Science and Technology [now upgraded to the Military University of Science and Technology] imparting education to military officers as well as civilians for B.Sc. (Engineering), MBA, and Computer Engineering etc.
   After that Shafique was posted as Commanding Officer of 18 Bengal Regiment in the Chittagong Hill Tracts he was brought back to the Staff College as Directing Staff. He was promoted to a full Colonel and posted as Senior Instructor in the Staff College. Later on he was sent to Sudan in 2007 in the UN Peacekeeping Mission as Sector Commander. While in Sudan the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon decorated him with the Medal of Gallantry which only a few officers of the UN Peace Mission from Bangladesh has received so far. After his return from Sudan he was sent to the National Defence College (NDC) which is normally given only to officers of the rank of Brigadier General and above. He successfully completed his ndc in December 2008. While doing his ndc he completed M.Phil from Dhaka University. This extraordinary officer was murdered by some BDR soldiers on February 25-26 at Peelkhana, Dhaka at the Durbar Hall. While he was alive as a hostage it is learnt that he sent messages to his colleagues to rescue him, but none came to help.
   The Promotion board sat in July-August 2009 and Elahi was to be a Brigadier General—a pity he left this world in the prime of his career without a Star (Brigadier) although he proved himself a star in the Bangladesh Army.
   Shafique was a loveable person to his superiors, colleagues, friends and relations. He was most caring and dutiful to his parents, wife, child, brothers, sisters and all. He was even very dear to his drivers, batmen and domestic aids. He was soft-spoken and kind to all.
   After his death a Brigadier General in uniform said, "In the loss of Colonel Shafique the countrymen will never know what the Army has lost". One officer with tears in his eyes commented, "In the BDR Mutiny the losses we have suffered are so immense which Bangladesh Army cannot recover in 50 years". Out of thousands of BDR soldiers only a handful of them knew him in one month and 10 days. He had no enemies — what then was the cause that 57 brilliant unarmed officers were so brutally shot dead? Was it not a national or international conspiracy to weaken the Bangladesh Army? Will the truth ever come out? The people have the right to know the truth and culprits punished.
   Perhaps it was the will of Allah that he was so dear to all and He took Shafique at the zenith of his life. May Allah Almighty grant him Jannat-ul Ferdous. Amen.
   As I write the above lines in memory of my loving son, my eyes are becoming hazy, tears are flowing down my cheeks, and my heart is bleeding. I cannot write anymore.
   Those of us who have lost our sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, our heart rending cry and tears will certainly fall on the conspirators and murderers from the Creator Himself today or tomorrow. If earthly justice is delayed or denied, justice from Allah will certainly fall —- this is our firm faith in Him, the omniscient and the greatest judge in heaven and earth.
   The writer is the bereaved father of Shaheed Col. Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique.

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Rotary strives to promote peace through education. Since 1947, The Rotary Foundation has awarded more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants and is the world's largest privately-funded source of international scholarships. Grants are administered by local Rotary clubs.
   
   ROTARY'S EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
   * Ambassadorial Scholarships
   Approximately 1,000 scholarships are awarded annually to university students around the world to study in another country from three months to two years. These students serve as ambassadors of goodwill. Since 1947, The Rotary Foundation has sponsored more than 39,000 scholars from over 115 countries.
   * Group Study Exchange
   Group Study Exchange (GSE) enables groups of young professionals aged 25-40 to participate in four-to-sixweek exchanges between two countries. GSE teams focus on vocational, educational and cultural development. Since 1965, about 65,000 individuals (13,541 teams) from 106 countries have participated.
   * Youth Exchange
   Some 8,000 teenage students from around the world study in another country and learn about its history, language and culture each year. They too, serve as goodwill ambassadors and promote world understanding and peace.
   * Rotary Grants for University Teachers
   Grants are awarded annually to about 30 university faculty members who teach for up to 10 months at an academic institution of their choice in a developing county. Since 1985, 486 university teachers have participated in this program.
   * Rotary World Peace Fellowships
   This program trains future diplomats and international leaders in the art of peace building and conflict resolution. Up to 110 Rotary World Peace Fellows are selected annually to study at one of eight universities for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution. Fellows are offered an opportunity to gain a Master's degree in peace studies, conflict resolution, international relations or a professional development certificate in peace and conflict studies. Since 2002, 339 fellows from over 75 countries have participated at a cost of more than $23 million. Universities include: Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina; University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan; University of California, Berkeley, USA; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; and Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
   Courtesy: The Rotary Club of Dhaka Buriganga.

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Experts for more awareness about influenza

Holiday Report

Health experts at the inaugural session of a two-day conference on 23th February 2010 underscored the need for increasing the level of social awareness for checking the spread of pandemic influenza in the country.
   The pandemic influenza causes morbidity not mortality but community people are often being panicked due to lack of adequate awareness about it.
   Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (l-12P) Project with CORE Group and Save the Children and Care Bangladesh have jointly organized the conference in cooperation with the USAID at a city hotel here,
   Deputy country director of Save the Children Barbara B gave the welcome speech while director general of Health Service Prof Dr Shah Monir Hossain spoke as he chief guest. He spelt out the long history of the pandemic influenza causalitics of the pandemic in the country arc not as high as India due to early response to the management process, he said. Syed Umar Khyyam laid high emphasis on increasing community participation in the socjal mobilization process for making the community people aware of the pandemic influenza.

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