Dear Kofi,
With all of my years working with BRAC and in development in general, I still find myself consistently blown away by the people we work with.
Last month in Liberia, I met Cecilia Doe, a formidable woman who took on the Firestone corporation to get rights to land where her community now leverages BRAC's tools and training to grow rice.
Cecilia is Liberia's secret to success, and she's one of millions!
You can read below about how young girls in Uganda and Bangladesh are changing their communities as well.
In addition to the incredible women and girls BRAC works with in developing communities, there are also many wonderful volunteers and interns who commit their time to BRAC's mission.
I had a chance to meet with some of the summer interns at BRAC while in Bangladesh earlier this month, and was thoroughly impressed by this amazing group.
You can read posts from some of our interns in the US and in Bangladesh on our blog.
New and experienced, our interns and volunteers are part of the soul of this organisation.
They are true ambassadors of BRAC.
Best wishes,
Susan Davis
(President & CEO, BRAC USA)
(1) BRAC Partners with SMS Forum UReport in Uganda:
BRAC was recently introduced to an initiative called Ureport.
Initiated by UNICEF, Ureport is an SMS based forum designed to provide Ugandan youth with a platform to raise issues that concern them.
The system uses mobile technology to allow youth to interact with each other and participate in a national dialog process.
BRAC Uganda has partnered with the Ureport initiative by including the members from their youth clubs.
BRAC Uganda's Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents program has 690 clubs for adolescent girls and a further 100 Youth Development Centers under its Access to Health, Education and Youth Development program in Karamoja.
About 26,500 adolescent girls in Uganda are now reached by these programs. Ureport is a great opportunity for BRAC to connect these girls through new mediums and a feedback based process.
It fits nicely with our objective of supporting youth in becoming contributing members of their communities.
Already more than 3,500 club members are being registered into the system along with nearly 9,000 young members from the microfinance and health programs.
The hope is that these BRAC participants will spread the message and encourage others to join.Click here to read the rest.
(2) Insana's Story:
A Student and a Teacher, Insana is 18 years old. She lives in a village in Kalampur, Dhamrai in Bangladesh.
When she was in Grade 10, Insana was forced to drop out of school, as her family was unable to bear the associated costs and needed one more hand to add to the meagre family income.
This was a big blow for Insana, as she enjoyed school and wanted to continue her education further.
Nevertheless, in response to her family’s needs, Insana stopped going to school and started rearing some chicks and ducks to help support her family.
Insana was a member of a local SoFEA club, and her club mentor and the staff became aware of this and offered her the chance to enroll in a training program to learn tailoring.
Although there was pressure from her family to find a higher earning job, Insana decided to take up the training.
Click here to read more of Insana's story.
(3) Christy Turlington goes back to Bangladesh:
This week, Christy Turlington Burns returned to Bangladesh for the first time since filming
No Woman, No Cry, a documentary that follows the stories of four women who face the dangers of pregnancy.
One of the stories Christy covers in her film is Monica, who is working with Yasmin, a BRAC Community Health Promoter, to ensure she has a safe pregnancy.
On the first day of her return, Christy talks with BRAC staff and visits our maternal health program in the slums of Dhaka, where she reunites with Yasmin.
Click here to read Christy's story of her first day back in Bangladesh.
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