Concord Times (Freetown)
Ben Samuel Turay
6 September 2008
Freetown — A non governmental organization based in Bangladesh, BRAC with interest in health, education, agriculture and microfinance development projects, has begun to help residents of Kroo Bay and other communities in Sierra Leone.
Area manager Mr. Aljaf yesterday went to Kroo Bay as part of a countrywide survey to observe the living conditions in the community.
According to assessment there were many things that could be done to improve the lives of people living in the area, including improved access to healthcare and skills training for youth.
"We are not happy with living conditions in the Kroo Bay community," he said.
Adviser to the steering committee at the Bay Mohamed Karbgo said the main problem affecting the area were poor infrastructure and housing conditions that often cause flooding.
"We want BRAC to assist us to rehabilitate our houses," Kargbo said.
Through their many development projects across the world BRAC is struggling against chronic deprivation, hunger and injustice.
"Our initial focus was to assist the refugees returning (back to Bangladesh) from other countries. We broadened our focus to long term sustainable poverty reduction across the world," he said.
Today, BRAC is in Sierra Leone to help people, particularly women and the poor, to challenge outdated hierarchies and prejudices.
"We came to see Sierra Leone and how we can soon help them," Aljaf said, adding that "we at BRAC understand that when a person is poor, he or she is poor for a whole number of reasons that compound the disadvantages he or she faces." BRAC focuses on economic development, health programmes, legal services and human rights education. According to BRAC's website, their economic development programme uses a "participatory, peer supported and multicultural strategy to offer poor rural women the skills and opportunity to achieve sustainable improvement in their livelihoods, and attain dignity and self-reliance." Economic development projects include microfinance, institution building, income generating activities and program support enterprises. BRAC's health program provides preventive, curative, and rehabilitative grassroots health services. The legal services and human rights education component provides Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to poor communities and serves as a social catalyst that educates people on their rights and how to claim their entitlements as citizens.
BRAC representative for Sierra Leone, Desmond Taylor said "over the course of our evolution, BRAC has established itself as a pioneer in recognizing and tackling the different dimensions of poverty. Sierra Leone is one of the countries that we are going to help.
"Our unique, holistic approach to poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor encompasses a range of core programmes in economic and social development, health, education, human rights and legal services. We aim to empower the poorest people by increasing their human, social and political assets so they are aware of their rights," he said.
It is hoped that through this work people living in and with poverty could claim their entitlements and resist exploitation.
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