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Village women are preparing goods for Aarong.

BRAC, a national private development organization, set up in 1972 by Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed was initially established as a relief organization, to afford relief and assistance to resettle refugees returning to Bangladesh from India after Bangladesh's Liberation War. The immediate task of relief and rehabilitation over, BRAC turned its focus on the long-term issue of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor, especially women, in the rural areas of Bangladesh. 

From its modest beginning in 1972 BRAC, initially the acronym for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and subsequently known only by its acronym, is now a multi-faceted organization with over 26,000 regular staff and 34,000 part time teachers, working in 60,627 villages in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. BRAC has been characterized as a learning institution, learning from experience and through a responsive and inductive process. Adjusting its strategy to prevailing circumstances, it does not pursue any rigid development model.

BRAC diagnoses poverty in real human terms. Prospects of a 'quiet revolution' have been recognized in the economic role of women in the world of poverty. Women with social, cultural, technological and structural constraints have been able to organize as contributors not only to their families' well being but to national production and development as well by increasing their access to economic and social resources with the assistance of BRAC. Today, BRAC promotes income generation for the poor, mostly landless rural people of Bangladesh, through micro-credit, health, education and training programmes.