Every Partner Counts: BRAC

BRAC was founded by Dr. Fazel Hasan Abed and is one of the largest and most respected NGOs in the world. We met a very pregnant Monica Begun through Yasmine, a BRAC community health worker, on our first day filming in the slums in Dhaka in January of 2009 for "No Woman, No Cry." This program was fairly new at the time, but already had such promise. BRAC's objective is to address some of the cultural barriers that keep women from accessing care in a timely manner throughout their pregnancies. This is a huge challenge in a country like Bangladesh, where most deliveries take place outside of a facility, far from skilled birth attendants or emergency obstetric care. This results in thousands of maternal and infant deaths every year that could be avoided. Documenting Monica’s journey to deliver her second child allowed us to gain insight from her perspective, which helps us to understand how limited her options actually are. We returned to Dhaka a year ago and screened the film for the maternal health community and invited Monica and her family. We are so proud to partner with the team at BRAC and look forward to many more opportunities in the future.

For more on BRAC, please read In Bangladesh, Childbirth Is Getting Safer.

Christy, Monica, and her son at the "No Woman, No Cry" premiere in Bangladesh in 2011.

From NWNC production: Yasmine and Monica