BRIF - the Organisation, its Goals & Origins
The organisation that Keri was based in and was most
involved with was the Bangladesh Rural Improvement Foundation or BRIF
(www.brif.org). It is a non-profit making,
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), working in the field of rural development. BRIF's
main responsibility is to raise the socio-economic condition of the disadvantaged, poor
and vulnerable people of the northern part of the country. It does this by promoting the
local resources in a diverse way, to generate income and employment. These areas are
among the poorest in the region but well served by many local and national NGO’s.
According to BRIF literature their vision and mission was
as follows:
- Vision: Assist the rural communities particularly poor vulnerable groups, help them to become self sufficient and economically independent for a sustainable rural development, which will empower them in society by improving environmental problems
- Mission: Increase the capacity of the targeted beneficiaries for developing and promoting thus enabling the target people to become involved in the various programmes (development activities) of BRIF for their Social and economic security.
BRIF was founded in 1984 by the current Executive
Director (ED) Shah Ahsan Habib and concentrates on rural poor, landless and marginal
farmers, disabled, children and adolescents and has a special focus on women empowerment
in its activities.
During the last few years, the organization has expanded
rapidly. It ran more than 10 projects, funded by several foreign donors.
The organization employed 123 staff and worked together with several foreign
and local volunteers.