BRAC, based in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, is (as of May 2010) the world's largest non-governmental development organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

. Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

Fazle Hasan Abed

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, KCMG is a social worker with dual Bangladeshi/ British nationality and the founder and chairman of BRAC . For his outstanding contributions to social improvement, he has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the UNDP Mahbub Ul Haq Award and the inaugural Clinton Global Citizen...

 in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh

Districts of Bangladesh

The divisions of Bangladesh are divided into 64 districts, or zila . The districts are further subdivided into 493 sub-districts, or upazila ....

, with over 7 million microfinance

Microfinance

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....

 group members, 37,500 non-formal primary schools and more than 70,000 health volunteers. BRAC is the largest NGO by number of staff employing over 120,000 people, the majority of whom are women. BRAC operates programs such as those in microfinance and education in nine countries across Asia and Africa, reaching more than 110 million people.