ABOUT THE PROJECT

This documentary project tells the stories of 12 women who have endured injustice and are now improving their lives with the help of BRAC's community based institutions in Bangladesh. BRAC takes a holistic approach to poverty alleviation through organizing and empowering women to become agents of change. These stories are a testament to how educating and ensuring women of their rights, building women's collective advocacy groups and promoting gender equality on a household level can bring about lasting and sustainable societal change. Gender equality can only be accomplished when women demand for and have access to equal rights, are represented in political institutions and feel confident in speaking out against gender discrimination and violence. These stories emphasize the importance of community mobilization as the key to helping individuals in their struggle for justice, equality and self empowerment. This project documents the work of BRAC's Social and Legal Empowerment division which is made up of the following three programs: Community Empowerment, Human Rights and Legal Aid Services, and Gender Justice and Diversity.

• This project was filmed in the summer of 2010 by Annie Escobar and Patricia Schneidewind through the support of the NYU Reynolds Program of Social Entrepreneurship.
• Additional help filming and editing by Ethan Goldwater, co-founder of ListenIn Pictures, a media production company based in NYC that specializes in not-for-profit storytelling.

This project could not have been possible without the immense help of the following people:

• On the ground coordination and all video translations by Nipu Imteaz
• Additional translation help by Zarif Taufiq
• Web design by Tony Barbera
• Logo by Brian Lightbody

Many thanks to the following BRAC staff members for offering phenomenal support in the development of the project: Arefeen Ahmed, Palash Ghosh, Leena Khadija, Faustina Pereira, Anna Minj, Sheepha Hafiza, Ishraq Dhaly, Tanha Habib, Partha Sarathi, Susan Davis, Michelle Chaplin, Sherie Gertler, Tanvi Vattikuti and many more.