Near the end of 2001, after American troops toppled the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, the leaders of BRAC were hearing familiar stories.
Afghanistan had seen its infrastructure destroyed. The education system was in tatters. The economy had collapsed with people struggling to provide for their livelihoods. Meanwhile, scores of refugees were returning to the country following the end of the war.
BRAC had responded to similar conditions in its native Bangladesh when it was formed in 1972. At the time, the country was emerging from a liberation war that had forced millions to flee. Fazle Abed, a British-educated naval architect and accountant who until that point had worked in the private sector, returned home and built BRAC — then short for Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee.