BRAC (formerly known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), multifaceted development organisation with the twin objectives of Alleviation of Poverty and Empowerment of the Poor, has signed an agreement with Bangladesh Medical Studies and Research Institute (BMSRI), the parent organisation of Bangladesh Medical College (BMC), to provide training for the medical students on the village level health services.

Under the agreement, BMC students will be given training on various field locations at village level where BRAC has been providing basic health services to the poor. Besides, BRAC will identify poor and vulnerable rural patients suffering from serious and complicated diseases for higher treatment by the BMC doctors.

BRAC was established as a relief and rehabilitation organisation in 1972 after the Bangladesh Liberation War by Fazle Hasan Abed. From its modest beginning in 1972 BRAC, initially the acronym for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and subsequently known only by its acronym, is now a multi-faceted organization with over 26,000 regular staff and 34,000 part time teachers, working in 60,627 villages in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh.

BRAC has been characterized as a learning institution, learning from experience and through a responsive and inductive process. Adjusting its strategy to prevailing circumstances, it does not pursue any rigid development model.

BRAC diagnoses poverty in real human terms. Prospects of a ''quiet revolution'' have been recognized in the economic role of women in the world of poverty.

Women with social, cultural, technological and structural constraints have been able to organize as contributors not only to their families'' well being but to national production and development as well by increasing their access to economic and social resources with the assistance of BRAC. Today, BRAC promotes income generation for the poor, mostly landless rural people of Bangladesh, through micro-credit, health, education and training programmes. ?