Humanitarian News - AidWorkers blog posts

Dirty Letters

AidBlogs — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:50:05 PDT

USAID Finally has a Water and Development Strategy

AidBlogs — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:30:21 PDT

There are Days . . .

AidBlogs — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:30:20 PDT

. . when I briefly consider whether I can go on. When the stress and sadness of working on the edge of life just seems like too much, when the losses accumulate and threaten to overwhelm. This week it was Tuesday afternoon. I nearly missed a monthly meeting for the Bethany Kids department (Paediatric surgery and Neurosurgery), we[...]

Matchmaker, matchmaker

AidBlogs — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:30:20 PDT

Matchmaking, it seems to me, would be a noble profession. Seeing need and opportunity and finding win-win mutually beneficial arrangements with the potential for long lives of blessing. This week I felt a little thrill of matchmaking. No, not for a marriage, though I do believe this is a love story. Love that brings people[...]

The graduate

AidBlogs — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:20:06 PDT

Blue Dragon's first rescue trip to find trafficked children was in 2006. A small team of us traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to meet kids who had been trafficked onto the streets from central Vietnam. I was on that team, along with our lawyer Van, a volunteer named Eric, and a former street kid who is now a staff member at Blue[...]

So About All Those Taxes on the Rich...

AidBlogs — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:40:41 PDT

A big win for Dong

AidBlogs — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:00:20 PDT

Today there was an exciting announcement on Australian radio. Kathryn Freeman, a former volunteer at Blue Dragon in Vietnam, and now a Board Member of Blue Dragon in Australia, has won a notable award. Kathryn entered a writing competition held by an organisation called The Footpath Library. She wrote about her relationship to[...]

On giving up development

AidBlogs — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:10:19 PDT

Nora Schenkel wrote a post mortem last week of her aborted development career 'I Came to Haiti to Do[...]

A HUGE loss

AidBlogs — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:30:29 PDT

"Poverty Barons"

AidBlogs — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:01:21 PDT

From the independent review of DFID's use of consultants: ICAI reviewed the DFID Central Procurement Group and a range of programmes with a combined[...]

The Kid who Went Down Fighting

AidBlogs — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:30:39 PDT

"I want to be remembered as the kid who went down fighting and didn't really lose." You may or may not have heard of Zach Sobiech. The 18 year old died from cancer yesterday and the above video is a short view into his amazing life. It seems like Zach was the very embodiment of when[...]

US Food Aid Reform Train is Slowing Down

AidBlogs — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:40:20 PDT

Food aid reforms came under the spotlight last month when the Obama Administration announced its Fiscal Year 2014 budget. The changes are important to humanitarian response. Oxfam America estimates that reforms to food aid procurement laws could speed up crisis response by 14 weeks and reach an additional 17.1 million people.[...]

Seeing like a State vs Seeing like a Donor

AidBlogs — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:20:27 PDT

In which Justin Sandefur takes Chris Blattman and Bill Gates to school.... he argues that African governments don't need GDP data or internationally comparable micro survey data, they need good quality administrative data.

This TED talk will probably save someone's life

AidBlogs — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:10:25 PDT

[...][Published in AidBlogs - Read the original article]

moments of disappointment

AidBlogs — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:40:15 PDT

It’s been a while. Sometimes life gets away from us and suddenly five months has gone by without a post. I thought at this point I’d have exciting news to share! I thought I would get to write about a new venture for my husband and I, about a dream taking shape,[...]

Girl Rising

AidBlogs — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:10:15 PDT

On June 6th we are going to Girl Rising. The film is being show at Interquest Stadium 14 (Screen TBD) 11250 Rampart Hill View, Colorado Springs. Get your tickets here. Hurry, they are going fast! [...][Published in AidBlogs - Read

Malaria overstretching healthcare in DRC

AidBlogs — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:30:20 PDT

Malaria is preventable and curable. But the poor don't have the resources. Thousands of children under five years old die each year. Insecticide treated nets (ITN) are not available in some areas. And when they are available, their costs may put them out of reach of the poor. Finally, the availability and cost of treatment repeats the same[...]

Lazy day at Lazy B

AidBlogs — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:50:34 PDT

Ingebjorg and I went to our favourite beach place on Saturday, Lazy B. Here's a photo of the two of us:

Shadow

AidBlogs — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:20:17 PDT

Blue in the news

AidBlogs — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:30:07 PDT

Blue Dragon has popped up in the news around the world over the last week. Gulf News has featured an in-depth article on human trafficking: Blue Dragon Founder sees red over human[...]

Mitchell Argues for Patience and Cooperation with Rwanda

AidBlogs — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:30:42 PDT

Former UK development chief Andrew Mitchell makes the case for providing aid to Rwanda in an interview with the Guardian. You may remember the controversy[...]

Nick Kristof on the Slow Death of International Journalism

AidBlogs — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:00:23 PDT

New York Times journalist Nick Kristof is pessimistic when it comes to the state of international reporting in the US. He told me about his concerns in an email exchange a few months back, but extends his thoughts further in the latest CGD

Friday Silliness

AidBlogs — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:20:39 PDT

It's Friday afternoon, and I'm in the mood for a little silliness. Thankfully I didn't have to look too far for some silliness to share. In our office, we have a big room where there are loads of desks, a kitchen, a bathroom and two smaller rooms that have fewer desks. One of these rooms has a hidden room. On first and second glances, you wouldn't even notice the door, and[...]

How to Fail at Human Rights: Australia Excuses itself from Refugee Law

AidBlogs — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:41:02 PDT

A large portion of what I spend my time doing overseas is engaging with abuses of[...]

Bugs: The Surprising Super Food

AidBlogs — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:00:21 PDT

Jokes naturally followed the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation's new report extolling the virtues of eating bugs. The most popular tweet was a variant on 'Let them eat cake.' Others pointed to the scene in the Disney movie the[...]

Are private school fees in India "inflated"?

AidBlogs — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:40:15 PDT

Adventures in fact-checking exfam lefties Swati Narayan on Duncan Green's blog celebrates a new law passed in India reserving 25% of private school places[...]

Awkward Video of the Day: Tina Delivers a Goat

AidBlogs — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:50:24 PDT

HT Linda [...][Published in AidBlogs - Read

PFM in Myanmar: do you have to choose between coordination and flexibility?

AidBlogs — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:10:17 PDT

This is a guest post from Ben French (a policy adviser formerly based in Juba) Following two short recent visits to Myanmar where I was looking at the Public Financial Management (PFM) and Planning aspects of Myanmar's reforms, I kept[...]

Starts today

AidBlogs — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:50:20 PDT

Today marks the launch of Blue Dragon's 2013 major appeal, which we're calling: Whatever it takes. Anyone who has read the stories here or looked over the Blue Dragon Facebook page knows the sort of work we do. We find kids in danger,[...]

Is Social Media the Kryptonite to Poverty Porn?

AidBlogs — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:20:34 PDT