It is hard to fathom that a society could exist whereby one population can expect to live into their eighties, whilst another population would expect to live only till their forties.

It is this shameful and disturbing reality which authors of ‘The Grandest Challenge –…

4 children aged between 6 to 8 years old approached a colleague who was walking around a neighbourhood as part of his outreach efforts.  They told him that they had something to show him and then led him to the ground floor lift landing of the block where they reside.  There were pencil drawings on the walls and these children told our colleague that they knew exactly who did it. Before our colleague could actually comment,…

“But how will we hold them accountable?” the senior technical advisor said of the proposal from the high-profile NGO. “There’s not even a logframe in there.”

Silently in my cubicle, I thought, “Oh, if only that would only make people and organizations accountable…”

Obviously, the need and the desire to be accountable in our industry are not going away. With foreign aid budgets under fire in many donor countries, accountability perhaps becomes even more…

Here is a good example of how someone has posed a question of the community (KM4dev) and then taken the time to distill the responses to provide a summary and linked to the original discussion and listed resources offered.  

The topic is "How to collect and present Lessons Learnt" but could so easily apply to our discussions.  I suspect they may have learned something from…

Я думаю, что одно из самых больших наших достижений сегодня, это встреча с представителями Интернет- сообщества. Татьяна, Алесандр Афанасади Фидипов и я влюбились в идею СОЛТ и мы действительно хотели опробовать что-то в этом роде. 30 ноября мы пригласили к нему людей, которые известны благодаря своим публикациям в Интернете – журналистов- блоггеров и альтернативных пользователей социальных сетей, так же, как и детей из юношеских организаций.

Мы очень волновались, что они откажутся…

A Time For Change

Human rights film fest in Mumbai takes on a gamut of bêtes noires from violence, fundamentalism and corruption to gender discrimination and homophobia

FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival returns to Mumbai for its second year with a collection of volatile and incisive human rights films from India and around the world.

Following on…

I think one of our greatest achievements in those days there was a meeting with representatives of the internet-community. Me, Tatiana and Alexander …

In medicine, we can spend such a vast proportion of time perceiving those with illnesses as patients, or as statistical numbers that we fail to regard them as individuals. This is particular pertinent to people living with HIV, which are in excess of 30 million; It is such a colossal number it can be hard to comprehend. Despite the wealth of research into prevention and treatment of HIV which has made an undeniable impact on survival of populations, the experience of the individual…

Are we smart, safe, stupid….mad?????

Thirty years’ experience of HIV and I am hearing and reading the same old insincere language; the same old clichés by the same old top down approach method, sprinkled with the very few HIV positive tokens.  Are we smart, safe stupid or what?

For thirty years the population has been hearing about the modes of transmission, the vulnerability factors that fuel the continued spread of HIV and for thirty years the majority of the…

30 years have passed since the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) published its first reported case of AIDS. Since then over 25 million people have died from AIDS and an estimated 33.3 million are living with HIV today.

While tremendous advances have been made in terms of treatment, steering AIDS from what was once a fatal disease to a now chronic one; AIDS is still a global health threat, with many in the developing world unable to access adequate treatment.

However, while…

Меня зовут, Елена. По профессии я

мед.сестра, поэтому о ВИЧ-инфекции имела некоторое представление. В медицинском

училище изучали эту тему, но довольно поверхностно, да ещё и каждые пять лет

повышали квалификацию в стационаре, где я работала хирургической сестрой. Учила

и сдавала экзамены хорошо... Как передаётся вирус, как стерилизуется

инструментарий и тому подобное. Однажды в стационар поступила девушка, 19 лет,

с диагнозом ВИЧ. Помню смотрела и удивлялась,…

«Sir, you have opened my eyes. For 25 years I have had what you might call a successful life. But today I can see beyond this apparent success».  

This gentleman came to me after the presentation of Community Life competence in Singapore on November 24. Our proposition to people in businesses is met with enthusiasm! Let us hear a few more reactions:…

Does snark among aid bloggers go too far? Do aid workers just need and deserve to let off steam? Or does the language we use matter, because it either closes down or opens up dialogue, especially with our partners?

I’m not sure, frankly. (See some others illustrate the points here and…

This week I re-entered an aid “institution” after five years of working with small foundations and local groups.

After just two short days, I can’t help but be reminded of why I left.

I am once again surrounded by smart, driven, committed people. But unfortunately they are largely a group of people who are also exhausted, overwhelmed, and discouraged by fighting while propagating the very organizations in which they serve. From my still outsider’s perspective, it’s as if the…

THE COLD WITHIN

 By James Patrick Kinney

 

Six humans trapped by happenstance

 In dark and bitter cold

 Each one possessed a stick of wood,

 Or so the story's told.

 

Their dying fire in need of logs,

 The first woman held hers back.

 For on the faces around the fire,

 She noticed one was black.

 

The next man looking cross the way,

 Saw one not of his church,

 And couldn't bring himself…

The annual expressions of gratitude from the U.S.’ Thanksgiving holiday now subsided, I share a poem I wrote yesterday about how hard it is at times to be genuinely grateful.

Over the past year, I have been fortunate enough to live rent-free, staying with friends and family. But that has also meant that I have been someone’s houseguest.

After I wrote this reflection, I wondered: Is there a parallel to be drawn with those at the…

The Guyana Faith-and HIV Coalition along with Group 2 in support of the Community Life Competence process as a mean of stimulating local response and ownership by communities did a workshop with the Miss Guyana African queen Pageant delegates to stimulate their WOT and WOW towards their concerns using their strengths.

In terms of introduction of participants we used “ I am like this food …..  because …..” to stimulate their feelings towards the workshop and helped participants…