What does it smell like there?
Written by: Mike Bailey, World Vision Advocacy Manager "What does it smell like there"? I asked the World Vision Pakistan Advocacy Manager over the phone to Sukkar, in Pakistan's Sindh province. "When you get close to where the people who have been displac
A Flower Still Blooms: Personal Reflections on Kyrgyzstan and Kosovo on World Humanitarian Day
At the end of June, Refugees International's Senior Advisor Dawn Calabia and I headed to the Fergana Valley, to southern Kyrgyzstan where from June 10 to 14, attacks by unknown assailants triggered violence between majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek commun
Locating an NGO media team
I had an interesting conversation the other day with someone from a humanitarian organisation strategising about where to locate media people around the world. I thought it might be useful to ask his question to readers here on AlertNet to canvass some wid
AID WORKER DIARY: Why talk about Pakistans militias misses the point
These blog posts are written by Thomas Schwarz, Emergency Media Officer for CARE International who is in Pakistan's flood hit regions. August 16, 2010 Local militia groups help flood victims and then publicly praises their own work. This is what I read in
Haiti six months after the quake
Why tackling Haiti's dire sanitation with investment and innovation is critical What happens when one of the world's most fragile water and sanitation systems is hit by a 7.0 earthquake? One and a half million more people lose access to safe drinking water
The challenges of treating malnourished children
Niger is a challenging place to work at the best of times. It's hot - the temperature rarely dips beneath 40 degrees at this time of year and is often above 45 degrees. The distances between places are vast and the environment is harsh. For example from Ni
VIDEO: Haitis children use the camera to heal quake trauma
Stuart Shahid Bamforth produces films for Save the Children, and has recently been on location in India, Afghanistan and Gaza. He is a BAFTA-winning film-maker with many years' experience running film workshops with children and young people. Questioning o
Dining with al-Qaeda
Let's start with full disclosure: I work with the author of this book. So, yes, I'm likely to say good things about it. But, to be honest, I would anyway, because what my colleague Hugh Pope has done in Dining with al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Man
A new idea in conflict prevention?
I had a fascinating meeting at Google in London this morning. Attended by some very senior journalists, former top-level government officials, and representatives of NGOs, universities, and think tanks, the three- or four-hour session looked at a proposal
Aid workers in Haiti trying to find the right balance by "going local"
This post is written by Louis Belanger, Media Officer with Oxfam International. This post first appeared on the Oxfam International Blogs site. Whom do you choose? How much is too much? When do you change gears? Those are just some of the questions swirlin