Organizational Gratitude
If I could pick few qualities that I think any organization should be founded on, gratitude would be on the top of my list.
On short term “fly in, fly out” evaluations
Some years ago, I was asked to be the external evaluator on a project involving a small, rural community bordering the Rio Grande river. The community had received funding from the US government to support a goat co-op that would produce products (eg: milk, cheese, meat) that could provide a sustainable livelihood for its members,…
Whether or not to fight tradition
At the beginning of my career, I was in a remote part of Papua New Guinea treating a villager alongside a traditional local practitioner. Even though the local leader practiced his own methods of healing while I followed my conventional methods, we were not threatened by each other.
Here is to building friendships, networks, community and NGO’s :D
When I was packing my bag to come out here to the Magnify conference I asked my self a lot of things… yes I know that sounds so cheesy but I did. This is an investment in its own, as I will be giving my time, energy and money – I just wanted to be sure.…
Meeting With Myself
Magnify conference time! We were in a full immersion with ourselves during the first week of personal development course, then we dove into the New Orleans world of non-profit and youth leadership. Creative juices flowing: ideas laughters, words, online tools, to dos left and right… It easy to get swallowed in the complexity of managing…
Community Narratives
Somehow everything is different the third, fourth, fifth time around. Like reading Le Petit Prince for the 20th time, with every reread I capture a new idea or learn to see those timeless metaphors in a different way. I feel that way about New Orleans during the personal development course we just completed in our…
Our exploratory visit to Cuba, in pictures!
After weeks of late-night Skype meetings with the project team, reading travel books and articles about Cuba, and jumping through lots of bureaucratic hoops, the Recrear project team finally landed in sultry La Habana at 3 am on a Saturday night and was greeted by Handy himself. As we drove through the quiet darkness along…
Approaching Community through Theater
After weeks of hearing about an enigmatic but well respected theater group tucked away in the mountains of Cuba, we finally fell upon Teatro de los Elementos (Theater of the Elements). If all goes well, we hope that the entrance flanked by now-in-season mango trees will be welcoming a group of Canadian and Cuban students in November.…
10 was our lucky number
By Nouha MaaninouKenitra, Morocco When RecrearApply finally kicked off in Morocco, all I did was worry. It was 11.30am and only five people were present. We had worked hard and we were expecting more people: 55 students were signed up. Kamya, another Recrear staff member, had come all the way from Granada to help out…
Recrear Lives and Prospers in Kazan
By Aleksandra (Sasha) Kuznetsova, Kazan, Russia The only thing I do not enjoy about Recrear projects is that they always end. No matter how much effort you put into developing the project, or how many people will benefit from it, or even how much money you fundraise, every project will eventually finish. And no matter…