I was working with an NGO in Lagos, Nigeria, fundraising to build a school in Ilage-Bariga, an informal settlement located in the city. Many in the community had been heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) who were visibly neglected and not attending school. Although we came up with significant funds to…
If I could pick few qualities that I think any organization should be founded on, gratitude would be on the top of my list.
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,…
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.
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…