The power of growing collective knowledge from Cuban youth
The Recrear-CYEN participatory research project is being done by, not for, local youth, meaning that they constantly influence and direct the entire research process
Real Change
Liliet told us that she believes in ‘carpe diem’, in living life to the fullest. She explained that everything that she does, she does it to create ‘cambio real’, ‘real change’.
10 Cuban Moments
She thought it was crazy that an orange could travel all the way from Morocco and end up on her plate. Roberto just laughed and said, “No what’s crazy is that oranges can travel and we can’t.”
Appreciating Local Knowledge
During my work with a local NGO in Nicaragua I was asked to give a workshop about basic grains. The organization I am working with has been striving to diversify the green cover (the stuff you grow in between crops to increase oil fertility) used by farmers in the countryside. The main beans we were […]
Culture Slap
MANNAGGIA…!!! Cuba is slapping me. Today I got lost. Stuck in a bus so crowded that by the end of the ride I was soaked and smelled like a mix of at least five different people. It was raining, and it was sticky – and it seemed that half of Havana was on the P1 […]
My Cuban Welcome Hug
Less than a month ago, I took a night bus from Sucre to La Paz, Bolivia. The street is curvy and dangerous, the man who blessed the bus before its departure only made me feel more uneasy. Yet what disturbed me the most in that bumpy eight-hour drive was the movie selection: some violent thriller […]
Human Impact
In 2010, I worked with Engineers Without Borders Canada on establishing an agriculture-as-a-business curriculum as a regular activity of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the Kassena-Nankana East District (Upper East Region, Ghana). I trained extension agents in the inner workings of the curriculum, going out to the field to coach them through its implementation and […]
Intentions…
I have had the privilege over the years to work with the Coady International Institute in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The Coady Institute is a place and space dedicated to bringing together community practitioners from across the world to share best practices, learn and celebrate with one another. In this spirit, we have created a […]
NGO’s have to be flexible and creative
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 […]
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.
