Rosetta Thurman’s blog post, “Who do you really work for?” got me thinking. Rosetta writes that those of us who work for non-profits are ultimately working for the people our organization serves. That’s a nice idea, but sadly I feel is a bit too idealistic and optimistic. And from what I have seen, it doesn’t…
Recently, I read a beautiful book called “Shooting Water” by Devyani Saltzman. Shooting Water is about the process of filming a documentary called Water, which focused on the lives of three widows in an ashram in Varanasi, India. Saltzman is the daughter of Deepa Mehta, who wrote and directed the film. Surprisingly, there was a…
I wanted to quote an excellent blog post by Karen, a grad student in international affairs: We are trained to think like short term consultants. Everything is project/program based. We are trained to measure everything through statistics, through case studies. A project seems to be measured as “successful” if you get it funded by a…
During my time working with an Afghan NGO providing free legal services, I have heard many stories of women who have been imprisoned on false accusations or “moral crimes” such as adultery and running away. Running away is not even a crime under Afghan law, yet many women and young girls are detained and held…
One of my New Year’s resolutions from a year ago was to post a video blog at some point during the year. Almost, ahem, a year later, I’ve finally put in the effort to make this resolution a reality! I’m a bit nervous posting it, but I hope you all enjoy this video blog! It…
Women, War & Peace is an incredible, touching, inspiring and important five-part special series on PBS. There are many things to love about this series — but the thing that touched me the most was hearing the stories of women around the world who came together, organized, mobilized, and raised their voices to fight for…
Right now, there’s an excellent series going on over at the Gender Across Borders blog called “Culture and Human Rights: Challenging Excuses for Gender Based Violence.” I will be following the posts in this series, but I also wanted to bring up discussion about the topic over here. Cultural relativism is used worldwide as an…
I am honored and excited to present an interview with Jonathan Smith, a lecturer in Global Health and Epidemiology at Yale’s School of Public Health. Jonathan’s work is incredibly inspiring. As both an epidemiologist and filmmaker, he uses strategic storytelling to advance issues of health, law, and human rights. Jonathan graduated with a Masters from…
Politicians today frequently emphasize “enlightened self-interest.” President Obama has said at the UN Development Summit: In our global economy, progress in even the poorest countries can advance the prosperity and security of people far beyond their borders, including my fellow Americans. [...] When a young entrepreneur can’t start a new business, it stymies the creation…
Anna Badkhen has yet another incredible piece on Afghanistan in Foreign Policy, where she writes about a village called Karaghuzhlah, which has recently been taken over by the Taliban. She writes: “We don’t care about either the government or the Taliban,” Mohammad Azghar, a driver, tells me. “Neither is going to look out for us…
