Jan 26
Last night, U.S. Special Forces conducted a rescue mission in Somalia. Their mission? Rescue American Jessica Buchanan and Danish citizen, Poul Thisted. The aid workers were employed by Denmark’s Refugee Council’s de-mining unit. Jessica a regional education adviser on landmine clearing and Poul, a community safety manager, were kidnapped on October 25th of last year. …
Nov 21
The other day I was waiting in line at my local Starbucks, and noticed the coffee shop was selling what appeared to be bracelets. Upon further inspection, the bracelets claimed to be a part of a national job creation program. Anyone who purchases a bracelet for $5 or more is showing his or her support …
Sep 20
I walked into the 92Y building just a few minutes before the program was scheduled to start. I was attending the Social Good Summit presented by Mashable, the UN Foundation, 92nd Street Y and sponsored by Ericsson, which is a four day event starting September 19th during UN week. I scanned the room looking for …
Aug 25
Microfinance has become something of a buzzword in recent years (depending on which circles you run in), and the industry’s increase in popularity has also lead to an increase in criticism. You may remember my last post about microfinance, as well as the posts written by my colleagues, but for those of you who don’t, …
Aug 15
Since Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt, some of the bloggers and activists who devoted their online time to organizing revolution have turned to a new use for social media: economic aid. 20 prominent Egyptian bloggers—the same ones who previously blogged about overthrowing Mubarak—have joined together to create a Twitter fundraising campaign, Tweetback. The …
Aug 05
Our agricultural and food system have many inefficiencies. Damages to the environment and promotion of an unhealthy food system are both causes and consequences of bad agricultural practices. We’ve previously studied the dangers of the monocrops. They’re apparently threatening our long-term agricultural sustainability (to learn more see posts). A change is needed, but how can …
Aug 03
Yesterday, Ryan wrote the third post in our series discussing the current situation in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. He talked about the need for mental health care and social entrepreneurship services in Dadaab, as they crucial in enabling the refugees to eventually leave the camp and rebuild their lives. Both of these services, along …
Jul 29
On Tuesday, my colleague Ryan wrote the first installment of a blog series he and I are working on about the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. It is the largest refugee camp in the world, built to accommodate about 90,000 people. However, due to the current drought crisis in the Horn of Africa, there are …
Jul 27
Many of us working for social change have used the analogy of trying to teach a man to fish rather than giving him a fish, to explain the work that we are doing. We know and understand that creating long term impact rather than a band-aid solution is the ideal model. So in our efforts …
Jul 21
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the Horn of Africa is currently experiencing one of the most severe droughts in history. For countries like Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, the drought is forcing families to flee to overcrowded refugee camps and leaving hundreds of thousands of children homeless and malnourished. Unfortunately, conditions in …
