Staying for Tea

Let us remember our youth today on #YouthDay, and remember that they are not yet adult, but in a transition period between being children and adults. It is our collective responsibility to prepare and shepherd them through this transition safely, to protect them from harm and violence and exploitation.

For the first ever UN World Youth Skills Day we look at the state of the world’s youth. The largest youth generation ever is having a harder time finding work than ever before. The youth unemployment crisis is one of the most significant development challenges we face today. We look at causes, data, and solutions.

The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world. – Dr. Paul Farmer

For decades, aid groups have traveled to Haiti to donate wells, tanks, and water purification machines. But these efforts often fail because of poor management and maintenance. Today, nearly 70 percent of Haitians still lack access to clean water. This story is different. It’s about Haitians and foreigners working together to design a lasting solution, […]

Yeah, I know; this video came out last year. But, I just saw it for first time last week. It’s very funny in a way that requires someone like me to be able to laugh at himself. My life as a professional international development practitioner has actually been lived somewhere between “this is what you’re […]

Originally posted on KM on a dollar a day:
I’ve been reflecting a couple of interesting discussions lately on aid communication and fundraising.  In the first, Kurante organized a Google Hangout on “Poverty Porn” i.e. the use of negative, shocking images in aid campaigns (the recording and the twitter storify of the discussion can be…

What now? May 20, 1998. Fifteen years ago today my world rebooted. It shut down catastrophically when a bus lurched off the roadway and crashed into a 1,000-foot-deep ravine in rural Bolivia. I was a 25-year old missionary on that bus. My young wife was with me.  Out of the blackness, the world began to […]

A pedido voy a publicar de nuevo el articulo Staying for Tea (Quedándose para el Té) como una serie de entradas de blog en seis partes. El artículo fue publicado originalmente en una revista llamada The Global Citizen (El Ciudadano Global). Mientras publico cada sección, las siguientes ligas se activarán: [1:Quedarse para el Té] [2:Importa el […]

As the depth of my hypocrisy sunk in, I struggled to contain my emotions. “Tell her ‘yes, and I’ll be right back,’” I instructed my translator, as shame deepened the red of my sun-baked ears. Turning to my small entourage of colleagues, I asked them to follow me off the woman’s property back toward the […]

We should not be paralyzed by the fear of committing errors, but we should be self-conscious and think critically about how we go about serving others.  This is the final post of a 6-part series republishing the original Staying for Tea article from The Global Citizen journal (2005). You can link to the other posts in this series here: [1: Stay for Tea] [2: […]