Organizations
NO MORE CAMPS: SONIA BEN ALI ON URBAN REFUGEES
"Most refugees now live in cities, yet the humanitarian community struggles to adapt to this reality. This is why we are building a "Best Practices Network," which is a space where NGOs working with urban refugees share information on successful programs and mentor each other to replicate them."
LINH DOAN ON EMPOWERING YOUTH IN VIETNAM
"We are addressing two main issues. First, in Vietnam, there's no program in the summer for college students, so mostly they just go back home. It's not like in the U.S. when you have summer school program or internships—there's nothing to do there. There aren’t even many student clubs in universities."
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AT ROBERTO CLEMENTE CLINIC
"Another challenge is preventative health. We’re trying to do outreach to show people how to have their own healthy eating plots, to grow vegetables, and to drink and eat properly. We see people on motorcycles going fast without helmets, people drinking and driving, and a lot of big problems."
FROM THE HEART: SPANDANA CHILDREN’S HOME
"One day we found an abandoned girl on the roadside—she was a mentally challenged child who could not speak. This child was on the streets for three days, abandoned by her family. She didn’t have anyone to take care of her; she was very dirty and didn’t have toilet training. We picked up the child and took her to one of the homes run for mentally challenged children"
BEST PRACTICES, PART I: SUCCESS IS IN THE DETAILS
"Best practices have become a major force in all sectors and industries, with managers and clients alike assuming that proper application of behaviors and processes deemed “best practices” will automatically lead to desired results. The reality is more complex and nuanced. "
A MONTH OF GIVING: RAMADAN, PHILANTHROPY, AND HUMANITARIANISM
"Through interfaith initiatives, we are able to serve a wider base of beneficiaries of all different backgrounds, strengthening the humanitarian community, and creating harmonious bonds that seek to serve others. This is particularly beneficial to individual communities of each organization, as they will also be connected to groups of other faiths and seal social gaps that prevented this from before."
SUSTAINABILITY, COMMITMENT, AND THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT
"The marketplace in business requires that you have to be financially sustainable. This factor is why corporations tend to be much sharper in the way they are managed. What CELA stands for now, in terms of the broader human aspect, is no different than it was when it was started."
ERADICATING PARASITIC DISEASES IN ETHIOPIA
"NALA first implemented their holistic program in the city of Mekelle, Ethiopia, in 2009, and carried it out there for four years. The results have been dramatic. Evaluations have demonstrated a steep and sustained reduction in prevalence levels of intestinal worms and schistosomiasis throughout Mekelle. In 2009, the rate of infection in Mekelle was at 40 percent. In 2012, the rate of infection had dropped to 5 percent and by 2014, the rate was down to 2 percent..."
ENVISIONING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES
"The future of countries, organizations, and individuals will not happen in a “vacuum”—that is, their futures will not be determined solely by a narrow set of parameters isolated from developments in the larger world around them. Nor will their destinies be simply of their own making or a result of navigating their immediate economic, political, or social ecosystem."
EDUCATIONAL RELIEF IN THE SYRIAN CONFLICT ZONE
"By now we are all too familiar with the nightmarish figures: 3.9 million displaced Syrians, with thousands more fleeing every day, are in exile in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, where they see no prospects for returning home in the near future; have few opportunities to restart their lives; and in many cases, struggle to survive."
