Tag Archives: activism and aid work
Can aid workers be activists?
In this new guest-post the author explores how humanitarian agencies “kill” the spirit of humanitarianism in aid workers A guest post by an impassioned humanitarian aid worker.* Ever since I left my job at a women’s rights organization and went … Continue reading
Disruptive reflections from 2014
My favourite reflections of 2014 – not all about humanitarian stuff, or mindfulness, or burnout. Because to think and act outside the box we need to read outside the box. We are lucky, it’s really not unusual in the humanitarian sector to … Continue reading
Personal and Global Development are Linked
Personal, social and political transformation are interconnected. Yes, ‘the personal is political’. As a psychologist with a passion for the state of the world I’m glad to see that more and more research shows that personal wellbeing, awareness and development are intimately connected … Continue reading
Love is the most potent source of power
Can we see the connection between healthy relations at work, and our ability to enable change in the world? One cannot be burnt-out and have a positive impact out there. This is common sense. So why is it that many … Continue reading
Mindfulness and human rights at work
How do you get from mindfulness to human rights? A more appropriate question for me is “how you don’t?”. All the attempts to separate our inner world from the world out there may be soothing, but deny our fundamental interconnectedness … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged activism and aid work, mindfulness for aid workers
Leave a comment
The Workplace Revolution
Lucky me I was in London last week and had the chance to meet writer and activist Liam Barrington-Bush at his book launch. I connected with Liam back in the summer when I heard about his upcoming crowd-funded book Anarchists in the … Continue reading
Mandela on peace of mind
“I have always believed that exercise is not only a key to physical health but to peace of mind,” wrote Nelson Mandela… Continue reading
A Day With Dignity
Amira is the director of a human rights organisation, over the years she’s seen colleagues burnout and she wants to do something preventive about it. While sipping a coffee we discuss the value of creating a caring and learning organisational … Continue reading
Being mindful of power and wealth
In the nonprofit sector power and money are two big taboos. I love the way in this video Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg talks about how we need to ‘stop making power a dirty word’ and stop behaving as if money didn’t matter … Continue reading
War and Peace
‘War and peace start in the hearts of individuals. Strangely enough, even though all beings would like to live in peace, our method for obtaining peace over the generations seems not to be very effective: we seek peace and happiness … Continue reading