Tag Archives: aid workers’ mental health
Aid to Zen: B – Booze
I was going to write about burnout (again), but as it is becoming the talk of the day among aid workers, I decided to address something slightly more controversial: the pervasive drinking culture among humanitarians. You can read about burnout … Continue reading
Aid to Zen: A – Aidland
This is the first post of a new series Aid to Zen – A Quick Guide to Surviving Aid Work from A to Z *** I think universities should consider offering a course called “Aid work is not what you think”. It could … Continue reading
Introducing Aid to Zen – The A to Z Guide to Surviving Aidland
When I first visited London both tourists and locals were familiar with a pocket-book called London A to Z. Now also an app, the London A to Z is basically a roadmap that helps you “find your way round literally and metaphorically” in … Continue reading
Posted in Aid to Zen
Tagged aid workers' burnout, aid workers' mental health, aid workers' wellbeing
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Humanitarians, not bureaucrats
World Humanitarian Day: it’s that day when in HQ there’s a moment of silence, maybe a service, events in remembrance of “those who face danger and adversity in order to help others”. It falls on the anniversary of the 2003 bombing at … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' mental health, world humanitarian day
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War is Zen
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to choose a profession “on the edge”, like being an aid worker. And not only to choose in the first place, but also to stay on, sometimes hang in there for … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' mental health, aid workers' wellbeing
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Managing teams in dangerous places—the self-destructor
A guest post by J. If you’re a manager in the aid world whose role and team are based in the field (or a deployable, field-facing team based elsewhere), I’d be willing to bet that you have at least one … Continue reading
Managing teams in dangerous places—The basics.
A guest post by J. Those of you who follow my writing in other places know that I’m a full-time, professional humanitarian worker, a die-hard believer in the humanitarian enterprise. What I’ve said less often publicly is that for the … Continue reading
Home, Sanity and the Politics of Aid
A review of J.’s new novel Honor Among Thieves As a former aid worker I carry the signs of the field: I can bear long waits at airports, sit on planes for a good however many hours, or find ways … Continue reading
Aid workers’ mental health: shouting into the wind
At times I kind of feel like I’ve been shouting into the wind over the past five years: who cares about aid workers’ mental health? How presumptuous of me to try and get beyond a nice conversation with aid agencies on … Continue reading
Aid workers: from posttraumatic stress to posttraumatic growth
How trauma and difficulties can become the springboard to personal transformation: from posttraumatic stress to posttraumatic growth I will spare you an opening quote on the virtues of suffering, I’m not inclined to think that adversities are a blessing. No. Yet, … Continue reading