Search Results for: nebraska
“They” and the shaping impulse of America
Do “we” need to help “them” understand the political and economic systems that have marginalized them?
Wrestling with my white fragility
Welcome to the uncomfortable, yet hopeful conversation inside my head.
Grandpa, the Marshall Plan, and me
How has US foreign assistance funding changed over the last sixty years?
From one Cornhusker to another: Peter Buffett, philanthropy, and how we can frame the dialogue
When I left my small town in Nebraska to be an aid worker, I found this: the common good still exists elsewhere in the world. This idea can help shift the cognitive frameworks with which we talk about international assistance.
To change the world, a pulse is required
These young people were so hungry, after only a week among development professionals in Washington DC, for an open and real conversation about development work!
Don’t you talk about my…that way…
A colleague told me recently, “Working for an NGO, it’s like family. I can bad-mouth my mother, but you can’t.” A discussion of Tori Hogan’s new book, Beyond Good Intentions: A Journey Into the Realities of International Aid.
The Case of the Missing Tomato Cages
When people ask me why this farm-girl-turned-aid-worker has devoted herself to placing community-driven development initiatives at the forefront of aid, here’s why.
Friday’s Poetic Pause: “When sorrow comes” by A. Powell Davies
How-matters.org’s Friday feature! Sharing “When sorrow comes” by A. Powell Davies as a tribute to my late grandfather and to the Gwai Grandmothers in Mberengwa, Zimbabwe.
On Love & Justice: A Valentine’s Day Reflection
We don’t talk about our hearts nearly enough in international aid. But this Valentine’s Day seems like a good time to do so. Sharing an excerpt from “The Love That Does Justice: Spiritual Activism in Dialogue With Social Science,” edited By Michael A. Edwards & Stephen G. Post
New Mission in Life
“Now my heart is in relating human to human,” she said. “Forget class, forget race, this is the reason God sent me here.” (Gasp!) Sharing an article written about me in 1998.
Plugging back in: Catching up with the aid blogosphere
Sharing recent links that demonstrate the aid blogosphere’s continued robustness and relevance. Here’s to more in 2011!
Bloggers, for whom do you write?
For all my longing to write about my experiences in international development and for all of my entreaties to my colleagues to do the same, here I am, now struggling because I’ve gotten what I’ve wanted–the space and time to do it.
About
Jennifer Lentfer is a farm girl turned international aid worker turned leadership coach and communications strategist. As the creator of the blog, how-matters.org in 2010, she was named as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s “100 women to follow on Twitter” at @intldogooder in 2012. A book that she co-edited with Tanya Cothran, Smart Risks: How small grants are helping to solve some of the world’s biggest problems features the growing community of grantmakers that find and fund visionary, yet under-the-radar leaders around the world. It is available here. Jennifer is the most recently the Director of Communications of Thousand Currents. In her …