How Matters / Tag Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Zimbabwe’

November 17th, 2011 - 12:41 pm § in Guest Bloggers, Reflection & Rumination

Random Nomad

Link to my interview in The Displaced Nation: "RANDOM NOMAD: Jennifer Lentfer, International Aid Consultant, Writer & Blogger"[...]

Tags: aid blogger, aid workers, foreign aid, international aid, international consultant, international development, Jennifer Lentfer, The Displaced Nation, voluntourism, Zimbabwe No Comments

September 14th, 2011 - 11:44 am § in Reflection & Rumination

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.[...]

Tags: aid workers, AIDS, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Fairfield Orphanage, Fairfield Orphanage Student Association, Faith to Action, international aid, Methodist Volunteers in Mission, Mutare, orphanages, orphans, OVC, volunteerism, volunteers, vulnerable children, Zimbabwe 4 Comments

June 5th, 2011 - 4:36 pm § in Guest Bloggers

The Marginalization of CBOs by Development Actors: A Perspective from Zimbabwe

“NGOs tend to view CBOs in two ways: with suspicion and mistrust on the one hand, and as instruments for community organising and project implementation on the other.” Excerpt from a paper by Samuel Maruta, Southern Institute of Peace-building and Development, Zimbabwe.[...]

Tags: aid effectiveness, aid partnerships, aid workers, capacity building, community participation, community-based organizations, donor fatigue, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, international aid, international development, NGOs, organizational development, partnership, social movements, Zimbabwe 9 Comments

March 18th, 2011 - 5:25 am § in Reflection & Rumination

Nothing to Offer

In the wake of such tragedy in Japan, let us never forget the long-term, slow-moving disasters of poverty, inequality and injustice around the rest of the world, where funding IS readily needed. [...]

Tags: aid workers, community-based organizations, disaster relief, emergency relief, foreign aid, foreign assistance, funding, fundraising, grassroots organizations, international aid, international development, Japan, Malawi, NGOs, tsunami, Zambia, Zimbabwe 9 Comments

March 11th, 2011 - 8:12 am § in Reflection & Rumination

Did I fund Organization X?

We need smart people to identify what works, yes. We also need these same smart people to utilize their skills to meet organizations where they are, rather than trying to form them into versions of ourselves.[...]

Tags: aid workers, alternatives, capacity building, community participation, community-based organizations, foreign aid, foreign assistance, funding mechanisms, grassroots organizations, HIV/AIDS, international aid, international development, NGOs, organizational development, orphans and vulnerable children, OVC, small grants, social movements, Zimbabwe 6 Comments

February 24th, 2011 - 4:58 pm § in Good Practice

Would YOU fund this organization?

I received a report, exactly as it appears in this post, from a Zimbabwean organization. Only one question—if you were the grantmaker, would you fund them again? [...]

Tags: aid workers, capacity building, community participation, community-based organizations, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grantmaking, international aid, international development, NGOs, orphans and vulnerable children, OVC, philanthropy, small grants, Zimbabwe 24 Comments

January 17th, 2011 - 3:54 pm § in Reflection & Rumination

Confessions of a Recovering Neocolonialist on Martin Luther King Day

An uncomfortable silence fell upon the car. It seems Lovemore had forgotten, or maybe not, that there was a budding neocolonialist in his midst.[...]

Tags: aid workers, alternatives, capacity building, community-based organizations, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, ICVA, INGOs, international aid, international development, Jr., local organizations, local ownership, Martin Luther King, modernism, Nelson Mandela, neocolonialism, NGOs, One Laptop Per Child, Paulo Freire, PlayPumps, racism, SCHR, Tim Ogden, Valerie Amos, Zimbabwe 5 Comments

October 10th, 2010 - 8:26 pm § in Guest Bloggers, Reflection & Rumination

Changing the system…from the ground up

"‘The system’ whereby foreign donors give handouts, and not sustainable initiatives that are drawn from the needs of the communities, is a problem.” ~R.F.M. community activist, Zimbabwe[...]

Tags: accountability, aid workers, alternatives, Argentina, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, donors, downward accountability, Ethiopia, foreign aid, foreign assistance, funding mechanisms, grassroots organizations, ideas, innovation, intermediaries, international aid, international development, Kenya, Listening Project, Malawi, Mozambique, Palestine, power dynamics, solutions, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, USAID, Zimbabwe 8 Comments

October 4th, 2010 - 1:32 pm § in Good Practice, Reflection & Rumination

Ruminating on the Radio

Jennifer Lentfer of how-matters.org is interviewed by Megan Schiebe on blogtalkradio’s Global Humanitarian Discussions.[...]

Tags: community assets, developing countries, grassroots organizations, international assistance, international development, international volunteers, local ownership, power dynamics, privilege, racism, relationship building, Zimbabwe 1 Comment

September 2nd, 2010 - 1:23 am § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers

Listening to People on the Receiving End of Aid

Aid recipients “are more concerned about ‘how’ assistance is provided than how much is given.” Initial findings from The Listening Project, a systematic exploration of the insights of people who live in societies that have been on the recipient end of international assistance efforts.[...]