“It feels like history”
A people’s movement is rising in Zimbabwe. Is aid and philanthropy paying attention?
Tag: Zimbabwe
“…and this is what we are already doing about it”
“You’ll see that we have few resources but, what we do have, we use as best as we can.” Sharing a booklet produced by Cassa Banana Community Health Committee in Zimbabwe.
#ICYMI: “Farms, Fish Banks, and an Iron Roof” on The Moth
One of my favorite podcasts, The Moth, features New Voices Fellows from the Aspen Institute.
Grandpa, the Marshall Plan, and me
How has US foreign assistance funding changed over the last sixty years?
Don’t change the message. Change the messenger.
Weh Yeoh of whydev.org argues that everything that we do in development is about selling a message. But how do we convince people when a message goes against the grain of what they already believe?
Friday’s Poetic Pause: Evaluation Led by Poetry?
“Little did Rumbidzai know that her poem would become a piece of art that would serve to illuminate the journey the partner organizations were about to begin.” From “Narratives of Hope ‘It Starts Within Us’: Documenting Development Through Stories of Change”, published by Weaver Press.
Cowboys & Farmers
Maybe my cowgirl dreams have finally come true. Because now…this farmer’s daughter is working for the aid cowboys.
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.
Don’t change the message. Change the messenger.
Weh Yeoh of whydev.org argues that everything that we do in development is about selling a message. But how do we convince people when a message goes against the grain of what they already believe?
Random Nomad
Link to my interview in The Displaced Nation: “RANDOM NOMAD: Jennifer Lentfer, International Aid Consultant, Writer & Blogger”
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.
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.
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.
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.