One of the biggest treats I’ve given myself this summer has been the time to read. Long before I ever thought of myself as a writer, I was a reader. Books were my favorite place to hang out as a child. And they still are today. I can’t think of many things I love doing [...]
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Archive for the Development category
Love at the Speed of Email – a story of home, faith, love & purpose
Friday, July 20th, 2012
Posted in Coming 'home', Development, Story-telling | 7 Comments »
Portland, power and connection: reflections on a summit that’s not really about domination at all
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
Last week I was in Portland, OR. Portland is one of my favorite places in the whole world. Partly because some of my favorite people in the world live there, partly because of the food (if you go to Portland please eat tacos here, Thai here, Indian street food here, pie here and icecream here) and partly because of all [...]
Posted in Being the change, Connecting, Development, Doing good, Service | 20 Comments »
Does Aid Need a 12-Step Program?
Friday, May 11th, 2012
“Let go and let God.” It’s a mantra of the self-help group, Alcoholics Anonymous. After spending a couple of weeks in Afghanistan, I’m wondering if it’s time for the international aid community to adopt the same approach.
Tags: 12 step program, accountability, aid effectiveness, aid innovation, aid workers, Alcoholics Anonymous, capacity building, CBODN, Chesapeake Bay Organizational Development Network, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, country ownership, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, InterAction, InterAction Forum, international aid, international development, local leaders, MIDEGO, organizational development, philanthropy, social enterprise, USAID, volunteers
Posted in Development, Doing good, Letting go | No Comments »
A few good things (my weekly round-up of links from across the interwebs)
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
I started out calling these posts ‘A few good things’ And then I realised the links I’m drawn to, the things I want to share, are often a little bit intense (see today’s poem). They might not seem like ‘good things’ to everyone else. But I do believe they are good. They may not be [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Being the change, Development, Doing good, Good things, Story-telling, Ways to help | 2 Comments »
A few good things (my weekly round-up of good stuff from across the interwebs)
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Activism in a ‘Post-Occupy’ World There are some great ideas in this article on activism and social change in a “post-occupy” world. Including this gem (which I would love to see go viral, if anyone has any idea about how to make that happen): “…every time you find yourself grousing: “Why isn’t someone doing X, [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Development, Doing good, Good things | 1 Comment »
She built a school in Nepal. What does Maggie Doyne say about passion?
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Is passion enough when it comes to doing good? Or do we need professional skills and qualifications? A conversation with Maggie Doyne, founder of Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School in Nepal.
Posted in Being the change, Development, Doing good, Service | No Comments »
Be Well. Do Good. The Girl Effect and You.
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all there is to do in the world? I know I do. When I wrote my Girl Effect post yesterday I wanted to remind you that the world can be made fairer, that girls everywhere can have more opportunities and greater freedom, that unjust global systems can be changed. [...]
Posted in Being the change, Development, Doing good, self care, Service, Ways to help | 4 Comments »
The Girl Effect
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Remember the Girl Effect? Last year I took part in the Girl Effect blogging campaign led by Tara Mohr. I got so excited by the conversation, I wrote four posts. First I wrote about Faezeh. If you haven’t yet, take five minutes and watch this video Faezeh and I made to see the Girl Effect in [...]
Posted in Being the change, Development, Doing good, Ways to help | 7 Comments »
Write a new chapter in the story of poverty
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
Depending how long you’ve been reading along here, you may or may not know that I used to work for Oxfam. And that I think Oxfam does great work – not just great development work, but really great advocacy and policy work. I went to work for Oxfam when I left the UN because I [...]
Posted in Development, Doing good, Good things, Service, Story-telling, Ways to help, Writing | 3 Comments »
To Suraya With Love 2.0
Friday, May 6th, 2011
(As a special birthday treat for me this morning, it seems, the internet gremlins ate my post about Suraya. When I woke up it had simply disappeared, together with your comments on it and links to it. I’ve had to recreate it. Doh!) I’ve been working on this post for weeks trying to work out [...]
Tags: afghan women, Afghanistan, mothers day, suraya pakzad
Posted in Afghanistan, Development, Ways to help | 5 Comments »
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Welcome! I'm Marianne. I'm a writer, human rights advocate and yoga teacher. Creator of the 30 Days of Yoga course. Author of Zen Under Fire, and a Huffington Post contributor.
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