I remember standing at a checkpoint outside Goma in 2014, watching a driver try to explain why his cargo of temperature-sensitive vaccines was sitting in …
Belonging to No Country
Displaced Without Crossing a Border
I spent most of my years in East Africa watching people try to define humanitarian crises with academic jargon and sweeping statistics, but none of …
Proving a Project Caused the Change
I spent a decade in the DRC watching people in air-conditioned offices in Geneva debate the nuances of how impact is evaluated, using metrics that …
Monitoring Data and Who Collects It
I once spent three days sitting in a humid, dust-choked warehouse outside Goma, staring at a stack of “verified” impact reports that claimed our medical …
The Fixer Who Takes the Real Risk
I remember sitting in a dusty office in Goma, staring at a stack of “compliance frameworks” that were thicker than the actual manifest for the …
The Appeal That Was Twenty Per Cent Funded
I remember sitting in a humid warehouse outside Goma, staring at a stack of empty crates while a radio report in the background boasted about …
Finding People Who Know More Than You
I spent nine years watching NGOs pour millions into “community engagement” workshops that produced nothing but glossy brochures and empty sentiment. They’ll tell you that …
Where an Appeal Figure Comes From
I spent nine years in the back of Land Cruisers and standing in dusty warehouses across East Africa, and if there is one thing I’ve …
Arriving Somewhere and Not Pretending to Understand It
I remember sitting in a humid, dust-choked warehouse outside Goma, staring at a manifest for three tons of antibiotics that were technically “on site” according …
Two Words Used Interchangeably and Wrongly
I once spent three days sitting in a dust-choked customs office outside Goma, watching a shipment of vaccines rot because the paperwork didn’t match the …