Tag: humanitarian aid
Nearly 1,000,000 Syrians Newly Displaced This Year–The Worst Year So Far
The Syrian war is old news. Wasn’t Aleppo retaken? Isn’t ISIS defeated? Didn’t Russia finish the job? And, perhaps more importantly, haven’t we moved on to North Korea, talks of collusion, Iran, trade and tariffs,...
How to Love the Alien and Fight Bureaucratization: Paternalism over Partnership
Temptation 3: Paternalism over Partnership In my own experience in aid work and in conversation with many veteran colleagues, the heavy sociological question arises: Is aid colonial? The answer: sure, it can be—but it doesn’t...
How to Love the Alien and Fight Bureaucratization: The Tyranny of Donors
Temptation 2: The Tyranny of Donors Missionaries, artists, and university administrators know this temptation well. We feel the wonderful blessing of receiving aid with which to do good work, but that aid comes with a...
How to Love the Alien and Fight Bureaucratization: Refugees as Data
The biggest problem I’ve seen in my work to aid refugees is a lack of resources—financial, material, manpower, and willpower. The second biggest problem I’ve seen is the pervasive perversion of bureaucracy. This is one...
Relief AND Development
When reading the transcript of the meeting of the World Council of Churches in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1969, I was struck by the idea that “relief work” in so many NGO contexts had been dissected...
Empowering Refugees to Stay Close to Home: Part II
Last week I talked about two practical actions the church can take to encourage and enable refugees to remain close to their homes and homelands. This is a continuation of that thinking. Practical Action 3:...
Empowering Refugees to Stay Close to Home: Part I
In light of the “refugee crisis” in Europe and fearful refugee policies mounting in the United States, it is not surprising that many believe the first course of action provided to refugees is resettlement. That,...
Responding to Refugeeism: A Three-Pronged Plan of Action
And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. – Matthew...
Valor Without Renown
Eowyn: My Lord! Aragorn! I am to be sent with the women into the caves. Aragorn: That is an honorable charge. Eowyn: To mind the children, to find food and bedding when the men return....
25 ways you can support refugees
A week ago, I published a post called “Do something” urging readers to not be passive in the shadow of modern refugeeism—a phenomenon that has displaced nearly 70 million people worldwide. To put it plainly, everyone...