Archive for September 2011
Before I went to Uganda, I felt a confused mixture of anticipation, excitement and fear. It was my first time visiting one of the projects that Comic Relief supports and I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I’ve watched Comic Relief for years and seen lots of its films, but it's hard to imagine [...]
As a journalist I spend a lot of time reporting on the developing world. To be honest, many of my stories focus on problems and failures, so when I was approached to moderate an event about the Millennium Development Goals during the UN General Assembly, to showcase solutions and successes, I couldn’t resist taking the [...]
Yesterday, Secretary of State Mitchell and I co-hosted an event along the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to celebrate successes and innovations towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Indeed, the world has much to celebrate. Through partnerships between communities and governments and the integration of new, non-traditional players we are witnessing significant progress: [...]
Did you participate in Al Gore's Climate Reality Project last week? I wasn't able to because I was working in Ethiopia (my next post will tell you why), so I’ve been reading up on responses from participants, some of whom have questioned whether he was right to try to use social networks like twitter and facebook [...]
One of the tragedies of our time is the prevalence of malnutrition. Maternal and child undernutrition is the underlying cause of 3.5 million deaths in children under five each year. For those who manage to survive, nearly 200 million children are stunted - that means they are short for their age, more likely to suffer [...]
I'm back in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and on Sunday morning I took a little time out to visit the gorillas in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. I wrote about these gorillas in a recent blog. In fact, I just missed seeing them cross the road, which they did in search of tasty bamboo [...]
What did you do in your gap year? That’s a common question to ask in fresher’s week as students start college. I spent time backpacking around south east Asia around twenty years ago. But last week in the rural areas of eastern Zimbabwe I met a number of young Zimbabwean volunteers who had spent their [...]
Many of you would have seen on the news recently that the British Council in Kabul was subject to a ferocious and deadly attack on 19 August. Luckily all international staff survived - a testament to the robust security measures in place and dedication of those employed to protect us. Tragically, this protection came at [...]
