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World Concern’s Haiti Director: We Need Help Now

The director of World Concern’s humanitarian operations in Haiti called this morning, after a mobile phone network was repaired. Christon Domond said they need our support immediately. The city of Port Au Prince is overwhelmed by dead bodies, and the critical needs for survivors include clean water, medicine, blankets, plastic sheeting – and now – food. World Concern’s Senior Director of Technical Support (the disaster lady) Merry Fitzpatrick, expects she will be able to fly out of Miami today to assist with the logistics. If… Read More.

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Humanitarian Aid In Asia – All Mapped Out

World Concern’s humanitarian aid programs in Asia run the gamut, from disaster response, to job training, to education. I had the chance recently to document our programs in Asia over the course of 40 days. Today I mapped it out on Google. Follow along and learn about what World Concern does in the lives of the poor. View World Concern Journey Across Asia in a larger map

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Not A Moment of Humanitarian Excellence

I always want to give somebody, or even a company, the benefit of the doubt. But it seems that there may be a pretty big problem here.

If you haven’t seen it, someone else has decided to sue trendy clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for disability discrimination. A beautiful young woman in London named Riam Dean claims that she was forced to work in the stockroom in the back of the store because she has a prosthetic arm. Dean was born without her left forearm and says she has not experienced this …

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Buy a Latte, Get a Goat

What do you like with your coffee? Maybe a bagel? How about a goat instead!

This month, a Seattle coffee shop called the Q Cafe is donating 10% of all proceeds to World Concern. The chief barista, a pastor and friend of mine, estimates it will bring in about $350 that we can put toward humanitarian work. (Eugene Cho wrote about this today in his blog.)

You may think, “$350? That’s great, but it’s not a whole lot of money.” But that’s where you would be mistaken. $350 can absolutely, positively change the lives of many people, in some long-lasting transformational ways.

Eugene the blogger/barista/pastor asked what $350 could do…

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“Twitterview” with local TV station

A news anchor from a local ABC television station interviewed me over Twitter, in an ongoing segment called a “Twitterview.”

Brandi Smith from KEZI in Eugene, Oregon, talked with me about World Concern’s work in Southeast Asia, especially regarding our cyclone response work in Myanmar.

Thanks to Brandi for the good coverage of our humanitarian aid response. It was a very interesting way of conducting an interview! Pretty cool.

I never had heard of a Twitterview before, but after further checking…

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Good Humanitarian Aid: Talk To The Chief.

In tribal villages, you don’t barge in and demand permission to install an outhouse, or provide an education to the children who cannot read.

After exploring World Concern’s humanitarian projects in six countries in Southeast Asia, I see that if you want something done in a tribal village, you must first talk with the chief.

I used to think of a chief as a wise old Native American man with a feather headdress, looking off into the distance as he calmly plots the tribe’s next move.

Instead, in these SE Asian tribal cultures, the chief might be in his mid-30s or 40s, and wear a polo shirt and Adidas track pants.

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