Development reads this week

Hey there, readers of The Development Set! Here are our favorite reads from this week:

The Tiny NGO That Changed Reporting on Rio’s Favelas During the Olympics

By Katia Savchuk in The Development Set

As Rio prepared for the Olympics, it also prepared for a deluge of foreign reporters eager to report on Rio’s city politics but lacking background knowledge and language skills. Theresa Williamson, the founder of a nonprofit called Catalytic Communities, was determined to make sure that stories about Rio’s favelas didn’t rely on tired, harmful tropes.

The Race for a Zika Vaccine

By Siddhartha Mukherjee in The New Yorker

Mukherjee follows teams of researchers in Boston and Maryland working to develop a Zika vaccine. In just 180 days, they have collaboratively developed an early-phase vaccine, a product that typically takes 4 to 6 years of work. Mukherjee’s look at how they’ve done it — and the challenges they face going forward — is not one to miss.

Could Urban Farming Provide a Much-Needed Oasis in the Tulsa Food Desert?

By Amy Lieberman in The Guardian

North Tulsa, Oklahoma, is considered to be one of the United States’ worst food deserts. Lieberman explores the challenges facing this low-income and food-insecure community and highlights black urban farmers who are working to make healthy foods more accessible there. But is it enough?

The Day Peruvian Women Rebelled

By Gabriela Wiener in The New York Times

Peruvian reporter and writer Gabriela Wiener describes the movement of women across Peru rising up against gender-based violence. Her piece is a celebration of social media as a tool for activism and organizing — and a call for real, substantive action across the world.

Has #NiUnaMenos changed something? Yes, all of it. The process it started is unprecedented and will have social repercussions we can barely guess, but from the moment women in Peru named the mistreatment we suffered in our community, as in a spell, we cast evil a bit away, so there would be not one fewer of us. The day we rebelled is not over, it has just begun.

Columbia Farc Guerrillas Prepare Finally for Peace

By Will Grant in BBC

Columbia’s historic peace deal with the Farc, the Marxist guerrilla group they fought in a bloody, 52 year civil war, awaits approval by plebiscite. Will Grant traveled to a Farc camp in Columbia’s jungle to hear soldiers’ perspectives on this historic moment.

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