Do refugees really need our old crap?
This week, The Development Set hears from a female warlord turned female activist in Afghanistan, profiles a couple in Nigeria fighting against female genital mutilation, and asks an uncomfortable question. That and more development weekend reading below!
Also, an important announcement: we will be going on a short hiatus starting August 1, as I will be picking up and moving to Nairobi, Kenya! We will be relaunching this fall, and there will be some exciting new announcements then. Thank you all for the wonderful pitches you’ve been sending me over the last few weeks — I’m trying to work my way through them (with apologies if I haven’t gotten back to you yet), and will let you all know when there’s a fresh call out.
Here are some of our favorite reads from the week:
The Nigerian Couple Committed to Ending Female Genital Mutilation
By Linus Unah in The Development Set
“The Nigerian husband-and-wife team have met people in marketplaces, schools, and on the streets to speak out against the practice — and in the process, have discovered that the dangers of working in remote villages are very real. In some villages, people have attacked them, claiming that their ideas were threatening their culture.
“But the couple say they never felt frustrated because ‘such isolated incidents are nothing short of triggers to work harder.’”
Will Africa’s Great Green Wall discourage migration to Europe?
By Jill Filipovic in The Guardian
“By 2020, 60 million people from sub-Saharan Africa are expected to migrate because of desertification. The Great Green Wall is a $8bn project restoring degraded land. But will it encourage people to stay or earn the money to go?”
Do Refugees Really Need Our Old Crap?
By Olivia Campbell in The Development Set
“The urge to help is especially acute when disasters strike, but this is actually the worst time to send household items. Some notable ill-conceived donation campaigns include weight-loss drinks and chandeliers sent to Rwanda, prom gowns sent to Honduras, and pork labeled as beef sent to Afghanistan.”
In Afghanistan, a Female Warlord Fights for Education and Women’s Rights
By Stav Dimitropoulos in The Development Set
“In the house of my father where his sword and old English carbine lie, I invite girls to enter into the precious world of knowledge. My only demand is that they follow Islam the right way, and use the knowledge I give them to bring peace to this country later.”
Behind closed doors: Noida society row shows the ugly truth of how India’s elite view their ‘help’
By Kalpana Sharma in Scroll.in
Fiery opinion piece on domestic help in India. “The very concept that these women and men who sweep, swab, clean, cook, serve and sustain us are our “help” is vulgar. It is we, the employers of these invisible people, who occasionally help them, not the other way around.”
