A few people have inspired me in my life but perhaps none more than Harold.

Many years back when I was in my early thirties I went to work as a sales representative for a major publisher of children's books. We sold books direct to schools and I was their high school rep for Sydney. At the time we didn't have a Sydney office and each of the Sydney reps worked from home. This meant we were mostly working on our own. So, from time to time we would get together socially without our partners so we could talk about work. We would have fun together but also had the opportunity to discuss work issues.

Most of us were in the same age bracket—late twenties to mid thirties. Harold was about 70 but somehow it never mattered. He was as young as we were and joined in with everything we did.

Harold had been a highly respected primary school principal in Sydney and had a reputation for his progressive approach to education. At 65 He was required to retire from the Education Department but ...Read more

To anyone who might be interested - My friend and I are setting up an online social network to match volunteers (individuals and corporate) to charities all over the world who need help. It seeks to create a community of sharing and helping and transparency in the work that gets done. Go to www.worldkey.org and have a look.
The prototype software will be ready for beta testing in 2 - 3 months. In the meantime, we welcome any feedback from individuals/companies/NGOs etc that may help us make Worldkey a better network.
I hope at least one or 2 of you out there will be interested enuf to check this out. email me (LiLi) with any questions. or leave a comment here.
Have a nice ...Read more

:(

i was so sad for the simple words "i love you" was left unspoken..

i have a sister named Dolly..we were not that close because of our age gap, she was 38 and i'm 20. She had a happy family, 3 children and a loving husband. But unfortunately, her life ended last month, February of 2009. She may be gone but she will always be loved and remember for the rest of my life..

the moment i received the call from my sister who is a nurse and on duty on that day at the hospital, i was so shocked and i didn't know what to do. Ate Doll was at the intensive care unit for 2 days and all of us were hopeless because her blood clot was located in the brain stem. And then they decided to transfer Ate Doll at the private room and it was almost midnight when Ate Doll was transferred. On her first hours Ate Doll was pale but later that morning they were all screaming and shouting for joy when they saw Ate Doll's arm raised. We had our hopes back again, all of us were hoping and praying for her ...Read more

I  am asked all the time(well really only by markyphillips on twitter) both professional and privately who do I think are worthy charities/non-profits to support. So here is my reply.

To be perfectly honest I usually never directly donated to any organisation. However that doesn't mean I don't support my fair share of good charities. You can support ...Read more

On Friday Kelvin the Executive Director of Inepd International visited the Makeni Women's Community Centre in Sierra Leone. In this visit Kelvin explored women's issues and the functioning of micro-credit programs of the Inepd International program in Sierra Leone. I hope you find the tweets from his visit as informative and uplifting as I did:

Live Tweets from Field Visit to Makeni Women's ...Read more

This week I have been in Miami Florida giving trainings to our Inepd International staff in the US on Fundraising from "Time Poor Donors". Our main drive to sign up "Time Poor Donors" is during Autumn. Autumn is our key time to get new bequests before the winter flu season takes it toll. After the training sessions have finished this week. Inepd International Fundraising staff will be scouring ...Read more

Living in India all my life, and working with deprived children for some years,child labour is not something that i am a stranger too...
but a pitiful sight wrenched my heart and i wanted to share it with those who may be able to do more than me...i could only talk to them,take their pictures and silently wipe the solitary tear that crept out of the corner of my eyes...

They were 6 to 12yrs old...
they are recruited especially because they have tiny fingers and smaller their fingers, more intricate the designs they can weave with wool or silk or rayon...more vivid will be the carpet they make!
I was on a dream tour...always wanted to go to Egypt.Always wanted to see the pyramids...on my way back from the oldest pyramid in Saqqarah, my driver suggested a peep into a carpet factory. Colourful carpets telling stories of Rameses II and his journey into afterlife...or tranquil landscapes of the nile delta...or birds of paradise frozen in midflight greeted us in the quiet darkness of the ...Read more

Just about to head into Soho with my friend Cassandra from Cleo. We have some great charity events lined up with some A-list celebrities, such a refreshing end to the year. To be honest the last few months on the charity circuit have just been hideous. I have even moved out of the “just passing by backgrounds” of many a Hello and OK magazine photographers shots recently. I just couldn’t ...Read more

Having worked on a programme on sustainable recovery and resilience building, incorporating risks, livelihood and vulnerability. Some of my colleagues have tried to draw lessons from previous disasters to the post-cyclone situation in Burma.

In recognition of the dire situtation that is unfolding due to the inaction by the current regime, and the massive suffering that this is causing, these additional thoughts occur to me

On reducing overall vulnerability in Burma

Given the political manifestation in Burma, how does talking about overall reduction of vulnerability inform the current situation?

What are the underlying causes of vulnerablity prior to the cyclone, which civil society could have addressed in order to reduced the number of lives lost, regardless of the incompetance of the current regime?

On lessons learnt
Can lessons be learnt from previous disasters?

Does Burma present a unique case?

Waht are the other disasters that have ...Read more

We had a really interesting panel discussion on Thursday night with the topic. "Can Humanitarian Space be Empty". We had very special guest Alex de Waal on the panel as well as our Execuitve Director, Kelvin Peterson and our Inepd Logistician Shane Thompson who was recently released from custody in the Congo. I hope you enjoy the following lively discussion we had on twitter.

Live Tweet Panel ...Read more