Now it makes sense

Just before I left the UK, a colleague very succintly explained to me how he thought the blog could be useful. "We want people to understand what it actually takes to turn their donation into an impact. It's not just a simple equation of giving ten pounds = impact. It's important people see the challenges you face in the field making that ten pounds count." This makes sense: So my blog will be an informative and therapeutic outlet for me to share our day to day challenges and frustrations and bring the work to life. As Warren Buffet said as he handed over his billions to fellow philanthropist Bill Gates, it's far more difficult to be effective in this field than in business. And having moved into this field from the private sector, I can really relate to this. I sometimes crave the relative simplicity of working towards semi-net and shrinkage targets etc.

The frustrations and challenges have become so frequent they feel the norm rather than exception, and I have abandoned the naive hope that a lull is just around the corner. Whether it's trying to negotiate for female staff to travel to project sites or out to Kuwait for meetings, working with Ministries whose staff and policies keep changing as Ministers change, persuading donors to invest in child protection when most funds have been squandered or are committed to the stalled reconstruction process, dealing with communities that have an entrenched culture of dependency, waiting for donors and foreign governments to agree whether or not Iraq's in a state of emergency and civil war, or working through the challenges of remote management. The list goes on...

Anyway, that's all for now...