Andrew's twin brother Gregory set up the Andrew Grene Foundation in his memory, together with their friend Tim Perutz; a secular charity providing educational assistance to the people of Haiti. Andrew loved Haiti and believed in the country.
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Andrew Grene
Andrew's twin brother Gregory set up the Andrew Grene Foundation in his memory, together with their friend Tim Perutz; a secular charity providing educational assistance to the people of Haiti. Andrew loved Haiti and believed in the country.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
World Humanitarian Day
This Thursday, the 19th of August, was World Humanitarian Day. This day is a celebration of the work of humanitarian aid workers, and a day to raise public awareness of the work they do. On this day last year, I was in the Dublin office of Scheme, where I was volunteering, and this year I was in the international office of Help the Kids. It has been an intense year.
I love this video.
I love this video.
A right and a basic need
In case you were wondering what education in emergencies is, and why it's important.
Many people that I've come across, including humanitarians, who should know better, don't consider education to be a basic need. I concede it's not as immediate as water, shelter, health and food- but it is a basic need.
And a lot of people also see education as a development issue which has no place in humanitarian relief work.
This attitude of 'children need education, but not until things have calmed down' makes me crazy. Every child, everywhere, has the right to an education, and if you're going to wait till you judge the development phase to have started, in some countries you're going to be waiting a long time.
Many people that I've come across, including humanitarians, who should know better, don't consider education to be a basic need. I concede it's not as immediate as water, shelter, health and food- but it is a basic need.
,And a lot of people also see education as a development issue which has no place in humanitarian relief work.
This attitude of 'children need education, but not until things have calmed down' makes me crazy. Every child, everywhere, has the right to an education, and if you're going to wait till you judge the development phase to have started, in some countries you're going to be waiting a long time.
Sunday, 15 August 2010
The Interview
Just a week ago, I arrived in London, from my native Ireland, to start my internship at Save the Children.
I was thrilled to get the internship with Save; it's an organisation I would be happy to work for, and it is one of the leading agencies in the area of education in emergencies, and my role is pretty perfect for what I'm writing on, giving me access to people and information that can really help with my thesis.
When I was offered the internship, I was quite surprised as I had thought the interview had gone dismally badly. It was a phone interview with two people, and I prepared by having my soundbites about How Passionate I Am about Education in Emergencies ready, and was prepared to explain my experience of working on education projects in developing countries, and other fearless exploits. But the role is actually in communications, so their questions tended more toward the 'What experience do you have of website management?' variety. For some reason, I was quite thrown by their not unreasonable questions, and my memory of the interview is of myself mumbling,
"Umm... uh.. yeah, uh.. the internet, yeah.. I use the internet, um, I send, like, emails...' and sounding like a complete technological incompentant. Now, I cannot claim to a technolgy expert but I live in the modern world, and I am not a moron, so I can usually come to grips with technologies that I need to use. So I felt I had not aquitted myself well in the interview. My impressions about the interview were acutally entirely wrong, as one of my interviewers subsequently gave me a call-back and checked that I was clear that this internship wouldn't be managing an education programme, and would I be content with doing humble database management and the like?
I was thrilled to get the internship with Save; it's an organisation I would be happy to work for, and it is one of the leading agencies in the area of education in emergencies, and my role is pretty perfect for what I'm writing on, giving me access to people and information that can really help with my thesis.
When I was offered the internship, I was quite surprised as I had thought the interview had gone dismally badly. It was a phone interview with two people, and I prepared by having my soundbites about How Passionate I Am about Education in Emergencies ready, and was prepared to explain my experience of working on education projects in developing countries, and other fearless exploits. But the role is actually in communications, so their questions tended more toward the 'What experience do you have of website management?' variety. For some reason, I was quite thrown by their not unreasonable questions, and my memory of the interview is of myself mumbling,
"Umm... uh.. yeah, uh.. the internet, yeah.. I use the internet, um, I send, like, emails...' and sounding like a complete technological incompentant. Now, I cannot claim to a technolgy expert but I live in the modern world, and I am not a moron, so I can usually come to grips with technologies that I need to use. So I felt I had not aquitted myself well in the interview. My impressions about the interview were acutally entirely wrong, as one of my interviewers subsequently gave me a call-back and checked that I was clear that this internship wouldn't be managing an education programme, and would I be content with doing humble database management and the like?
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