Resources +

Books

White Man's Burden - William Easterly
No one who attacks the humanitarian aid establishment is going to win any popularity contests, but, neither, it seems, is that establishment winning any contests with the people it is supposed to be helping. Easterly, an NYU economics professor and a former research economist at the World Bank, contends that the West has failed, and continues to fail, to enact its ill-formed, utopian aid plans because, like the colonialists of old, it assumes it knows what is best for everyone.

The End of Poverty - Jeffrey Sachs
Economic Possibilities for Our Time. In the book, Sachs argues that extreme poverty-defined by the World Bank as incomes of less than US$1 per day-can be eliminated globally by the year 2025, through carefully planned development aid.

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World is a non-fiction, biographical work tracing the life of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, one of the founders of the international health organization Partners in Health.

Pathologies of Power - Paul Farmer
Pathologies of Power uses harrowing stories of life-and death-in extreme situations to interrogate our understanding of human rights. Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist with twenty years of experience working in Haiti, Peru, and Russia, argues that promoting the social and economic rights of the world's poor is the most important human rights struggle of our times.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Freire
The book examines the struggle for justice and equity within the educational system and proposes a new pedagogy.

Development as Freedom - Amartya Sen
This book focuses on international development; Topics include development is the expansion of capabilities - having the freedom to choose between different ways of thinking, the enrichment of human lives, being able to choose how you want to live.

King Leopold's Ghoast - Adam Hochshild
Explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908.

Unbowed - Wangari Maathai
An autobiography - Maathai discusses her childhood, education in the United States and her return to Kenya, moving on to her life as an environmentalist and political activist, culminating with the victory of the opposition in the 2002 elections against the ruling KANU party and her election to parliament, followed shortly after by the Nobel Prize.

A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah
A memoir about Beah's experiences as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone, forced to fight with the Revolutionary United Front.

Films + Documentaries

Taking Root
The Vision of Wangari Maathai tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy.

Milking the Rhino
A ferocious kill on the Serengeti... warnings about endangered species. These clichés of nature documentaries make the mistake of ignoring the villagers who live in Africa and navigate the dangers and costs of living with wildlife. Two of the world's oldest cattle-cultures the Masai and the Himba have suffered from the conservation efforts forced on them by whites. This hard-hitting documentary chronicles recent efforts by villagers to embrace eco-tourism, which focuses on community-based conservation that balances the needs of the people and the wildlife.

War Dance
Set in war-raved Northern Uganda, the award-winning WAR DANCE will touch your heart with a real-life story about a group of children whose love of music brings joy, excitement and hope back into their poverty-stricken lives. Three children who have suffered horrific brutalities momentarily forget their struggles as they participate in music, song and dance at their school. Invited to compete in a prestigious music festival in their nation’s capitol, their historic journey is a stirring tale about the power of the human spirit to triumph against tremendous odds.

The Great African Scandal
Academic Robert Beckford visits Ghana to investigate the hidden costs of rice, chocolate and gold and why, 50 years after independence, a country so rich in natural resources is one of the poorest in the world. He discovers child labourers farming cocoa instead of attending school and asks if the activities of multinationals, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have actually made the country's problems worse.

Blood Coltan
The West's demand for Coltan, used in mobile phones and computers, is funding the killings in Congo. Under the close watch of rebel militias, children as young as ten work the mines hunting for this black gold. ‘Blood Coltan’ exposes the web of powerful interests protecting this blood trade. Meet the powerful warlords who enslave local population and the European businessmen who continue importing Coltan, in defiance of the UN.

Flow: For The Love Of Water
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Slavery: A Global Investigation
Filmmakers Brian Edwards and Kate Blewett actually buy slaves in Africa and help free child slaves in India. The film exposes slavery in the rug-making sector of Northwest India, the cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast, and even the home of a World Bank official in Washington, D.C. Small, personal stories of slavery are woven together to tell the larger story of slavery in the global economy. Slavery won the Peabody Award in 2001.

Organizations

www.icoduganda.blogspot.com/
Integrated Community Efforts for Development (ICOD Uganda) is a grassroots organization implementing community based projects in Lyantonde, Rakai and Masaka districts in Uganda. ICOD is the main implementing partner of Project Focus in Lyantonde.

www.royalafricansociety.org/
The Royal African Society is Britain’s prime Africa organization. Now more than 100 years old, its in-depth, long-term knowledge of the continent and its peoples makes the Society the first stop for anyone wishing to know more.

www.resolveuganda.org/
Resolve Uganda champions the campaign to end the war in Uganda, and is made up of people and organizations who believe that peace is possible and that together we can make it happen.

www.concernamerica.org
Nongovernmental development and refugee aid organization

www.ted.com
Nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

www.playingforchange.org/
Working to rebuild and enhance the TIbetan refugee centers in Dharamsala, India and Kathmandu, Nepal.

www.betterworldbooks.com
Books sold help fund high-impact literacy projects.

www.apsiindex.com
The African Private Education Investment Index

www.schoolventures.com/emawork.htm
Focused on new media solutions for the delivery and finance of learning opportunities to young people.

www.change.org
Providing daily news and information about important social issues and empowering people to take action.

www.barefootcollege.org
Addresses problems of drinking water, girl education, health and sanitation, rural unemployment, social awareness.

www.echoinggreen.org
Invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs.

www.idealist.org
Global clearinghouse of nonprofit and volunteering resources.

www.greenbeltmovement.org
Deplores the reckless and unsustainable exploitation, occupation, and degradation of Kenya's forests, rivers and wetlands and call for their immediate restoration & rehabilitation.

www.designhealthandcommunity.org
Makerere University partnership with England and South Africa - women's art groups.

www.beadforlife.org
Ugandan Women making handmade bead jewelry to build a better future.

www.arttherapy.org
American Art Therapy Association