The Aid Worker Manifesto, Part 1: Who We Are
This is the first post in The Aid Worker Manifesto series. The second one is here. Be sure to sign up by email so you don’t miss the next ones!
This is for aid workers and changemakers who believe that there can be positive, visionary change in the way we live and work together on this planet as a human community. Although we come from many countries, we have all chosen a career or life’s work that involves being of service to the human community.
This service may take many forms, but it has, at its heart, the alleviation of suffering. We witness and experience the interconnectedness of the global community in our daily lives. Where one of us suffers, we suffer—and so we work to lessen suffering. When one life improves, we are uplifted—and so we work to improve people’s lives.
The interconnectedness of our global community is a source of strength. We value the knowledge and experience of our networks and are constantly open to learning new and better ways of doing things. We know that the answers to the questions we ask can come from unexpected people and places. We work to keep our eyes open and our minds even more open, so that our hearts can recognize what it is we seek, when we find it.
We share values of compassion and gratitude as we work towards peace. We seek to embody these values in our lives and in our work. Compassion teaches us humility and empathy for those we serve. Gratitude reminds us every moment of all the blessings we embody and experience. As we live these values, we find our minds, hearts and actions become more peaceful. In that peace, we know there is great power.
We have chosen careers that are, at their base, optimistic, but we are neither foolish nor native about the hardships and challenges faced by most people in the world. We boldly seek, through focused and evidence-based action, to lighten the load.
We find both wisdom and comfort in sharing our hopes and experiences around the work. Our strength lies in the fact that we are not alone. As we find each other and communicate our deep passion around our work, we become stronger and better at what we do, more effective agents of positive global change.
Our vision of the future is a positive, multi-faceted one. We know it will take work and likely, luck, to get us there.
I want this to bring us together along the way.