Reflections for World Refugee Day

May 2025

 I took a trip to East Africa last month to get some urgent work done that had to completed in person. Planned on about a week’s notice, I was in-country for two weeks, part of that time spent listening to refugee stories waiting resettlement.

Bear Witness

AP News photo of USAID food distribution

In a previous post, I mentioned being in a location where I felt at times that all I could do was bear
witness, and others that I wanted a smoke. What I don't think I mentioned is that, in all that hard, dirty, imperfect work was the belief that this was the service I truly belonged in. That I felt more at-home-in-the-work bouncing around the back of Land Rovers and sitting on straw mats in the sand than in many other circumstances.

I'm not telling you this because I want kudos. This isn't white saviourism. This isn't me trying to bounce in and rescue "those" people. What I hope I am doing, and I know my colleagues around the world are doing, is aligning with people, supporting and working collectively for justice, freedom, safety and wellbeing. I don't deserve credit for this work - I am one part of many efforts to make the world a better place for vulnerable people and future generations. 

We aren't here to get rich and famous. 

We are here to work ourselves out of a job because the work is finished and we are no longer needed.

One Practical Action Today

Edit: The rumors didn’t turn out to be true. There was no divisive Super Bowl ad, and I’m super glad. However, what remains true is that Musk continues to post misleading and untrue information about foreign aid publicly, including calling USAID a “criminal organization.” The information below is still relevant for other conversations and challenges to misinformation however!

This morning, rumors started to spread that Elon Musk spent $40 million dollars on a Super Bowl ad or ads demonizing USAID. The irony that the world's richest man is actively preventing aid to a billion of the world's poorest is something.

Helping is Not Criminal

Despite the supposed waiver availability for “lifesaving”

Program in a refugee camp funded by US foreign aid
(BPRM)

support, very few waivers have come through the US State Department for foreign aid. 

Rubio has doubled down on how wasteful, unAmerican and terrible humanitarian and development aid is. The administration has issued bald faced lies about what is has been distributed. Over 100 USAID staffers have been sacked.

Fight for All the People

Classroom I visited in rural Ethiopia, 2018

We are facing down the apocalypse. Today the administration attempted to cut all assistance (for things like Medicaid, school lunches, meals on wheels, education assistance) for vulnerable people he ostensibly has more reason to care about. If that's how the administration is willing to treat citizens (but for an emergency injunctive order because a consortium of States sued), what hope do vulnerable people in other countries have?  

90 Days is Too Long to Wait

Children in front of a tailor's shop in a refugee camp 

Four days after I returned home from the Chicago Marathon, I left for Chad. For

security reasons, I didn't post about my trip while I was there, and I won't be sharing specifics of where I visited. Anything I share in this post reflects my own views, and not that of any organization I have worked for or met with.

Race Report: Chicago Marathon

I ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday.