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Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Togo | Twins with visual disabilities learn at inclusive school in News 2022-11-15 17:25:36 -0500
Togo | Twins with visual disabilities learn at inclusive school
Yentougle and Yenhame are 13-year-old twins who both have visual disabilities. Through Humanity & Inclusion's inclusive education project in Togo, they are receiving personalized support to excel at school.
Yentougle and her brother Yenhame are two of seven siblings, four of whom have some level of visual disability. Their family lives in Sibortoti, a village in northern Togo. With a limited income, their parents cannot afford specialized care and schooling. Through an inclusive education project tailored to support students who are blind or living with low vision, the twins are receiving an education adapted to their needs.
Because of their disabilities, Yentougle and Yenhame had difficulty moving around and finding their way on their own. They couldn't play games with other children and experienced discrimination.
"We couldn't send them on errands," says Tchable Lyabine, the twins' father. "They couldn't help us with the daily chores, like cleaning, or with the gardening. Their mother had to be with them all the time, to take them to school and pick them up afterwards."
In 2012, the siblings were identified by the Association des Personnes Handicapées Motivées de Tône, one of Humanity & Inclusion's partner organizations. For the past 10 years, Humanity & Inclusion's teams have provided support to the twins.
Inclusive education and other assistance
Yentougle and Yenhame are enrolled in the local primary school. Humanity & Inclusion has provided them with clothes, backpacks, shoes and other school supplies adapted to their specific needs.
Their teacher receives technical support from Humanity & Inclusion and has been trained in inclusive teaching techniques and methods to help him support the twins with their learning.
Yentougle and Yenhame receive personalized educational support from an itinerant teacher specialized in assisting students with visual disabilities. The teacher visits their home several times a week to provide tutoring, transcribe lessons and help them do exercises in Braille.
Yentougle and Yenhame have received medical support, including consultations and eye care financed by the organization. Humanity & Inclusion and its partner have also provided them with canes to help with their mobility and autonomy. The organizations also distribute food kits to the twins' family.
Awareness-raising activities have been organized within the community to combat the stigmatization of the twins. As a result, Yentougle and Yenhame experience less discrimination. Today, the twins have made friends in their village and play games with other children. Their friends often accompany them home from school.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published 40th Anniversary | Gneip's story: From landmine survivor to policy advocate in News 2022-10-31 09:55:59 -0400
40th Anniversary | Gneip's story: From landmine survivor to policy advocate
In 1982, two doctors working in refugee camps in Thailand started helping survivors of landmine explosions who had been injured fleeing across the heavily mined border. There they met Gniep, a young girl who had lost her leg after stepping on a landmine. Gniep was one of the first children ever supported by Humanity & Inclusion. This is her story.
I was 5 years old, living under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, four long years in absolute darkness of uncertainty, anguish and fear. In 1979, fleeing misery and hunger, I left my village with my aunt, leaving everything behind, believing that it was temporary.
Antipersonnel landmines were all over Cambodia. To this day they still kill and mutilate an alarmingly high number of people. At the time, we were not informed about the risk they posed. While in the camp, I went to fetch water and that's when it happened: I stepped on a mine.
I remember it as if it were yesterday; the violence was such that I was thrown in the air. Stunned and dizzy by the shock of the explosion, I did not know that I had just stepped on a mine. I tried to get up and walk three times before understanding that my right leg was torn off at the calf, and that the left one was badly affected, too.
By instinct of survival, probably, I moved myself to a path, where two soldiers passing by found me and brought me on their motorcycle to a makeshift dispensary. There, the analgesic I was given was a stick that I had to bite on when the pain became too much.
Then, I was transferred to a refugee camp in Thailand commonly known as Khao I Dang. I had to undergo 17 operations because the surgeon wanted to preserve the joint, but my leg was gangrenous and I fell into a coma for a month.
Not long afterward, I met the founding members of HI. They were a small group of young people, who were friends, husbands and wives, full of enthusiasm, their heads full of dreams and ideals, animated by a crazy desire to help people like me who had been stripped of everything. With great humanity and respect, they put me back on my feet again.
My first prosthesis was very simple, made of recycled materials like wood, car tires, and resin. I admit that I had a hard time accepting it because it was heavy and hard to put on.
It's hard to believe that was 40 years ago. Today, despite my disability, I lead my life like everyone else. I am a night nurse, working for young people with multiple disabilities. And I am a mother of a young and beautiful girl. I am so very grateful to those women and men who helped me all those years ago. They gave me back my smile and dignity, which everyone should have!
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Ethiopia | A wheelchair for Freweyni: Logistics manager shares story from Tigray in News 2022-10-26 14:38:33 -0400
Ethiopia | A wheelchair for Freweyni: Logistics manager shares story from Tigray
Humanity & Inclusion's regional logistics manager, Tilahun Abebe, shares the highlight of his recent visit to Tigray, Ethiopia.
I was able to visit Tigray for a week this summer. No one had been able to visit our team in Tigray for quite a long time due to security constraints.
One morning, during breakfast with my colleagues, the silhouette of a woman appeared in the distance and caught my eye. I could see her making her way across the cobblestone pathway, fading in and out of my view between the many passing pedestrians in the road, crawling on her hands and knees. We crossed the street to find her propped up on some stairs leading to a roadside shop, with one hand supporting her weight, and the other stretched out to ask for money. Neither the man in the shop nor the people passing by seemed to pay her any attention. I was not surprised, as I had already noticed an overwhelming number of people soliciting assistance in the street since my arrival in Mekele: from small children to elderly persons, clearly internally displaced from other parts of Tigray. You could tell from the looks on their faces that many were new to this way of life and were living very differently only a few weeks or months earlier.
I am an Ethiopian citizen, still living in Addis Ababa, and I have traveled to many regions of the country. The desperate situation of the people I saw on the streets of Mekele that week is something I will never forget.
Meeting Freweyni
The woman sensed us standing next to her and turned toward us. I still remembered some Tigrigna language from childhood friends and social media, so I greeted her and introduced myself. She returned the greeting with a smile and kindness, and shared her story with us.
Her name is Freweyni, which means "grapefruit" in the local language. She is a mother to three children and she was born with a physical disability. In the previous years, she was displaced from her home and has since been staying in various shelters around the major market area of Mekele. Her oldest son left home when the war began, but her two younger children still live with her and she is their sole provider. She spends her days asking for money around the market to try and support her family.
Since meeting with Freweyni and learning about her situation, I put her in touch with our teams. Humanity & Inclusion has provided her with a new wheelchair. This means that for many months or years to come, she will no longer have to crawl on her hands and knees to move around. She's one of 50 people to recently receive wheelchairs from Humanity & Inclusion in Tigray. Having served in many humanitarian organizations for over two decades, this experience remains at the top of all I have encountered. It's part of what makes me love working at Humanity & Inclusion.
Tilahun Abebe, Humanity & Inclusion's regional logistics manager
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Colombia | Demining in Chaparral brings hope to communities in News 2022-10-24 11:29:03 -0400
Colombia | Demining in Chaparral brings hope to communities
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Consortium Awarded USAID Justice, Rights, and Security Rapid Response Assistance Activity in Press Releases 2022-10-18 10:59:13 -0400
Consortium Awarded USAID Justice, Rights, and Security Rapid Response Assistance Activity
Silver Spring, Maryland – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded the Justice, Rights, and Security Rapid Response Assistance (JURIS) Activity to a consortium of organizations led by Democracy International (DI) in partnership with Humanity & Inclusion.
USAID's Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance announced the $20 million, five-year award. The activity will support small, rapid activities around the world to address critical, time-sensitive human rights, justice, and security-related concerns and windows of opportunity.
DI's JURIS coalition will support efforts to monitor and document rights violations and provide technical, emergency, and other assistance to defenders under threat. Humanity & Inclusion will build on its expertise in working alongside people with disabilities and other populations experiencing extreme vulnerabilities to support this critical programming.
"DI is excited to partner with Humanity & Inclusion and work together with the JURIS coalition and USAID to mitigate the global threats on justice, human rights, and security," said DI President Eric Bjornlund.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Madagascar | 'There is no more rain, and we're suffering from it' in News 2022-10-04 12:17:30 -0400
Madagascar | 'There is no more rain, and we're suffering from it'
As a devastating drought continues in southern Madagascar, food insecurity is on the rise. Humanity & Inclusion is providing food assistance to households with the most acute needs.
Year after year of insufficient rainfall in southern Madagascar has caused one of the worst droughts in the country's history. And communities are facing a food crisis.
"Life is not like it used to be," says Nahy, 66, who lives in a village classified as severely impacted by the drought. "Things are getting harder. Before, there were abundant rains and we could cultivate crops. Today, there is no more rain and we're suffering from it."
Nahy has six children and 10 grandchildren.
"I take care of the entire family of 16 people alone because my husband and other family members have all passed away," Nahy explains. "The youngest children live with me in my tiny house, and we all eat and sleep together on the floor."
Critical food assistance
"We need to cook 10 kapoaka of rice (about 7 pounds) per day to feed everyone," Nahy continues. "We don't have enough food, and we run out of what we can afford after just one week. We have to walk over a half-mile away to get water. My wish is that we can have enough food to last us each month so that we can have a better life."
During a door-to-door evaluation, Nahy met with Victor, a partner community agent for Humanity & Inclusion living in her region. He learned about Nahy's situation and connected her with Humanity & Inclusion to receive monthly food provisions for her family.
"During the distributions I receive 66 pounds of rice, 2.5 liters of vegetable oil, and 10 pounds of beans each month," Nahy says.
Inclusive actions
People living with disabilities, low incomes or facing situations of extreme vulnerability face even more difficulty providing for themselves and their families during times of crisis. As crops fail to grow, food becomes scarce and prices increase. Nahy lives with a disability that affects the use of her hands and prevents her from working.
"Due to my disability, I cannot cook meals by myself and I need help for small tasks like getting dressed in the morning," she explains. "My children and grandchildren are the ones who cook for us, because it causes me too much pain. I am not able to work, and my children cannot find jobs here, so we cannot afford the little food available."
Humanity & Inclusion provides monthly food assistance to people with disabilities and their households living in the Atsimo Andrefana region of Madagascar to alleviate the negative impacts of the drought, reaching approximately 7,000 individuals. Teams also offer stimulation therapy to children, a rehabilitation service that helps prevent developmental delays and disabilities associated with a lack of nutrition. 320 children have already received stimulation therapy, and 350 others have been identified for the coming months.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Kenya | Head teacher takes pride in promoting inclusion at school in News 2022-09-30 16:59:11 -0400
Kenya | Head teacher takes pride in promoting inclusion at school
Susan is the head teacher at an inclusive school in the Kalobeyei settlement in Kenya, which is home to many refugee students and their families. To make the school more accessible for students with and without disabilities, Humanity & Inclusion has supported adaptations to the school's facilities and offered training to staff.
Susan has been a teacher for more than 12 years, starting her career in Sudan. When she left her home country and settled in Kenya, she knew she wanted to continue serving students.
"I love teaching and being with children," Susan explains. "At first, I didn't know how to support students with disabilities. But now I've had training and I'm more skilled at helping them."
Inclusive education welcomes all
At the preschool that Susan leads, adaptations have been made to ensure it's accessible for students with disabilities. New equipment was installed at the playground and accessible restrooms were constructed.
Teachers and staff have also been trained in how best to teach students with disabilities and how to encourage parents of children with disabilities to enroll them in school.
Members of the school committee even visit students at home to make sure they don't miss class.
Susan says the students and broader community are embracing the changes to promote inclusion. On a recent holiday, Susan says students visited her at home, eagerly asking when they could return to the classroom.
"My school is different from other schools," she explains. "Children with disabilities can access the building and move around without difficulty. Before, attendance numbers were down. Now, students are increasing in number. They love school!"
The preschool in Kalobeyei is part of a pilot project in Kenya to determine the impact of inclusive education on the students, teachers and communities. Humanity & Inclusion teams intend to develop an advocacy plan to be implemented in schools in other communities for years to come.
"Our school is effective," Susan adds. "But one inclusive school is not enough."
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Ukraine | 'Weapons more advanced, mutilating and destructive than I've ever witnessed' in Ukraine Crisis Updates 2022-09-28 11:59:21 -0400
Gaëlle Smith, Humanity & Inclusion's emergency rehabilitation specialist, was deployed to Ukraine to support the local teams. She shares her experience treating patients at a hospital in Dnipro.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Colombia | Land freed of mines, lives freed of fear in News 2022-09-26 16:47:29 -0400
Colombia | Land freed of mines, lives freed of fear
In July 2022, Humanity & Inclusion declared the Inzá municipality free of landmines, explosive devices and unexploded ordnance. Over a period of two years, the organization conducted demining operations in eight locations spanning more than three acres in Inzá – land that has now been released back to the region's 27,000 residents.
"We hope that the land we surveyed will contribute to the construction of a more equal society, to social development and to the development of ecotourism in the region," Arturo Bureo, Humanity & Inclusion's Director of Operations in Colombia, said at a ceremony marking the land's release back to local communities. "And above all, we hope that the decontamination of Inzá will benefit the indigenous and farming communities that live there."
Igniting economic growth
Located southeast of Bogotá, Inzá boasts archaeological, architectural and natural wealth. But, as in many parts of the country, indigenous and farming communities have long had to contend with the legacy of mines and improvised explosive devices left over from armed conflict.
Among the most notable landmarks is the National Archaeological Park of Tierradentro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because of the suspected presence of explosive devices, it has never been fully explored or reached its potential as a tourism destination. The municipality is also home to the La Casa del Pueblo public library, which has received a national award for Colombian libraries. With landmine contamination abated, these natural and cultural treasures will again be able to contribute to the region's development and help revive the local economy.
Justiniano Pencué, a farmer from the indigenous community of Nasa, has waited 10 years to plant and cultivate his land safely. During that time, the danger posed by explosive devices on his land prevented him from expanding his coffee farm.
Now, Justiniano can return to his land without fear. He has a nursery of 5,000 coffee plants ready to be sown and harvested in areas that are finally free of mines.
"I am already preparing the land to plant my coffee," Justiniano (pictured) says. "With these crops, we'll be able to make a living to feed ourselves."
Restoring safety to neighbors
Diana Milena Pacho, a member of the indigenous community of San José, is a non-technical demining survey assistant at Humanity & Inclusion. For two years, she worked hand in hand with her neighbors, surveying more than 14 areas suspected of explosive device contamination. Through her work, Diana has helped restore confidence to the people of Inzá, who can now safely live, work and play.
"I have been able to pass on what I've learned to my community, explaining to people not to touch explosives and teaching my family how to be careful," Diana explains. "With the threat of explosive devices gone, we can now walk around without worrying, work in safety and visit the tourist sites without fear."
In addition to clearance operations, teams organized 45 mine risk education workshops to help residents learn how to spot, avoid and report explosive weapons. Nearly 6,000 families participated in education sessions.
Mine action in Colombia
Dating back to 1990, 12,200 people have been injured or killed by explosive devices in Colombia. Behind only Afghanistan, Colombia has the second highest number of mine victims in the world. Mine clearance and victim assistance are vital in helping communities safely reclaim their land, boost the local economy and rebuild the social fabric.
With funding from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, Humanity & Inclusion implements mine clearance actions in the five Colombian departments of Cauca, Meta, Nariño, Antioquia and Caquetá. Across Colombia, Humanity & Inclusion has surveyed more than 222,000 acres to identify areas of possible contamination. As part of its holistic approach to mine action, teams also provide mine risk education to affected communities, offer psychosocial support and rehabilitation care to survivors of these dangerous weapons, and help them find gainful employment.
Inzá is the second municipality in which Humanity & inclusion has completed its humanitarian demining operations, following the release of Puracé to its residents in October 2021.
Colombia is among the signatories of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty, which marks its 25th anniversary this year. While the U.S. has made progress in its anti-personnel landmine policy, it has yet to join the near-universal treaty.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Pakistan | Food, emergency supplies delivered to 600 families displaced by catastrophic flooding in Updates: Pakistan Flood Response 2022-09-16 10:00:24 -0400
Pakistan | Food, emergency supplies delivered to displaced families
Humanity & Inclusion's teams are delivering food, cookware, blankets, soap and other emergency supplies to 600 families in two regions affected by catastrophic flooding in Pakistan.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Pakistan | Teams prepare emergency kits for displaced families in Updates: Pakistan Flood Response 2022-09-12 12:42:34 -0400
Pakistan | Teams prepare emergency kits for displaced families
Humanity & Inclusion's teams are preparing kits containing emergency supplies and basic necessities to disperse to 600 families displaced by catastrophic floods in Pakistan.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published U.S. Grants Finance Officer in Current Vacancies 2023-01-11 14:03:32 -0500
U.S. Grants Finance Officer
Reports To: U.S. Director, Grants Management and Compliance
Location: Silver Spring, Maryland (preferred), telework is possible
This is an immediate opening
Humanity & Inclusion is an independent and impartial aid organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and those experiencing extreme hardship. We act and bear witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights. Founded in France in 1982, the Humanity & Inclusion Network now has more than 4,755 personnel working in 60 countries. Eight national associations, based in the United States, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Great Britain and Canada, along with an office in Austria, provide overall support for the field programs, which are implemented through the headquarters in Lyon, France.
The U.S. office of Humanity & Inclusion is a 501 (c)3 organization with an independent Board of Directors, is a constituent member of the Humanity & Inclusion Network, and has its offices in Silver Spring, MD. The U.S. national association supports the work of Humanity & Inclusion by securing and managing grants from U.S. governmental institutions and private foundations; mobilizing private and public financial support; representing Humanity & Inclusion with national, international bilateral and multilateral institutions based in the U.S.; and raising the organization's profile. The U.S. national association raised $32 million in 2021, of which 98 percent derives from U.S. Government grants. The national association conducts active outreach to the U.S. public.
The U.S. Grants Finance Officer is part of the institutional funding team. The Officer reports the U.S. Director, Grants Management and Compliance. The position also works closely with the U.S. Finance Director (responsible for the U.S. organization's overall financial function), other members of the U.S.-based staff, and global finance and institutional funding teams based in France.
This is up to a full-time position based in Silver Spring, MD. Telework is also possible. The position has occasional international travel up to 5 percent.
The U.S. Grants Finance Officer coordinates financial reporting on U.S Government and private foundation awards. The successful candidate will also provide technical assistance on financial management and compliance, and will coordinate other administrative aspects of the organization's grants portfolio.
Accurately and rapidly enter and update grant information from U.S. Government and Foundation donors into the organization's accounting system, NAVision
Review quarterly and final financial reports received from country finance managers and prepare them for signature
Monitor bank accounts receiving incoming payments from U.S. donors and inform staff when payments are received
Prepare grant reimbursement requests to donors or partners
Compile and internally communicate on changes to the organization's indirect cost rate (NICRA) and contribute to the analysis of its impact on budgets and project close-outs
Support the U.S. Director of Grants Management and Compliance to provide financial guidance to headquarters and field-based colleagues on financial matters related to U.S. Government and private foundation grants, including at kick-off meetings, during project implementation, and at project closeout
Verify and monitor project financial forecast documents
Check Value-Added Tax reports for accuracy and submit to donors as required
Contribute to update financial information in the U.S. Government Payment Management System by filing SF-425 for all projects
Support the team in finalizing financial reports for U.S. private foundation grants received from HI field colleagues
Participate in financial close-out of grants and contracts with field teams
Contribute to the creation and dissemination of training content on financial management of grants and compliance concerning U.S. donor rules and regulations
Scan project budgets for unallowable costs or errors in advance of submission or during project implementation
Carry out tasks as required by the U.S. Director for Grants Management and Compliance
Understanding of U.S. Government "Administrative Requirements Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards" or capacity of learning
Highly proficient in Microsoft Excel and Word; familiarity with Office365
Experience in International development/relief; or else time spent living abroad
Qualified applicants with existing permission to work within the U.S. should submit a resume, as well as a cover letter explaining (1) why this role appeals to you, (2) how it connects to your prior experience, and (3) how you've helped another organization improve their fundraising program to [email protected] with the subject line "U.S. Grants Finance Officer."
Once a job offer is extended to a candidate, that offer will be contingent on the candidate passing a background investigation.
We will only consider applications from U.S. citizens, or from applicants who already have permission to work in the United States. Applicants without existing work permission in the United States should not apply.
February 10, 2023 at 11:59pm - February 11, 2023 at 2:59am
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Ukraine | Displaced by war, Nadezhda finds strength with rehabilitation care in Ukraine Crisis Updates 2022-09-09 13:25:13 -0400
Ukraine | Displaced by war, Nadezhda finds strength with rehabilitation care
Like many Ukrainians, Nadezhda lives with compromised health conditions. After the war worsened her symptoms and displaced her from home, Humanity & Inclusion's rehabilitation specialists helped relieve pain and restore her energy.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Pakistan | Catastrophic flooding leaves one-third of country underwater in Updates: Pakistan Flood Response 2022-09-09 11:30:02 -0400
Pakistan | Catastrophic flooding leaves one-third of country underwater
Pakistan is experiencing its worst flooding in over a decade. With more than 6.4 million people in need of humanitarian aid, Humanity & Inclusion prepares emergency kits to support families in need.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Pakistan updates intro in Updates: Pakistan Flood Response 2022-09-09 11:09:14 -0400
Pakistan updates intro
Catastrophic rainfall and flooding in Pakistan has destroyed 800,000 homes, and damaged more than 1.3 million others. At least 8.6 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance. The floods have resulted in nearly 1,700 deaths, and 12,900 injuries.
All signs point to a long-term emergency response in Pakistan. It will take time to rebuild homes and repair damaged roads and bridges. Food insecurity is a major concern: catastrophic flooding has already killed 1.2 million livestock and affected nearly 4 million acres of crops.
Working in Pakistan since the early 1980s, Humanity & Inclusion's teams are working to get food and basic household goods, such as hygiene supplies, blankets and kitchen items, into the hands of people who have lost everything. We work especially hard to support people with disabilities, older people, and their families. The organization is also deploying psychological first aid teams to assess the needs of people displaced from their homes, and provide assistance.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Updates: Pakistan Flood Response 2022-09-09 11:08:48 -0400
Updates: Pakistan Flood Response
Pakistan | 'A refugee in my own country'
Pakistan | 'The floods destroyed all of our belongings'
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Burkina Faso | 2 million displaced amid worst food crisis in a decade in Press Releases 2022-09-08 14:33:39 -0400
Burkina Faso | 2 million displaced amid worst food crisis in a decade
Nearly one in 10 people in Burkina Faso have been displaced by conflict. Most worryingly, the rate of severe food insecurity has nearly doubled compared to last year, with over 600,000 people in emergency hunger levels during this lean season, warns 28 international aid organizations operating in the country. An urgent increase in funding for humanitarian assistance is required to respond to the current situation.
"We now see more and more people forced to flee not from their hometowns, but increasingly from places where they had previously sought refuge," explains Philippe Allard, Director of Humanity & Inclusion in Burkina Faso. "Each new displacement increases their vulnerability, and chips away at their resources and mental health."
The multiplication of violent attacks has driven more people to flee between January and July 2022 than during the entire year of 2021. Meanwhile, large displacement shocks are becoming more frequent. Four years after its start, the displacement crisis in Burkina Faso remains one of the three fastest growing in the world.
"Too often, displacement and hunger come as a one-two punch," says Hassane Hamadou, Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "People forced to move have left behind their fields and livestock. Many displaced families report being down to one meal a day in order to allow children to eat twice. Recent waves of displacement only heighten the urgency to act."
"For children, who make up for the majority of the displaced, leaving their home behind is traumatic enough but having to flee again and again while trying to survive robs families of any chance to rebuild their lives," adds Benoit Delsarte, Country Director of Save the Children.
Ousmane, 15, is one of many children facing such daunting uncertainty: "I have been displaced twice. It all started the day armed men came to my village and told us to follow their instructions or leave. My parents and I first sought refuge in a nearby village. Unfortunately, shortly after that, they came there and burned down schools, markets and stores. We were forced to flee, again."
The town of Seytenga, near the border with Niger, hosted over 12,000 displaced people when it came under attack on June 11, killing dozens. In the following hours and days, over 30,000 people fled Seytenga and arrived in Dori, a city that had already tripled in size since the start of the crisis.
Despite immense challenges to provide shelter, water, healthcare and education among other essential services, communities have rallied to support each other. But more humanitarian support is critically needed.
"Host communities across the country have shown remarkable solidarity by taking in tens of thousands of displaced people, opening their homes and sharing their food for months, if not years on end," says Antoine Sanon, Response Director of World Vision in Burkina Faso. "The efforts of the international community to provide lifesaving assistance should match theirs."
"These communities are experiencing an exceptionally difficult lean season due to the food crisis resulting, in part, from last year's catastrophic agricultural season," adds Omer Kabore, Oxfam Country Director. "The effects of climate change, mass displacement and the rising global cost of grain products have combined into a perfect storm engulfing over 3.4 million Burkinabè."
Signatory organizations call for an urgent surge of financial resources. Eight months into the year, the humanitarian response is only reaching 36% of the funding required despite soaring needs.
Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA)
Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI)
Comité International pour l'Aide d'Urgence et le Développement (CIAUD)
Concern Worldwide
Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI)
Geneva Call
IEDA Relief (International Emergency and Development Aid)
LVIA (Association Internationale Volontaires Laiques)
Médecins du Monde-France
Première Urgence Internationale
Secours Islamique France
Solidarités International
Welthungerhilfe
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Pakistan | Unprecedented floods displace millions in Emergencies 2022-08-31 14:07:57 -0400
Pakistan | Catastrophic floods displace millions
Unprecedented rainfall and flooding in Pakistan has destroyed or damaged more than 1.7 million homes. At least 6.4 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance. More than 1,400 people have died.
"We're seeing families that have lost absolutely everything and are living amid floodwaters. Our initial focus is meeting the most urgent needs of impacted communities, including access to food and daily essentials such as soap, cooking supplies and warm blankets."
—Caroline Duconseille, Humanity & Inclusion's country manager in Pakistan
Read the latest updates from HI's emergency response.
All signs point to a long-term emergency response in Pakistan. It will take time to rebuild homes and repair damaged roads and bridges. Food insecurity is a major concern: catastrophic flooding has already killed more than 700,000 livestock and affected nearly 4 million acres of crops.
The following news outlets and organizations include Humanity & Inclusion on their lists of vetted organizations responding to the Pakistan floods: Atlanta Business Journal, CIDI, CNN, Fortune, Obama Foundation, PBS, and Time Out.
Any funds raised beyond the needs of our Pakistan emergency response will be used to support other vital programs around the world.
Thanks so much to our generous donors funding emergency aid in Pakistan!
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Mali | With her new hand, Aminata returns to school in News 2022-08-22 11:34:19 -0400
Mali | With her new hand, Aminata returns to school
When she was 2, Aminata contracted a disease in her left hand, the cause of which remains unknown. Despite numerous consultations in health centers and with traditional healers, her hand had to be amputated. Now 10, Aminata is enrolled in school and has a new artificial limb with support from Humanity & Inclusion.
"In 2014, my daughter was left with a missing upper limb," says Youma, Aminata's mother. "It was a terrible shock for the whole family, totally darkening our future."
In 2019, a community agent referred Aminata's family to Humanity & Inclusion. Teams encouraged Aminata's parents to enroll their daughter in an inclusive school that welcomes children with and without disabilities, where the teachers are trained to use adapted teaching methods and tools.
"Shortly after Aminata enrolled in school, her father died," Youma explains. "We lost all hope for a while. Fortunately, together we had the strength to overcome this painful ordeal."
With Humanity & Inclusion's support, Aminata received an artificial arm. The organization accompanied her family throughout the medical process and paid related expenses.
"When Aminata received her prosthesis, we were very relieved that she had been fitted," Youma remembers. "It was as if she had a 'new arm'. My daughter was really happy to have this prosthesis."
As part of the project, Aminata also received a complete school kit, including a school bag, pens and notebooks. This was a relief for her family, who could not afford to pay for the young girl's supplies.
In December 2021, Aminata's family moved more than a mile away from the school she attends in Mali.
"I was worried because I thought she would drop out of school because of the distance to our new home," Youma explains. "But Aminata was never discouraged, and she continues to go to school."
Since her enrollment, Aminata has been attending school regularly. Currently in fifth grade, she dreams of becoming a police officer.
"Today, Aminata is my greatest hope," Youma adds.
Elizabeth Johnson Sellers published Kenya | In Kakuma refugee camp, HI promotes autonomy for all in News 2022-08-18 11:21:28 -0400
Kenya | In Kakuma refugee camp, HI promotes autonomy for all
In Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Racheal Njiru works each day alongside people with disabilities to help remove barriers to accessibility and inclusion. Racheal shares insight on her role as the disability inclusive development project manager at the refugee camp.
I've been working at Humanity & Inclusion for over three years as project manager. I chose the humanitarian sector because I love community work. I've always felt the need to help others. I trained in the social sciences at Daystar University, in Nairobi, to get the skills and knowledge I need to do this
I particularly enjoy working in the socio-economic sector, supporting refugees in developing their businesses. I want to help bring about positive change, to contribute to the socio-economic development of my country, and more generally of Africa.
Remarkable stories and people
What motivates me is to see that I can make a difference in someone's life. I like to support people in developing a project and see their situation improve. It's very inspiring to meet people we've helped and whose lives have changed.
Some stories leave their mark. I remember one woman who really impressed me. Every month, she delivered coal to a company. Then Covid-19 came along, which upset everything and threatened the survival of many small private businesses like hers. But she wasn't discouraged. She used the financial support and training that Humanity & Inclusion gave her to save money and build five rental houses. Now she can rent them out and has a new income stream. I really admire this woman's strength and determination.
Everyday problems in the refugee camp
Kakuma camp is home to more than 240,000 refugees who live in very cramped conditions. The resources available to them are insufficient and ill-adapted. For example, there are not enough schools for the number of students. Even the geographical location of the camp is not ideal. It's located in Kenya's arid zone where it can get extremely hot. During periods of drought, people are in danger of losing their livelihoods.
For people with disabilities, there are also physical barriers affecting accessibility in the camp. The infrastructure is not adapted and some people with disabilities have to depend on their relatives to help them access buildings or get around the camp.
Promoting inclusion
Refugees with disabilities face systemic obstacles and barriers. For example, they are not members of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities. This means they don't benefit from the measures in place for people with disabilities in Kenya, such as training opportunities, distributions of mobility aids or tax exemption for businesses.
It is vital to understand that the people we work with face complex issues, which can make them more vulnerable than others. For example, when different services are offered within the camp, we have to take care to include those who are most vulnerable by asking the right questions. Who are the people most at risk? Will they have access to distribution sites? It is our responsibility to take these aspects into account when identifying needs and delivering humanitarian aid.
In the Kakuma refugee camp, Humanity & Inclusion runs a project which offers functional rehabilitation, psychosocial support & inclusion services, as well as inclusive education and economic inclusion projects. Our goal is to empower everyone to be autonomous. We take a holistic approach, promoting people's dignity and aiming to improve all aspects of their daily lives. Inclusion is everyone's business and together we can make a difference!


Alfano, Christine L, & Alyssa J. O'Brien. "Plagiarism." Envision: Persuasive Writing in a Visual World. New York: Pearson, 2005. 174-175. Print.
Linton, Patricia, Robert Madigan and Susan Johnson. "Introducing Students to Disciplinary Genres: The Role of the General Composition Course." Language & Learning Across the Disciplines 1.2 (Oct. 1994): 63-78. Print.
The homework assignment which accompanies the reading, "Harry Potter & The Witch Hunters." Please remember that this homework assignment asks you to find & access the article from the library's database on your own!


LeToy Van wooden toys are a company who specialise in ethically produced toys for children. Based in the UK, their toys are manufactured in Indonesia using legal and sustainable wood sources. They also ensure ethical manufacturing practices too! The aim of the LeToy Van brand is to design and sell wooden toys that maintain traditional play values. These are wooden toys that allow children to invent stories and let their imaginations take over! LeToy Van now have a range of toys so smaller children that encourages the development of a child's motor skills.
LeToy Van wooden toys began in 1995 in England where George Le Van devised and designed a collection of wooden toys to feed the imagination of children. These include the lovely hand finished pieces we stock today from Dolls Houses to Pirate Ships! LeToy Van have captured the imaginations of children – big and small – all over the world. All while maintaining, and also growing, a brand with ethics.


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1864 Person of the Year, Gary Gallagher on Grant and Lee
2014-03-20T20:01:22-04:00https://images.c-span.org/Files/a48/20140320201416003_hd.jpgEach year, Time magazine selects the person who had the most influence on events during the preceding 12 months. Five historians were asked who they believed Time would have selected as the Person of the Year in 1864.
In this segment, Gary Gallagher presented his argument for Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee and responded to questions from members of the audience.
The Museum of the Confederacy's 2014 Symposium, cosponsored by the Library of Virginia and the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, was held at the Library of Virginia.
Each year, Time magazine selects the person who had the most influence on events during the preceding 12 months. Five historians were asked who they… read more
Each year, Time magazine selects the person who had the most influence on events during the preceding 12 months. Five historians were asked who they believed Time would have selected as the Person of the Year in 1864.
The Museum of the Confederacy's 2014 Symposium, cosponsored by the Library of Virginia and the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, was held at the Library of Virginia. close
Filter by Speaker All Speakers Gary W. Gallagher S. Waite Rawls III
Gary W. Gallagher Professor University of Virginia->American History
S. Waite Rawls III President and CEO American Civil War Museum
American Civil War MuseumAmerican Civil War Museum
Library of VirginiaLibrary of Virginia
American Civil War Museum | American Civil War Center at Historic TedegarAmerican Civil War Museum | American Civil War Center at Historic Tedegar
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1864 Person of the Year, Harold Holzer on Abraham Lincoln
1864 Person of the Year, John Marszalek on William Tecumseh Sherman
1864 Person of the Year, Joe Mobley on Zebulon Baird Vance
1864 Person of the Year, Craig Symonds on Patrick Cleburne
1864 Person of the Year, Winner
Richmond, Virginia, United States
Mar 20, 2014 | 8:01pm EDT | C-SPAN 3
Mar 22, 2014 | 8:24am EDT | C-SPAN 3
Mar 21, 2014 | 12:42am EDT | C-SPAN 3
See all on Civil War American History TV
Each year, Time magazine selects the person who had the most influence on events during the preceding 12 months. Five historians…

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All posts tagged "poster"
Home / Posts tagged "poster"
Amazing Poster Art for Marvel's HAWKEYE Series
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Check out these 15 famous movie posters which are copied by the Chinese.


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Willow Springs Magazine
Triceratops Poetry Outreach
Issue 83: Maggie Smith: The Willow Springs Interview
Found in Willow Springs 83
JOSH ANTHONY, CAYLIE HERMANN, KIMBERLY POVLOSKI, & TAYLOR WARING
A CONVERSATION WITH MAGGIE SMITH
Photo Credit: Devin Albeit Photography
Throughout her work, Maggie Smith presents vulnerability and softness that comes from someone writing a love letter to the very thing that is trying to destroy her—and everyone else. Smith pulls from fairytales, imagined natural disasters, and biblical stories, but reminds us that the dangers we face are often human. Without an edge of anger or despair, her poems balance love and fear and demand that the reader not lose hope, even when that seems like the most logical choice. Her precise and often mystical imagery and her unwavering lyricism encourage her readers.
Maggie Smith is the author of three books of poetry: Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017), The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press, 2015), and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press, 2005). She is also the author of three prizewinning chapbooks. In 2016, her poem "Good Bones" went viral after appearing in Waxwing and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Smith is a 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also received six Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and a Pushcart Prize.
In a review of Good Bones for The Rumpus, Julie Marie Wade says, "I think if [Good Bones] has a moral, it's about learning to grow where planted." Smith was born in Columbus, Ohio, and remains rooted to her native Ohio today. She has taught creative writing at Gettysburg College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and in the MFA program at The Ohio State University. She's currently a consulting editor to the Kenyon Review, and a freelance writer and editor.
Maggie Smith's poems often feel as though they're balanced on the edge of catastrophe, just trying to hold themselves (and their readers) in place. She explores the fears of childhood, the fears of motherhood, and the fear and excitement of being alive. Through this buzzing exploration of world-fear, she never lets her readers fall into despair, urging them that "This place could be beautiful, / right? You could make this place beautiful."
We met with Maggie Smith in Spokane, where we discussed birds, the power of observation, writing within today's political landscape, and mom poetry.
KIMBERLY POVLOSKI
Good Bones has a lot of what you'd call mom poems, and I believe in an interview you said you'd never want to become a mom poet.
That's true. I'm a poet who is a mom. And I'm a mom who is a poet. But I have a terrible fear of writing mommy poems, which I feel is a derogatory term for a subgenre of poems that are sentimental about one's children. So I resisted writing about my kids for a long time. Or I wrote about them in oblique ways, hence the fairytales. I wrote an article for the Poetry Foundation about poets like Sharon Olds, Beth Ann Fennelly, Rachel Zucker, and Brenda Shaughnessy, poets who were writing about being mothers in smart, difficult, challenging ways, that weren't just saccharine. Because that's the trick: I don't want to be saccharine about anything. I don't want to be saccharine about birds, or about trees, or my grandmother, or my parents, or my kids.
The longest period I ever went without writing was the period after my first daughter was born. I just couldn't do it. Part of it was sleep deprivation, and sanity, but part of it was, what am I going write about? The baby? Am I just going to be someone who writes about babies now? Am I going to write a poem about how much I regret this? Because I have postpartum depression and she screams all the time? Or am I going to wait until that passes and everything is hunky-dory, and this is the best thing that ever happened to me? Does anybody need that poem? Actually, people probably need the first poem. So it took me a long time, and writing The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, to get to a place where I felt like I could not just do justice to the experience, but be honest and do it my way. Being tender and acknowledging my love for them, but also not really writing about them.
The poems are more about me, more about the existential shift that comes with being in charge of other people in this world when I can't even sort it out for myself. I don't know how to process 21st century existence, but I have to because I have to process it for other people. That is the biggest challenge and what inspired a lot of poems in this book. How do I do this? The difficulty of it. The bittersweetness of it. And also, there is, let's be honest, a gendered response to poems about children. I've said this before: when women write poems about their kids, they're soft. When men write poems about their kids, they're sensitive—and they end up in The New Yorker. It's the same way you would never say a woman is babysitting her kids, but you might say that about their father. Something about that response really gets my hackles up.
CAYLIE HERRMANN
You mentioned in an interview that your daughter wanted to be either a writer or a botanist. Do you think that urge to be a writer is hereditary, like a poet gene, or do you think it's nurtured and you've nurtured it?
I definitely would not say that there is a poet gene. I'm the only person in my family who really did anything artistic, so I'm the anomaly. My son's five now, but even as early as four, before he could write more than just his name, he took a writing notebook to preschool and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pencil case with a pen. I said, "Why are you taking a writer's notebook to preschool?" and he said, "You never know when you might have an idea." He's heard me say that, because I carry around a notebook or talk into my phone. Even if he can't write, he thinks his ideas are valuable. I find that really moving, and Violet is the same way. She's a bookworm. I brought her up in a house that's obsessed with reading. I praise her a lot for her ability to read and tell a good story.
She actually said, "I'll study plants during the day and at night I'll come home and paint." And I thought, first of all, I love you, and second of all, what you need to be a scientist and a writer, maybe an artist—they're curiosity, attentiveness. You have to be observant and quiet and patient and really plumb the depths of the thing. It made a lot of sense: yes, study the cactus and then paint it and then write a poem about it. I think the botanist thing has kind of slipped. She told me the other day that she wants to write mystery novels when she grows up. She loves mysteries. I told her, "You might be the only writer in this family that makes money. You should totally do that."
POVLOSKI
You've spoken previously about the hawk as a talisman, something that brings you good luck. Was there ever an experience that you had where you were able to observe this in action?
No magic has ever happened. I wish I could say, once I fell off the side of a cliff and a hawk came and lifted me up and carried me. That never happened. Growing up in Ohio, I used to do all of these backroad drives in high school, and every time I'd see a hawk, it was this amazing bit of wilderness. I feel the same way about deer and foxes. I see them fairly often. It's an amazing thing to be able to live in a suburb or a city and see wild things.
So no, I don't know what it was. It started in high school, and every time I'd see one I'd think, "It's going to be a good day." Now even when my kids see one, they're like, "Hawk! It's going to be a good day." I don't know why that bird more than others. . . . I'm very attached to crows also because they're so smart. Birds in general. Somebody asked me last week, "What's with all the birds?" Well, they're the one bit of wilderness everyone gets to see all the time. Even if you don't see deer or red foxes, you see birds, and they are wild. You might forget that because you see robins or wrens or sparrows or blue jays or grackles all the time. They're wild animals you get to see regardless of where you live. We're coexisting. And I love that.
My parents still get deer in their backyard even though they're pretty deeply entrenched in the suburbs, and they still get herons and foxes. A creek runs behind their house in some woods, so I spent most of my childhood outside, using my imagination, collecting polliwogs and guppies and salamanders and just exploring.
It's basically a stand of trees not much more than the width of this room, but when you're five, it's the woods. When you're forty-
one it's just the trees in your parents' backyard. But yeah, I was an explorer and a reader, and I loved art, and I really just wanted to spend the summer inside with a book. Not much has changed. If I had to choose a vacation, I would choose a cabin in the woods over a beach any day of the week. That's where I feel at home.
Is your daughter the same way?
They're both like that. But Violet just wants to read now. She's reading To Kill A Mockingbird and I'm like, "Is that maybe too advanced?" She's in third grade, but she seems like she's really liking it. I figure if she has questions, she'll come to me. We'll see. She's not as interested in being outside. But my son is obsessed. He wants to dig in the dirt and find bugs all day. He'll bring them in to me. And every time I do the laundry I find acorns, rocks, dirt. His pockets are full of "nature treasures," which is what he calls them. I've made the mistake of putting clothes in the laundry without checking the pockets before, and it's like silly putty, stones, three rocks, three seed pods. I love that. That's something I want to foster in them. That it's all magic and it's all around you, and you get to experience that all the time if you want to. So maybe you should go outside.
TAYLOR WARING
What were you curious about as a child?
Oh my god, everything. I was probably not the easiest person to live with.
Do your current curiosities come off in your writing?
Yeah, I'm writing some poems right now that were inspired by phrases in other languages for which there is no English word. For example, there's an Italian phrase for dreamer that translates literally as "head full of crickets," which I find really fascinating. If you explain that someone is a dreamer and in their own head all the time, you'd say they have a head full of crickets. What a metaphor. And in Yiddish the same idea is luftmensch, which translates literally as "air-person." So I've been researching foreign phrases, building poems off of that.
Many of the new poems have to deal with language as language, and I've been trying to think of why that is. A lot of the poems in Good Bones are grappling with what to make of the world—so much I'm unable to articulate. That's the real trouble, and I think part of that inability to articulate is pushing me into exploring other languages and the idea of the untranslatable, or the things we struggle to translate for ourselves, which is sort of what metaphor is, right? It's a way of translating ideas. I find myself writing a lot of—I won't call them nature poems, but poems about botany, poems about plants and flowers, and different kinds of trees and things. Then I thought, "Why am I writing nature poems now of all times?"
Somebody always asks me, "What is the role of the poet in these times?" And probably the answer that they don't expect is, "To write poems about goldenrod and ivy," but maybe that's it. It's a resistance to having to write a poem about anything else. Love is attentiveness—this is the only world we have, so I'm going to pay attention to things that give me joy. I'm thinking of that Brecht quote: "One cannot write poems about trees when the forest is full of police." I feel myself pushing against that: don't tell me what my poems have to be about, you know? The trees are going to outlast the policemen, and it's not the trees' fault that the policemen are there, and I can write about the trees if I want to. And maybe the policemen will make a cameo, but it's not my job to ignore the trees to write about the police. Maybe to not write the overtly political poem is a kind of political act in itself, and the freedom to write about what we wish and to not give our poems jobs outside of just being poems, which I feel pretty strongly about.
You said in an interview with Upright Magazine that a lot of your work is concerned with vision and revision, orientation and disorientation, your obsessions—could you speak more about that?
Some of that has to do with still living in my hometown. I was saying this morning to my workshop that when you live in your hometown, these things become really important. Everywhere you go, you're thinking, "Well, that used to be a. . . ." There are so many constants that I'm the variable, or my life is the variable. Being in the same place makes me notice changes in myself more than if I moved around a lot because then I'd be like, "Is it because I'm in a different place or because I have new friends or. . . ?" But no, it's just me. I'm changing, and I know it's me because I'm surrounded by the same people and the same place, so it's easier to tell those incremental differences. Thinking about Ezra Pound's "make it new"—it's a love/hate thing, staying in the same place.
Part of what I need to do to make it interesting is to never let it be the same place. That means always trying to see things that I didn't see the day before or hear things that I didn't hear the day before. That's part of what I'm doing with my kids, constantly asking, "What does that bird sound like to you? What does that tree look like to you? If you noticed the way your shadow looks today . . . and look at my shadow touching your shadow." I'm always trying to see things and re-see things. It's a way of keeping things fresh when I could get really bogged down in the sameness of my experience. I feel like a lot of people resist the idea of rootedness. You know? Like, "Well if I move, this change or this experience will give me so much more to write about." But I'm still in my hometown and I find there's no lack of material. Part of it is that constant, weirdly vigilant attentiveness to things.
Do you think that observance is something that isn't taught as often as it should be?
I don't think it's taught at all. Is it? I think research is taught, which isn't the same thing, right? If you're taught research methods, it's not about noticing things; it's about reading and inquiring. I don't think we're ever really taught to observe. We either grow up as kids who do it or kids who really don't. I'm not going to be that old person who's like, "Kids now on their phones!" because I'm always on my phone. I'm always checking email, so I'm not anti-technology. But whenever one of my students says, "I don't know, I can't get any ideas," I'm just like, "Put your phone down and take a walk. You will find something. Do you hear that? Do you smell that?"
I think a lot of times we don't spend enough time looking up. We spend a lot of time looking in our hands and in our laps and we don't spend enough time absorbing. It's not something that's taught at all.
I think about what people do when they need a break. People who work long hours want to go to the beach. They want to go to a cabin in the woods. They want to unplug. People talk about unplugging as if it's something you can only do one week out of the year. We all have time for half an hour, even if it's at lunch, where you leave your cubicle and you walk around outside and maybe you listen to music. I need it. It makes me feel better, and it brings me joy. And even if I weren't writing, I think I would still need it. I don't think poets need more fresh air than the average person.
But are we taught to be observant? I think kids are taught much more to be compliant than they are to be observant. I'm not trying to teach my kids not to be compliant, but I'm definitely teaching them to question before blindly complying. Questioning and observing are two things that if we're not teaching, we're not doing anybody any favors. Those are high priorities for me. I hope my kids' teachers don't mind. "Oh yeah, your mom's the poet . . . that's why you're always asking, 'But why? But why do we have to do it that way?'"
Actually, my daughter had poetry in school, and when the teacher asked her to write a rhyming poem, her hand shot right up. She said, "My mom's a poet and not all poems have to rhyme." Like, don't poet-splain your teacher. She came home and said, "I told her!" and I said, "Okay, you're right, Violet. You're right, you're right, simmer down. But some poems do have to rhyme. There are forms that have to rhyme, so if your teacher asks you to write a rhyming poem, that's a valid assignment and you should still do it. But maybe your next poem will be free verse. Not all poems have to not rhyme either." But I love that she felt like she could assert herself regarding poetry.
In another interview you said that, often, you start writing a poem because of a "seed"—a line of dialogue, an image. You've already talked about untranslatable language. Are there any other seeds that are developing in your brain? Is there one in particular that you could share with us?
Well, I just finished a poem that I've been working on in some way, shape, or form for a few years. It's not about Sandy Hook, but it references the idea of, "Why don't we leave the flags at half-mast all the time?" I don't understand why we even have kids go out into the snow in front of their elementary schools and move it down and up again when they just have to go back out the next week and move it back down. A couple days after Sandy Hook was my daughter's birthday, and I had to drop her off at school and send her inside. I remember seeing the kids pulling the flag down, so I wrote some notes about what that felt like. Do the kids pulling down the flag to half-mast at an elementary school know that they're doing it for kids who were shot at an elementary school? Probably not. They probably were like, "Flag Corps, you're up!" and they sent them outside. I wrote that down, and I didn't know what to do with it and so let it sit in a legal pad for two or three years. I just went back to it pretty recently and monkeyed with it for like a month and finally, finally finished it. Ilya Kaminsky just took it for Poetry International.
I've been working on wrapping my head around the idea for so long. How do you approach that idea? Of the things that we ask of our kids? Of what they know and what they don't know. My daughter, I'm quite sure, doesn't know that there's ever been a school shooting. They have something called lock-down drills at her school in case a bad person gets inside, but I'm pretty sure based on things she's said, she thinks the bad person's there to steal computers or something. I don't think she has any idea that the bad person could have a gun or that the bad person would want to hurt kids. And I'm not about to tell her that because I want her to go to school and not be afraid. But this is the kind of stuff, the high-stakes stuff, that as much as I would love to write about birds and trees, I can't. Because I have to drop my kids off at elementary school where the flag is half-mast most of the time. For good reason.
A lot of this big stuff I have to sit with for a long time because I don't want to bungle it. Somebody recently on Twitter was like, "Poets don't have to be first responders." You don't have to write and publish a poem about a disaster the day after it happens. And I kind of laughed about it, but I think it's true. We can be really clumsy about things if we're not careful. Some poets do the political, post-disaster grief poem really well, even in the midst of it, but I think it never hurts to tap the brakes and take a breath and process it because some of this stuff is just so big.
As I was reading The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, I kept reading hints and murmurs of "Good Bones." Do you feel like you've been writing the same poem? Could you talk more about that?
Yes, that's so interesting. I didn't realize that until the magic of the Internet, and someone posted "Good Bones" adjacent to a poem from The Well Speaks. And there was a hint of "Good Bones" in the last book: "What will you tell your son about this world? That children can be unzipped from the bellies of beasts? No one is out of danger." Those are all cautionary tales, mostly, about bad things happening to children. That's what fairytales are. So I think I was starting to go into that territory, and maybe that's why "Good Bones" happened so fast. They say if you write something fast, it's not because you were hit by lightning, but that stuff had been cooking in the back of your brain for a long time. Instead of saying it through the framework of fairy tales or some other persona or narrative, I think "Good Bones" was the first time I said it directly, as myself. There is no distance between the "I" and me in that poem; "life is short, though I keep this from my children"—that is how the poem started because that's what I was thinking at the time.
I had my first child about halfway through The Well Speaks, and so suddenly the stakes went up. It all felt much more present and real to me. And when I was working on Good Bones, I had both of my kids. I was working out the same issues, just in the real world with real people and real stakes and without the . . . I've described it before as oven mitts—using persona or other received narratives as a distancing device for holding hot material without dealing with it in a really direct way. I was doing that through persona poems as far back as my first book, and then through a lot of third person narrative poems where I was writing about other characters in The Well Speaks. Then something just happened and in Good Bones I was like, "I'm going write these poems as close to me as humanly possible," and so for most of those poems I took the mask off. Which is what made those poems so scary to write.
Do you think that unmasking had to do with having children?
I do. So Good Bones has two narrative threads running through it. One is the poems that are close to me, the "I" poems, and the other poems are the "hawk and girl" poems, the "he she" poems, and those poems—I had like forty of them—I had been considering as a kind of a novel in verse. And then the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of their being in conversation with poems that were a little more contemporary and a little bit closer to me because a lot of the subject matter is overlapping. It was also a bravery test for me, like wanting to do something different. I've done the other stuff before, so how do I do it my way, but push myself a little bit? I felt a little bit backwards. I think a lot of people start out writing autobiographical poems, and their work gets more experimental or more elliptical. My last book was a bit pushed away from me and more esoteric, and in this book I just stripped it all down.
I wondered if you're a batch writer.
Like . . . series? Yes. Yes, I am. A lot of this started in undergrad, honestly, because I had deadlines. I'm not an every-day writer. I know some people are like, "Every day I write for an hour." I do not do that. I try to do something every day in service of my writing, so that may be thinking, looking, listening, revising. It may be researching a magazine or sending something out. But it might not be working on a new poem. I just don't quite work like that. So when I was in undergrad and I had to come to workshop, suddenly I had deadlines. I had to bring a poem in and share it. I thought, well what am I going to write about? And so I started working on series because it gave me a way of having something that I could pull from and do every week and know I always had a fallback. I did the same thing in grad school, which is how those Bible persona poems started.
"Delilah" was the first one I workshopped. It was based on a picture of my then-boyfriend having some woman cut his hair in Poland. He had really long dark hair. I was looking through some snapshots at his mother's house, and there was a picture of this woman cutting his hair on a patio in Poland. I was like, oh, Samson and Delilah, which is why Poland is mentioned in a poem about Samson and Delilah, which otherwise wouldn't make any sense. I had so much fun writing it. I thought, I'm going to do this again. I also think it helps us dive into our obsessions, to not write a one-off poem, but to really dig down into something, and ultimately, I end up being happy I did it because it helps me bring my books together when I have enough to make one. I'm always thinking, how can I pattern these throughout the book to make it feel like a book and not like just the sixty best poems I've written since my last book came out. A series is one way of creating an arc.
I like to work on a series, and I like to leaf it through the book. I think Disasterology is the only outlier, because one section is the movie-inspired poems and one section is other poems. If it had been a full length book, it wouldn't be like that. In a chapbook there isn't enough space to get away with that. But in a book, instead of having one chunk of the same thing and then another chunk of something else, I like the idea of having a series as support beams, a sort of scaffolding, and then you can leaf other things around them. I like that when I'm reading a book.
And let's be frank: contest culture is brutal. When I'm editing books for other poets, I'm always thinking about the first fifteen pages. Because screeners and judges have a lot to do and a lot of manuscripts. What if you had a series of poems that you thought were really strong, and you put them in the front of the manuscript? The first fifteen pages might be the same kind of poem, over and over, which is great if that judge or screener happens to love that kind of poem. It is not great if they don't. So hitting a few different major notes in the first fifteen pages, and yes, putting a lot of strong poems up front, is good. It's not fun to see how the sausage gets made, but I do think, as poets, we have to think about this stuff.
You mentioned the contest culture being brutal. I think a lot of us are just barely stepping into it now. So maybe you could—
Buckle up. It is brutal. My first book, Lamp of the Body, was my MFA thesis with a couple of undergrad poems pulled in at the end, which my committee read and I don't think realized I wrote them as an undergrad. When I left Ohio State, I sent out the book to like ten presses, at like twenty-five to thirty bucks a pop. I didn't have that kind of money—who has that kind of money? We're poets. And it won the Benjamin Saltman Prize, which was crazy fortunate, right? But it gave me a completely unrealistic idea of how easy it is to get a book of poems published.
The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison I sent out for almost five years. I think it's a better book. It was a runner up or a finalist for every prize I sent it to: National Poetry Series, Cleveland State University, Barnard Woman Poets Prize, Green Rose, etc. It was like: bridesmaid, bridesmaid, bridesmaid. Thirty dollars, thirty dollars, thirty dollars. I don't know if I broke even. I had one offer on it about halfway through that I ended up turning down because I didn't like the distribution agreement. And I don't regret that because I'm also not an academic, and I felt no pressure to publish. I really wanted to wait for a "jump up and down when I got the phone call" situation because I didn't need it for tenure. I just wanted people to read the poems. So after five years, I got a call from Jeffery Levine at Tupelo that Kimiko Hahn had chosen it. One book got taken right away, and the next took almost five years.
Were you editing the manuscript?
I would add a couple new poems and then take a couple old ones out. This is going to sound so crazy, but it's true. Near the end of the long nightmare, of me sending this book out over and over, I had a dream. And this is true. This is the magic, not the hawk. I had a dream that I took it back to basically draft one, and in the dream I was like, that was so smart, it was so much stronger before I started monkeying with it and putting in all the new poems and getting away from the original premise. I woke up in the morning, and I was like, "Oh that was so smart . . . I'm so glad I did that. Wait, I didn't do that, that was a dream." So I ended up actually going back in, taking out a bunch of the new stuff, going back to some earlier versions, and thinking about what made me write the book in the first place. I wanted to get back to some of the original integrity of the manuscript, with a few new poems at the end. That was the push. It came to me in a dream. I listened. And I think that was smart.
Has that happened ever again?
No, never. Most of my dreams are terrible nightmares where buildings are falling on me. So if I ever get one about poems, I listen.
And then in the winter of 2015, I sent Good Bones to Tupelo, and in the spring they took it. And that was six months before the poem "Good Bones" went viral. It was called Weep Up, the name of the first poem in the book, even into cover design. Then, April of last year, the poem was on Madam Secretary, and a week or so later, Meryl Streep read it at the Lincoln Center. My press was like, "We need to talk about this." It seemed to them a missed opportunity, so that's when the book changed titles.
But yeah, the contest circuit is brutal. I describe it as a many chambered lock and each chamber is like a level of the review process—the first screeners, the second screeners, maybe the editors, maybe the final judge. To get your book to go all the way through, they have to line up just perfectly, and if one is slightly turned, your book won't get through.
If I'm helping an organization screen, I'm not just sending along art that confirms my own aesthetic. We don't need that. We should be sending on the most interesting, the most fully realized. Does this book deserve to be in the world? What's the urgency of this book? Which book do you most want to see in the world? And, unfortunately, there's usually only one, or maybe two, or maybe three, that get picked out of thousands of worthy manuscripts, good, whole, well-written, strong manuscripts. It's heartbreaking. I don't take it lightly because when I read for a press and I have to put something in the no pile, I'm putting that in the no pile remembering that somebody put years of their life into that manuscript, and you're in charge of sorting it out. That's a weighty responsibility. But yes, it's brutal for all those reasons and more. I wish there was some other model. I wish more presses had open reading.
It's really hard not to be swayed by the prestige culture in poetry sometimes, so I think that's great advice. It seems like a lot of times we're in competition to be acknowledged or to be published in what we consider fabulous, "prestigious" journals. That can be very discouraging.
You know, it's funny. "Good Bones" was published in Waxwing, which was then a small online upstart managed by two guys and a woman who have babies, who live in different parts of the country. It's still relatively new. And the poem was rejected by a couple of, as you say, very "prestigious" places before they took it. But the prestigious places that rejected it were print journals. And none of this would have happened had one of those print journals published the poem. It wouldn't have gone viral. Not as many people would have read it. It would have been a poem only read by those subscribers.
The older I get, the more interested I get in readership and sharing. Online journals do that in a way that some of those old-guard print journals can't. They just don't have the readership. And granted some are having online components now, or will share online. And some of them have strong social media presences, which is great. Now, if someone gave me a choice, I would rather have a poem online. Because it's easier to share. I mean, isn't it about having people read the poems?
Something you said—when you're reading manuscripts, you're looking for things that are most urgent for readership. What do you mean by that? Or what do you think is urgent right now?
It could be anything. I'm never looking for anything in particular. That's important to say because it might be easy to think that poems that are somehow grappling with our current moment should be considered more urgent than poems that aren't, but I'm looking for the poems that are the best. And "best" can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But in the moment, can I not keep coming back to this poem? Can I not imagine that this person's manuscript would sit for five years or ten years and not get published? Do I want to own this book and have it sit on my shelf? Do I want other people to hold this book? Do I feel like it's important for me to help shepherd this thing into the world? Right? Because that's what you get to help do whether you're the final judge or whether you're reading the slush. You're one of those chambers in the lock. Whether I'm reading magazine submissions or book manuscripts, I'm always thinking, what needs to be out there? And it's never the same type of poems. That's what excites me the most. It might be really experimental—like the language is doing something that I never would have thought to do in my own—and it might be something political, and it might be something tender and elegiac. Maybe it's that you know it when you see it.
In talking about urgency, you might have answered this a little bit, but what makes a poem political? Is it just the urgency? Is it the topic? You write a lot of nature poems, but that can be a canvas for a reader to extract something political.
They can come in different shapes and sizes. I think of a poem like "A Small Needful Fact" by Ross Gay about Eric Garner. That's a very clear and needful and necessary poem. You know what it's about. It's not cloaking itself in anything else. Some of Danez Smith's poems are so masterful, and handling super-hot, burning subject matter so well. I have a hard time doing that. When I think about political poems, if I try to do it, I worry I'll bungle it. That's the problem. A lot of us do. Part of the issue is that whenever we come to the page with an agenda—like, "I'm going to write a poem about school shootings, I'm going to write a poem about the need for gun control, I'm going to write a poem about race relations in the 21st century"—it's so big that we're giving the poem a job other than just being a poem.
Instead of just observing.
Yes. I think that's the only reason I was able to write the poem about the flag being at half-staff. The only reason I gave myself permission to write that poem is because the seed for that poem was an observation about kids in winter coats standing in the snow, moving the flag down after Sandy Hook, at my daughter's school. And thinking, I don't know how to process this. What do they know? What are they telling my kid? And how do we do this? But I couldn't have written that poem without that observation. If I hadn't ever seen that image, I don't think I ever would have accessed the poem because it would never be in my nature to write down. I really start with an image or a metaphor or an idea or a question or a problem, and then the poem sort of works itself out from there.
I might get to a political place based on whatever that image is, or a place that could be read as political, or timely. "Good Bones" was an example. I wrote that poem in 2015, long before the Pulse nightclub shooting. And I remember some reporters here and in the UK erroneously saying that it was written in response to the shooting, which was just not true. I never would have written a poem in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting. That's not what I do. And I wouldn't know how to do it except in a way that was really inelegant. After something bad happens, I want to cry, I want to donate to causes, and I want to act. But I don't want to write a poem. To me, those are like different kinds of activism, and that's not my wheelhouse—although, for some poets, it is.
What makes a poem political? In some ways, it's how you read it. There were probably poems written during World War II that maybe don't feel like political poems, but when you consider the time and space in which they were written, they take on a different kind of resonance. And I bet there are poems being written today that people will read in thirty years and feel like, "Oh, that's got this all over it." Disasterology was written in the beginning of the "War on Terror," and that was the framework for why those doomsday poems were so important to me. We're always writing from within the framework of our politics or fears or anxieties. We're writing in our times, and for different poets and in different poems, it can express itself in different ways. Sometimes it might be about the police, and sometimes it might be about the trees.
So The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen is written pre-9/11, though a lot of people say it feels like a post-9/11 book because it encapsulates a lot of the anxieties built into that time. I was really young at the time of 9/11, and I think a lot of us here were too. Could you talk about the change that happened around that time?
I grew up thinking that bad things happened other places. There's a poem in Good Bones called "20th Century," . . . "your horrors were far away and I thought I could stand them" is the line. That's how I grew up. War doesn't happen here. People don't come here and attack us. We go there. That's our M.O. It was such a weirdly vulnerable feeling to have that happen here. Everything was different—your feeling of safety in your own country.
It feels like a completely different world. It makes me a little bit sad that you don't remember what the world was like before. Because I do. It was kind of nice. It was kind of nice to feel safe. Whether that was real—safety or perceived safety—is a totally other argument. Also, the privilege of feeling safe in your own country is something that many other countries have never had. We really got knocked down in that moment, in not a metaphorical way. So yeah, writing about those movies was a way of addressing some of those things. But again, I didn't want to sit down to write a 9/11 poem. I didn't want to write a Towers poem. At the same time, I didn't feel, especially at that moment, that I could write poems about trees. It was really hard. I just didn't know what to do. How do you write? Writing the end-of-the-world poems was a way of me writing my way through that initial shock. "Oh, so this is the world now."
I think there's a poem in that chapbook called "Green"—did it make the chapbook? I don't know. It's about the color code system and how green was the safe color code, but the reason that the color code system was needed was because there was no more safety. So they named green, but we'd already lived all the green we were ever going to get. Before we even knew it existed, the green that you had had until the fifth grade was gone, and we didn't even know we were living in it, and we weren't even soaking it up, because we didn't know we had it. That poem was an elegy to the time we didn't know was—we didn't know we were on a clock. And maybe we should have. Maybe some of us did. But I didn't know we were on a clock.
I wrote Good Bones before the election cycle. The world I'm talking about trying to love while I'm reading it now feels like "Trump's America." But I didn't write those poems in Trump's America. I didn't even write those poems in Trump's election era. I had no inkling that he was going to run for president when I wrote those poems. I just thought the world was a fraught, dangerous place, which it was; it's just more fraught and more dangerous now. Those poems are speaking to a moment—like you're saying The Corrections is speaking to a moment coming down the pike—that I didn't even see coming. Now the book is out, and I'm traveling all over and reading from it. I say I'm trying to love the world, but my god, it's a mess.
Poor green! We really should have enjoyed that more. Maybe in writing poems, we're making our own little greens. I feel like all the time I'm trying to dig up some sort of artifact from the unspoiled past. And maybe that's why birds, and that's why trees. When everything else feels tenuous, there's these things that were here before us, and before all of this stuff, and those things will be here after us. And somehow the serene permanence of those things I find really grounding in all this flag-hoisting mayhem of our current times.
Finding a kind of security through poetry.
Yeah. Even in language. It's an anchor. The only thing that's been constant. I've had my kids for nine and five years, but I was writing poems before them. That love of language and also love of nature, really, love of the world, and love of family, whatever that looks like, have been things that pervaded and lasted through everything. I don't know how to not include that stuff in the poems. That would feel really strange. To only be political, for example, and ignore what gives me joy. I really want to be able to glean some joy. We deserve it.


Jessica Treadway writes in her favorite chair in her office filled with mementos and words of inspiration.
Since her debut story collection "Absent Without Leave," came out in 1992, Jessica Treadway has wowed critics with resonant depictions of flawed, all-too-human characters. This month, she'll release her latest novel, "Lacy Eye," which concerns a family torn apart by an act of terrible violence. Treadway, a writing professor at Emerson College, lives and works in Lexington with her husband, the short-story writer Philip Holland.
LIFE IN THE WOODS: We live in the woods, so it's very calming, quiet, and conducive to reflecting. Across the road is conservation land. The Burlington Landlocked Forest is the actual name. I look outside and see turkeys walking across my yard. We have a very routine life here. I play tennis first thing in the morning, which clears my mind and gives me energy for the day. When I come back I start working. In the afternoons, I read.
BITE-SIZE CHUNKS: My husband is also a writer, and we both work at home. He is big on the concept of chunking tasks. I tend to see things as one big project, like a novel, instead of a series of small sessions that will get me to that novel. He influenced me to break it down . . . I've found it really helpful to use the timer on my iPhone. I set the timer and sit down and work for 40-minute sessions. I don't let myself do anything else. There's something satisfying about keeping track of what I do with my days. It really works. I work this way every day [though] the number of 40-minute sessions varies from day-to-day. If I know there's an end in sight — that I can just stop thinking — it makes it easier to push harder during that short amount of time. Then I get up and move around for 20 minutes and do it again. I have to clear the decks.
RECOGNIZING THE CHAIR: I have a reading chair [in my office] that's the first piece of furniture I ever bought. It's a recliner. When I moved to this house, I put it in a corner. I try to write stories out [in longhand] in the chair.
BATTLING THE CENSOR: I've come to peace with the fact that my vision and ambition are beyond what I'll be able to achieve. I still struggle with doubt, though, so I keep all these things around my desk [printed with] sayings that help. There's a phrase I came across in college: "Not without doubt, but in spite of doubt." I look at that and think, "I don't think I can pull this off, but I am now going to write anyway.'' I accumulate pages with that dialectic going on in my head. A lot of writers struggle with an internal editor and an internal censor. The editor is OK, but the censor is not. I'm struggle with what someone else might think while I'm writing the story. It's hard not to do.
A MATTER OF CHARACTER: I start with a character and build it from there. I don't know what the book is ultimately going to be about; I find the plot along the way. Very often what I'm writing about comes from things in the news or stories I've heard in the real world: What would it be like to be that person? If I can't answer that question, I don't have a story. I tend to write about people exploring what they tell themselves vs. what their reality is, about people who are trying to figure things out. I think my writing has a lot to do with people's consciences and how they act — people on psychological journeys, people who'd rather not look at things being forced to look at them.
DIGITAL DECEPTION: I find it helpful to write [drafts] in longhand. When I see my work on the computer screen, it looks like it's already been published, so there's a danger of thinking it's better than it is.
Eugenia Williamson is a writer and editor living in Somerville. She can be reached eugenia.williamson@ gmail.com.