Blog
Contributor Guidelines
Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.
Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.
You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.
If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.
Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.
Posted on November 21, 2018
By Olga Vnodchenko, Grants and Program Officer, Seattle International Foundation
“Pedimos gobiernos que rompan los muros de indiferencia.” (“We ask that the governments break their walls of indifference.”) – a mother
Summit participants with Marta Sanchez. Photo: Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano.
Early this November, I represented Seattle International Foundation at the first Global Summit of Mothers of Missing Migrants (Cumbre Mundial de Madres de Migrantes Desaparecidos) in Mexico City.
Each year, a Caravan of Mothers* of Missing Migrants travels from Central America into and across Mexico along migration routes, searching for their children and family members who went missing trying to reach the U.S. For the first time, mothers from other continents joined members of this Caravan of Mothers for a historical summit to share stories, build ties, and work collaboratively to shed light on the efforts of families searching for their missing relatives. Continue Reading
Posted on November 8, 2018
By Fatema Z. Sumar, Vice President of Global Programs, Oxfam America
Asylum-seekers listen to a Mexican official explain the procedures they will be asked to follow. Credit: Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam America
As stories of the migrant caravan dominated U.S. headlines this fall, I found myself in a woman’s shelter in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa listening to stories of extreme violence and heartbreaking courage. I heard the story of a 7-year-old girl named Valeria who was given a choice between staying safe in this shelter or going back to her abusive father who could pay her school fees – Valeria chose to go to school. Now, my 7-year-old daughter will never have to choose between her education and her safety. But millions of girls in Central America do not have that choice.
As I traveled last month with Oxfam throughout the Northern Triangle – to the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador – I heard gut-wrenching stories of gender-based violence and poverty, hunger, and gangs. It became clear to me the migrant caravan is more than a humanitarian crisis or an immigration issue. Continue Reading
Posted on October 31, 2018
How a global non-profit revamped its communications to reflect its core values
By Andie Long
Director of Communications & Marketing
Global Washington
A year and a half ago, Jodi-Ann Burey, a health systems manager for VillageReach, sent an uncomfortable email. The organization had just appointed a new president, and his third day on the job, Burey figured the time was ripe to shake things up.
“Hey, I just wanted to talk with you about the lack of racial and cultural diversity in our headquarters,” Burey says she wrote to him. Wondering for a moment if she had just torpedoed her career, Burey was relieved to receive an email response right back, saying, “Let’s talk about it.” Continue Reading