Edge of Somewhere: Profiles

Interview with Paul Raja Rao

Women at a BIRDS community immunisation clinic

Katherine and I visited the Bharti Integrated Rural Development Society about six hours by car outside Hyderabad (unlike much of India, there is no train service) in rural Andhra Pradesh. BIRDS addresses a host of needs in the area from health to water management to micro-finance loans.

I interviewed Paul Raja Rao, the director of BIRDS, one night on the veranda of their organic farm (they are attempting to re-introduce organic agriculture into an area mostly given over to chemical based farming).

Click here for the .mp3 file

Interview with Katherine Welch

Here is a rough cut of my interview with Dr. Katherine Welch who I was travelling with in India (this is a 26 minute long-form cut of what will become 10 minute piece). She speaks concerning her work internationally on the health needs of trafficked or prostituted women and their children.

Click here for the .mp3 file.

See more about Katherine’s organisation Global Health Promise

Video from Congo and Albania

After a couple years; International Ministries has finally posted some video from my trips to the DRC and Albania. I did most of the videotaping of this material. Francisco Litardo did all the editing and post-production (he is the narrator and, I’m assuming, chose the swanky hep muzak as well).

First, an overview of their work in Albania:

Then, Into the Heart of Darkness:

And Wayne (note that the video rather sounds like Wayne and Katherine are siblings that later married and came back to Congo as missionaries; don’t fear, they grew up in Congo as the offspring of two distinct sets of parents).

And, this is the kind of thing that makes me bust out crying behind the camera…

I’ll not post them all here; you can go to the God at Work page on the International Ministries website to see more. There are selections from all over the world showing what IM missionaries are up to. One thing I especially respect about them is that they are looking at the real physical needs of people instead of just dropping Bibles from 10,000 feet. The IM missionaries I’ve worked with are seriously dedicated people who are right there on the front lines with people in palpable need. Even if you don’t share the same religious ideology or fervour, it’s the commitment these people have to making real change in the here and now of people’s lives that commands respect.

We spend all this time and effort to get the highest quality video possible; I obsess over all the technical details—and the final product gets compressed down and shown on YouTube. Alas.

Profiles • Into-the-Fray 16 October 2007 Comment

Nancy Good Sider (podcast)

Dr. Nancy Good Sider from Eastern Mennonite University is here at Atlantic Bridge for a few days between assignments in Rwanda and Bosnia. She is Associate Professor of Trauma & Conflict Studies at EMU where she lectures on healing and resolution. She also actively works in field locations where people have experienced significant trauma and are seeking to sort out the resulting personal and social issues.

The interview took place this morning in the downstairs café of De Vierslag. We discuss her personal and professional background, her methodologies in trauma healing, and the challenges and rewards faced by practitioners in the field.

The EMU Center for Justice and Peacebuilding can be found here.

Dr. Good Sider’s contact info is here.

➲ Listen to the podcast here

Profiles • Podcasts 29 July 2006 Comment

Edge of Somewhere

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Interview with Paul Raja Rao

Interview with Katherine Welch

Video from Congo and Albania

Nancy Good Sider (podcast)