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One man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia: in 1993 Greg Mortenson was an American mountain-climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of a Pakistani village, he promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of...
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"From legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a vision of climate change unlike any ever imagined. Kim Stanley Robinson is one of contemporary science fiction's most acclaimed writers, and with this new novel, he once again turns his eye to themes of climate change, technology, politics, and the human behaviors that drive these forces. But his setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world - rather, he imagines a more hopeful...
Author
Language
English
Description
In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where "Three Cups of Tea" left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders even as he was dodging shootouts with feuding...
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A no-holds-barred, controversial exposé of the financial profiteering and ambiguous ethics that pervade the world of humanitarian aid.
A vast industry has grown up around humanitarian aid: a cavalcade of organizations-some 37,000-compete for a share of the $160 billion annual prize, with "fact-inflation" sometimes ramping up disaster coverage to draw in more funds. Insurgents and warring governments, meanwhile, have made aid a permanent feature...
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English
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"It's brilliant, start to finish. The voice is an achievement, and the world of emotion he delivers. It's solid-so solid it reminds me of a mature Hemingway. . . . It's clear and deep and wise." - Stewart O'Nan, author of Songs for the Missing, on RIGHT OF THIRST
"One of the finest novels I've read in years. . . . Ultimately, this book is a timely, powerful exploration into the uses and limits of benevolence . . . an exploration into the limits of...
7) Intregalde
Publisher
Grasshopper Film
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
Romanian
Description
In a gripping tale of best intentions gone wrong, leading Romanian filmmaker Radu Muntean (Tuesday, After Christmas) follows a trio of well-meaning aid workers from Bucharest on a food delivery mission to the rural hinterlands of the Întregalde area of Transylvania. Guided off the beaten path by an elderly villager looking for a local sawmill, they find themselves trapped in an unfamiliar, dangerous place and facing the outer limits of their goodwill...
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"A mysterious burnt corpse appears one morning in Saraaya, a remote border town between northern and southern Sudan. For five strangers on an NGO compound, the discovery foreshadows trouble to come. South Sudanese translator William connects the corpse to the sudden disappearance of cook Layla, a northern nomad with whom he's fallen in love. Meanwhile, Sudanese American filmmaker Dena struggles to connect to her unfamiliar homeland, and white midwestern...
Publisher
Kanopy Streaming
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Bosnia. Rwanda. Kosovo. Sierra Leone. Pakistan. Just a few of the world’s humanitarian and political crises in the past years. Whether the result of war or nature, these disasters devastate populations and cripple health systems. Despite the immense dangers and difficulties of the work, one organization, Doctors Without Borders, has continuously intervened at these frontlines of overwhelming human need. Set in war-torn Congo and Liberia, Living...
10) Red birds
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English
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Description
"An American pilot crash lands in the desert and finds himself on the outskirts of the very camp he was supposed to bomb. After days spent wandering and hallucinating from dehydration, Major Ellie is rescued by one of the camp's residents, a teenager named Momo, whose entrepreneurial money-making schemes are failing as his family is falling apart: His older brother, Ali, left for his first day of work at an American base and never returned; his parents...
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
"A woman's quest for a new life in Africa in the wake of World War II -- and a heroic career that hid a secret past. Over the span of fifty years, Dr. Anne Spoerry, French by birth, treated hundreds of thousands of individuals across rural Kenya. A member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service, Spoerry earned the cherished nickname "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor"--the people of Kenya. Yet few knew what drove her from post-World War II Europe to Africa....
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English
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In 2010, Haiti was ravaged by a brutal earthquake that affected the lives of millions. The call to assist those in need was heard around the globe. Yet two years later humanitarian efforts led by governments and NGOs have largely failed. Resources are not reaching the needy due to bureaucratic red tape, and many assets have been squandered. How can efforts intended to help the suffering fail so badly? In this timely and provocative book, Christopher...
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English
Description
Mia West has her entire life planned out: a cottage in Seattle, baking at The Butter Emporium, and her boyfriend Ethan by her side. Alone and adrift when her plans crumble, she decides to find new meaning in her life by helping those in need. Guided by recurring dreams about honeybees, Mia joins her housemate Rosie on an around-the-world humanitarian trip funded by a reclusive billionaire, Lars Lindstrom. As an eclectic group embarks on the trip from...
Author
Language
English
Description
THE HEART AND THE FIST shares one man’s story of extraordinary leadership and service as both a humanitarian and a warrior. In a life lived at the raw edges of the human experience, Greitens has seen what can be accomplished when compassion and courage come together in meaningful service.
As a Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL, Greitens worked alongside volunteers who taught art to street children in Bolivia and led US Marines who hunted
...Publisher
Passion River Films
Pub. Date
2012
Language
English
Description
Sidesteps the usual conversation of politics, conflict, and violence, and tells the story of the Israeli people - whose resilience has propelled Israel to the forefront of world innovation and progress. Hosted by former Harvard lecturer Dr. Tal Ben Shahar, this film explores the core characters strengths, called 'actualizers, ' that enable Israelis to succeed against incredible odds.
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English
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"In 2015, increasing numbers of refugees and migrants, most of them fleeing war-torn homelands, arrived by boat on the shores of Greece, setting off the greatest human displacement since WWII. As journalists reported horrific mass drownings, an ill-prepared and seemingly indifferent world looked on. Those who reached Europe needed food, clothing, medicine, and shelter, but the international aid system broke down completely. All Else Failed is Dana...
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English
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"Kurt Krausmann's settled existence as a Frankfurt doctor is torn apart when his wife commits suicide. Unable to make sense of what happened, he agrees to join his friend Hans on a humanitarian mission to the Comoros. But as they sail through the Gulf of Aden their boat is boarded by pirates. The two men are taken hostage and imprisoned in a cave on the East African coast. Their ordeal is just beginning: the hostile kidnappers and environment will...
20) Checkpoint
Author
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English
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Description
The four men who accompany Maud on an aid convoy couldn't be further from the cliched idea of humanitarian volunteers. One by one, they reveal the secret wounds that have brought them to this conflict zone, and the true nature of their cargo becomes clear.
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