Relieving My Various Itches

Scene: A library in Coconut Creek, Florida

Since leaving Cambridge last week, I’ve spent a few days at home with my parents, sister, and dog in New Jersey and last weekend on Sanibel Island to marry off one of my longest friends. I’ll be heading out shortly to stock up on anti-itch cream to sooth the dozens of mosquito bites already gracing my body - an appropriate precursor to the rest of my summer. But first, my very first blog entry via my grandma’s house, my launch pad for Haiti.

I leave on Thursday for Port-au-Prince, which was devastated by an earthquake and its aftermath, killing over 200,000 people and displacing one million. I’m traveling to Haiti on behalf of the Haiti Recovery Caucus, launched in late January with over 60 Kennedy School and other Harvard students. The group aims to promote and facilitate faculty and student involvement in the next steps of Haiti’s development. Most of my semester revolved around this organizing effort, so I’ve been itching to get to Haiti for months now.

The trip is building upon the experiences of several students who visited Haiti during spring break and a comprehensive mapping we have conducted on available resources and interests at HKS. With the help of our group’s leadership and other contacts, I’m setting up a slew of meetings with Haitian and international officials, organizations, and institutions. I’m hoping the trip will give us a better sense of the challenges hindering Haiti’s recovery and potential entry points for students and faculty to plug into for the next academic year and beyond. I’ll be staying with INURED, a research and training institute that aims to improve education, policy, and socioeconomic conditions in Haiti.

After a one-day stopover in NJ, I’ll be heading to India for 10 weeks, where I’ve been itching to get back to since my first visit there last March with RESULTS & ACTION.

This summer I’ll be working with Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN). PRADAN is one of the most effective women’s empowerment and sustainable development organizations around. They currently work with nearly 200,000 marginalized women in eight poor states to help them and their families enhance their skills and assets in order to lead more dignified lives. Upon invitation, PRADAN places skilled professionals in villages to promote and nurture women’s groups, develop sustainable economic activities such as water management and agriculture, and mobilize microcredit and other financial services. PRADAN recently established a Research and Resource Center to convert its fieldwork into policy and practice. I’ll be helping them develop a policy agenda and advocacy strategy.

I first heard about PRADAN last October from MPA/ID and Roy Family Fellowship alum Gretchen Phillips who has been working with PRADAN for a few years. I’ll be working with Gretchen and the director of the Research and Resource Center in Delhi, with some travel to central and eastern India to visit with PRADAN’s field teams and local women’s groups.

Request: If you know of any rooms in Delhi near Niti Bagh, let me know!

Stay tuned for a post from Haiti later next week, photos, and other goodies.