When I was working on Top Sekrit Projekt, I hired an absolutely brilliant lead developer who caused a lot of controversy in the company management because he was an asylum seeker. They soon came to understand, however, how skilled a developer he was. He was much more at home in French than English, but he spoke a total of five languages including Russian (he’d graduated from university in Moscow) and several dialects from his home in DR Congo.
He once said that one of the charitable organisations who actually does the most good in war-torn areas like DR Congo is Médecins Sans Frontières, who work in hotzones patching up the victims of conflict: rape victims, gunshot wounds, machete wounds, you name it. It’s one of the organisations where your donated cash actually goes to the people who need it – unlike quite a few of the organisations that you see on TV.
Condition Critical is a site that provides a very intimate view into the war zones in Eastern Congo, a site where the people who live in this area can tell their story. (Videos after the jump.) Médecins Sans Frontières is an organisation where just a small amount of cash can really help. If you want to skip a visit to Starbucks now and then, send the cash to them…it could do a world of good for people who live in a world that we can’t even imagine.
Hi, just came across your post – really nice – and wanted to say thank you for the support. I work on the Condition: Critical project for MSF and it’s so good to hear such positive feedback. The anniversary of the project is coming up and we are hoping to be able to do something really special for it, so watch this space…
Thanks again, Pete (Web Editor, MSF UK)