joseph.oreilly

I rejoiced at the news that former Colombian Presidential Candidate Ingrid Betancourt had been released after being taken as a hostage by FARC rebels more than six years ago.

Ingrid was abducted in February 2002 while she was campaigning for president as the candidate for the Colombian Green Party. Prior to her run for the Presidency Ingrid has been elected to the Colombian Chamber of Representatives and Senate, campaigning against corruption and for peace and social justice. Her first campaign distributed condoms, with the motto that she would be like a condom against corruption.   Read more...

When we talk about HIV and AIDS, more often than not it’s about the incredible numbers of who’ve died or who are now infected with the disease.

We think of the pandemic in somewhat monolithic terms. But the pandemic is in fact a series of epidemics, which affect people and the communities in which they live in different ways.   Read more...

Until the current global grain shortage the issue of hunger had largely slipped from the rich world’s consciousness. But the food crisis being reported in our papers and on our televisions isn’t a strange blip that will go away. It’s a reminder that hunger is a real and persistent issue for the billion people worldwide who live on less than a dollar a day.

Malnutrition in mothers and their young children will claim 3.5 million lives this year and millions more will survive but fail to thrive because of chronic food shortages.   Read more...

If you’re reading this post, like me you probably spend too much time on the internet, much of it contributing to online communities of shared interest. As exciting as it sometimes is to find people with similar views and interests online I’m not always confident that my virtual networks are going to amount to much.

Social Innovation Camp (www.sicamp.org) is interested in addressing exactly that issue: how the online world can be used to create better solutions to social problems in the real world.   Read more...

I've just had the privilege of visiting refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya, as part of my work with Book Aid International (www.bookaid.org).

Home to over 170,000 people the camps have provided a safe haven for refugees fleeing conflict for over 15 years, starting with the flight of people from neighbouring Somalia in 1991. The majority of people living in the camps are still Somali, though there are also refugees from Sudan, Uganda, the Congo and other countries in conflict. Many have lived in Dadaab for over a decade, unable to return to homes still embroiled in chaos.   Read more...

International Women