The Development Set

11/29/2017

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We've moved! Check out our BRIGHT new magazine, filled to the brim with creativity and a commitment to justice.

We tell stories about the world’s problems for the people who want to change them.

11/13/2017

800,000 people worldwide die due to suicide every year, and even more are left behind to grieve them... but sometimes the condolences given to those surviving a suicide are less supportive.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of an unintentionally hurtful condolence after losing a loved one? Share this story by Stephanie Abraham. http://bit.ly/2hunIqX

11/13/2017

How the Methodist Church in Fiji Is Helping to Lead on Climate Action

"Climate change might be seen as a secular issue, such is not the case in the Pacific islands." By Kate Wheeling via Pacific Standard http://bit.ly/2ACJI6W

An overwhelming majority of Fijians are religious. Reverend James Bhagwan explains how that faith can spur action.

10/23/2017

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This week’s newsletter is devoted to a virtue that connects #metoo, Rohingya, Mogadishu, and Diwali together: empathy.

10/18/2017

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We can't take our eyes off #metoo. Which stories stopped you in your tracks?

10/16/2017

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TDS readers: Bright will be the Facebook home of our soon-to-be relaunched BRIGHT Magazine! Hop over to like our new page to keep getting the articles, essays, art and op-eds that cover global, education and social issues.

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10/10/2017

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People around the world are observing and protesting Columbus Day this week, and we are collecting articles, photo essays and stories that represent native and indigenous people to share with you, our BRIGHT family.

Have a recommended read or news project you’re following? Share it down below in the comment section and it may be featured on our weekly newsletter!

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10/10/2017

“It’s Like a Set Up to Get Rid of Indians” – The Development Set

As Columbus Day is being observed and protested around the world, we’re thinking about indigenous populations and the stories, or lack thereof, coming out of these communities.

Read this story about Heart Warrior Chosa, an ardent champion of the rights of natives, and her fight to keep her granddaughters.

Story by Laura Murray, photos by Stephanie Foden

Heart Warrior Chosa’s custody battle for her grandchildren in Minnesota is part of a long history of Native American removal and resistance…

10/10/2017

A Book Club For Boys Who Hate Reading – Bright

“One part playdate, one part Dead Poet’s Society and one not-insignificant part dessert, this invitation-only weekly gathering brings together a most unlikely group of members: boys who struggle with reading in school.”

For many boys, the idea that reading can be fun seems a cruel fiction. So my friend and I decided, for our sons’ sake, to change that.

10/10/2017

More Than Just Code – Bright

Women have been code-breaking (and code-making) for over 100 years. Here's why it matters. #STEM #AdaLovelaceDay

Today, over 2,500 young women have graduated from Girls Who Code’s after-school program. Why does it matter?

10/10/2017

When A Big Fat Indian Wedding Costs Too Much, “Wedding Kits” Help

Weddings come with big fat expenses, which are out of reach for people with low-income backgrounds. GOONJ, a New Delhi-based NGO, found a way to help couples save for their big day.

A Delhi-based NGO saves Indian villagers two months’ wages with donated wedding dresses, kitchen wares, and cosmetics.

10/10/2017

Teachers are nation-builders. Developing countries must invest in them properly

“Imagine that you plant a tree in your yard — a short, small, weak stem. Then you move away from this home and you are not there to watch the tree grow. One day you are out for a walk, you pass through your old neighbourhood and you see your old home. But it looks different now. In front of the house, there is a strong, tall tree with many branches and beautiful leaves. You stand in its broad shade for a moment, remembering the little sapling you planted years ago. That is teaching.”

Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, challenges us to think about teachers as world leaders. Via The Guardian Teacher Network.

Teaching is often poorly paid and undervalued by leaders. It’s time to recognise the impact education has on economic growth and prosperity

10/10/2017

Don’t Cut Women’s Programs. Embed Them! – The Development Set

A better way to address gender equality and the empowerment of women is through what some call “gender responsive budgeting,” the idea that every line in the budget can have very different impacts on women and girls than on men and boys. Op-ed by Jemimah Njuki

Every line in a budget — like electricity, water, and roads — affects women and girls differently than men and boys. This is why…

10/09/2017

Why I Want My Kids to Skip School — Sometimes – Bright

“When I look back at my life, I never wish I’d followed more rules, and I certainly don’t regret missing any particular Tuesday-morning class.”

Carrie Kirby pens this op-ed on why she thinks it’s OK to occasionally skip a school day.

I hope the district understands that no one stands up Lin-Manuel Miranda.

10/09/2017

Should Doctors Go On Strike? – The Development Set

Too little is invested in health care worldwide. One of the ways this manifests is a shortage of 7.2 million health care professionals across the globe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

But these doctors, exhausted from watching people die from easily treated injuries and disease, are working toward a solution. #healthcare #solutions story by Tim Matsui.

Three doctors in different corners of the world, exhausted from doctor and nurse shortages, are working with their governments to find a…

10/09/2017

A History of School Lunch in Pictures – Bright

A century of school lunch photos shows that lunch wasn’t what it used to be. Story by Andrea Gurwitt.

From liver loaf to the five food groups, cafeteria fare in the U.S. has gone through a big transformation in the last 100 years. These…

10/09/2017

The Nigerian Couple Committed to Ending Female Genital Mutilation

Gift Abu's decision to battle #FGM in Nigeria full time wasn’t an easy one to make. She had to quit her job as a nurse in a federal medical center in northern Nigeria, and had to convince her husband — a former education inspector — to join her in fighting the cause.

Gift and Augustine Abu have spent most of their marriage traveling around the West African country preaching the harms of this practice…

10/09/2017

With no silver bullet, innovation abounds at this bilingual high school - The Hechinger Report

This school’s assistant headmaster says that the arts exposure is “multi-purpose and supports more traditional academics.” Via The Hechinger Report

BOSTON — The Margarita Muñiz Academy, a public high school in Boston, is best known for its dual language immersion program. But bilingual...

10/06/2017

The Perfect Drinking Game for Cynical “Do-Gooders” – The Development Set

You might be tempted to play Jaded Aid, a politically incorrect game similar to Cards Against Humanity, the next time someone asks you to explain “Nambia.”

Styled after Cards Against Humanity, Jaded Aid lets players laugh at the everyday ridiculousness of international development.

10/06/2017

New Moms Can Get Depressed. Why Don’t Doctors Take Them Seriously?

1 in 7 mothers experiences a serious mood disorder in the postpartum period, according to the American Psychological Association. This ranges from ‘baby blues’ to severe postpartum psychosis which is seen in 1 or 2 of every 1,000 deliveries.

While more physicians and facilities are incorporating mental health into their practice and beginning the conversation with mothers, moms are for many reasons still slipping through the cracks.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this experience. Share the story and start a conversation. #postpartum #MIAW

Hundreds of thousands of American women have experienced post-partum depression. There’s no reason why they should fall through the cracks.

10/06/2017

When Television Is More Than an “Idiot Box” – The Development Set

Edutainment will never be able to replace teachers in a classroom. But well-designed programming — whether it arrives by broadcast or broadband — can have a dramatic impact at low cost. #education

Around the world, TV educates while it entertains. It can teach the internet a few things, too.

10/06/2017

Silicon Valley Needs to Stop Pimping Out Patients to Alleviate White Guilt

In this op-ed, Jennifer Foth points out how this kind of crowdfunding healthcare model aimed at helping poor patients globally creates a long-term cycle of dependency and exploitation.

This startup uses crowdfunding to “provide healthcare for every person in the world.” But are patients really better off?

10/06/2017

What If Schools Hired Dogs As Therapists? – Bright

What happens when you put a dog in an elementary school or a hospital? Far from chaos, some of these places are finding that facility dogs with special obedience training provide emotional or behavioral relief to their students or patients experiencing trauma.

And the effects so far have been paws-itive. Paws'itive Teams #MIAW #mentalillnessawareness

A school in San Diego uses a “facility dog” to offer children a kind of healing that humans sometimes cannot provide.

10/06/2017

How are you feeling? No, really. Let’s talk mental health.

We at BRIGHT believe stories can do more than inform — they can eliminate taboos, shift perspectives, and start conversations. Given that, we devote this week’s BRIGHT newsletter to mental health awareness. #MIAW

And before you go, subscribe to our new newsletter to keep the conversation going.

10/05/2017

The Long and Winding Road Ahead for Rural Schools – Bright

Standardized tests that compare student performance from different states found that students in rural schools scored higher than students in city schools, but lower than suburban schools, according to the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). And yet, rural students fall behind. They have high graduation rates, but then few go on to college. The problems facing rural education aren’t new… so why has so little changed? By Soni Sangha [from June 2017]

Rural schools are not city schools that happen to be in the country, they have their own challenges. And despite hard-working legislators…

10/05/2017

5 Online Tools That Give Teens the Sex Ed They Need

It’s difficult to address issues like sexual health and teen births when 26 states in the U.S. require teaching sex ed with an abstinence-centered approach. Here are some innovative websites that take the stigma out of sex ed. #health #education

Talking about the birds and the bees has always been awkward — and now, in many schools, forbidden. These sites fill in the gaps, from…

10/05/2017

Comics Pack An Emotional Punch – Bright

Teachers and nonprofit PositiveNegatives are using comics like to teach difficult, sensitive topics like slavery, human trafficking and war.

Here’s how educators are using them to teach topics like modern-day slavery.

10/05/2017

Fellow Kenyans: Our Obsession with Tribalism Is Destroying Us

“Kenya has 42 tribes, which usually coexist peacefully until election time. Some tribes even worship together, only to turn on each other during election period and burn down the same church they worshipped in.”

Frankline Omondi pens this op-ed to a country now facing an unprecedented election season.

“While politicians continue to beat the tribalism drums, Kenyans dance to the tunes.”

10/04/2017

Teaching Personal Finance in the Age of Venmo – Bright

Personal finance can be exciting and intimidating to teach with a generation drawn to apps. But even in a digital world, the fundamentals still apply.

Forget checkbooks. Forget cash. Nowadays, it’s all about apps and debit cards, and how to manage them.

10/04/2017

Why Every 8th-Grade Student Should Write a Résumé – Bright

One teacher learned that résumés are useful tools to teach students the importance of revision.

You don’t have to be an adult to write and revise a CV. The process can help adolescents learn more about themselves.

10/04/2017

Marching Forward While Feeling Stuck – The Development Set

“When strangers asked me how I felt in the days after the election, I answered with one word: young.” Writer Jenny Gathright discusses making career choices that satisfy the questions: “What do I want?” and “Where am I needed?” [from January 2017]

What kind of life makes the most difference—especially when you’re fresh out of college and lacking experience?

10/04/2017

A Group Therapy Session for Refugees: A Screenplay – The Development Set

Stav Dimitropoulos transports us to a scene in Greece, a group therapy session that psychiatrist Roula Michat leads with Syrian refugees. #mentalillnessawareness

Roula Michati: Would you like to introduce yourself to the group and tell us how you are doing?

Anas: I’m Anas, and I’m 32. I’ve been feeling a lot of stress myself. It’s my fourth day in a row without sleep. I’m not hearing planes or anything, but I can’t relax. The other night, a woman from Afghanistan dropped a glass. I jumped off my feet. I thought it was a bomb! I laughed it off later, but I still could not sleep. I’m feeling so tired now and my head feels like someone is inserting a knife inside it, poking my brain. (He starts panting.)

RM: Are you ok?

Anas: Yes, I think… Lately, I’ve been sweating a lot despite the cold. I just can’t figure out why. I’m safe now, I’m safe here, away from my torturers. But I can’t relax. Threat, I see threat everywhere.

Syrians in Greece fight the lonely trauma of war by talking in a group with Roula Michati, a psychiatrist who herself is a refugee.

10/02/2017

Do Refugees Really Need Our Old Crap? – The Development Set

“The urge to help is especially acute when disasters strike, but this is actually the worst time to send household items.” Op-ed by Livie Campbell

The psychology of responding to disasters by donating items that may not be of use.

10/02/2017

How Can We Stop Children from Committing Suicide? – The Development Set

It’s #MentalIllnessAwareness Week, while having conversations around mental health can be difficult, opening up about it can do more good than you may ever know.

American preteens are now more likely to die by their own hand than from a road accident.

07/31/2017

Surviving Life Under the Khmer Rouge – The Development Set

COMIC: Chiny brushed death several times when he was forced into a ruthless labor camp in the 1970s Khmer Rouge, including when he ran into a tiger in the Cambodian jungle. How does his past trauma affect him today?

Chiny brushed death several times when he was forced into a ruthless labor camp, including when he ran into a tiger in the Cambodian jungle…

07/19/2017

In Afghanistan, a Female Warlord Fights for Education and Women’s Rights

"These clothes I am wearing now are a symbol of power, not weakness. If my other choice was to hide behind a burqa and surrender my virginity at age 12, then so be it.”

“These clothes I am wearing now are a symbol of power, not weakness. If my other choice was to hide behind a burqa and surrender my…

07/19/2017

This remote island in the South Pacific is covered in 18 tons of our trash

This island in the South Pacific is covered in so much trash that crabs often make shells from it. Via Popular Science

Paradise lost

07/18/2017

How India’s Gig Economy Is Trapping its Workers in the Cycle of Poverty

LOOK: India's been dealing with the gig economy for a long time. Learn all about it in this new comic from The Nib.

To skirt workers’ protection laws, the Indian tobacco industry has forced its workers to become freelancers, rolling beedi cigarettes in their own homes

07/18/2017

The Nigerian Couple Committed to Ending Female Genital Mutilation

For nine years, Gift and Augustine Abu have traveled around the West African country preaching about the harms of FGM. Their activism is finally starting to take hold.

For nine years, Gift and Augustine Abu have traveled around the West African country preaching about the harms of this practice. Their…

07/17/2017

Why Women With a History of Abuse Are Getting Their Ovaries Removed

DOCTORS: Here's what you can do to help prevent women who have been abused from getting this unnecessary surgery.

A new study shows that women with a history of abuse are 62 percent more likely to undergo this unnecessary surgery. Why?