Advocacy: This has something to do with making press releases.

Assessments: These are great fun and you get to travel around a lot and meet loads of people from poor villages. The most important thing is to just go, starting a programme can be really difficult so you may never come back to the village even if there are some big problems. At least you have given the people some support and an opportunity for them to give you their hospitality (with wild game and colourful baskets), which makes poor village people really proud and happy.

Beneficiaries: These are people who need help. Sometimes they are confused and difficult to get to or even find, but as a humanitarian its important that we give them life saving relief supplies and maintain there humanitarian access.

Complex Humanitarian Crisis: This is worse than a humanitarian crisis and heaps worse than grinding poverty. If you are not really sure what to call the crisis and there are lots of factors involved like the weather and government etc. it is better to call it a complex humanitarian crisis to be on the safe side, especially if it is in Africa.

Donors reports: These are really difficult reports and to some degree get in the way of our life saving humanitarian work. The donors usually want lots of data on the performance of the programme (it's as if proximity by itself is not enough) to show that the money is well spent and the programme has a positive effect on the population in danger. I would like to know how the donors put a monetary value on solidarity and seeing the smile on a child's face as he/she receives a life saving humanitarian relief supply. As you can see I get a bit angry about the donors and the power they have.

Donors: A necessary evil in the fight against grinding poverty, humanitarian crisis and humanitarian disasters.

Elements of a problem: These are really important in problem solving although sometimes they don't seem that important to making a decision. However they are really important to the discussion, it takes along time to get through all the elements.

Government: A necessary evil in delivering services in these countries. They seem to make it as difficult as possible to deliver life saving humanitarian relief supplies to the populations in danger with their customs duties, work visas and registration for NGO's, the list goes on and it sometimes makes me really angry. Things would run a lot smoother if the NGO's like Hope had a bit more control and told the government what to do, or just let us get on with the job and run things ourselves.

Grinding poverty: This is really bad poverty although it is a step or two better than a humanitarian crisis.

Hope International:  This is an award winning humanitarian relief organisation. Wherever there is a humanitarian crisis we will be there with life saving humanitarian relief supplies to give to a population in danger. 

Humanitarian: These are really good people like Bono, Bob Geldoff, Momma Patricia of Calcutta and people who work for organisations like Hope, including me now. These are people who get stuck in and give it a go to save poor people from certain death.

Humanitarian Access: Without this you can't be a Humanitarian, it means getting to the people so you can give them life saving relief supplies and being able to give solidarity with populations in danger.

Humanitarian affairs officer: This person is crucial for the humanitarian mandate of a mission. This person writes a lot of long reports highlighting the precarious nature of the populations in danger that we give life saving humanitarian relief supplies to. These reports can be cut and pasted by the head of mission for donor reports or to make press releases.

Humanitarian crisis: This can happen at anytime anywhere. These vary from country to country and really depend on how use to the beneficiaries are to human suffering. A humanitarian crisis in one country may not be in  another country but grinding poverty.

Humanitarian Mandate: this gives us the authority to make press releases even when we are not 100% sure of the facts. It also ensures that Hope can't be criticized for a bad programme because we provided life saving relief supplies and solidarity to populations in danger.

Impartiality: I think this is the same as neutrality.

Independence: Having enough money so you don't have to rely on those donors.  

INGOs or International NGOs are more important than NGOs and can do more important life saving work because we have more money and have lots of expatriate staff. This makes the organisation more professional and gives lots of people from western countries who have never really seen poor people before the chance to experience what they are like.

Life saving humanitarian relief supplies: See life saving relief supplies.

Life saving relief supplies: This can literally be anything delivered to beneficiaries and populations in danger to save them from a humanitarian crisis or to demonstrate our solidarity and proximity.

Neutrality: You show neutrality by making press releases against the rebels and the government in turn.

NGO's: This stands for Non Governmental Organisation ( Hope is an  INGO not a NGO).  They are usually nice local people or some church group and are really good to have sub committee meetings with. You can exchange information with them and point out what they are doing wrong and offer to give them a bit a hand. Usually you don't have enough time to help them to much because of the important work that INGOs like Hope are doing.

Populations in Danger: These are people we usually work with in the field or don't have access to if the Rebels or the Government are bad. Sometimes we can't find or loose the population in danger and this becomes a perplexing problem. Sometimes it takes years before we give up the search or finally find them.

Press releases: This is the main form of communication between Hope and the Government or Rebels of a country. It is much easier to make a press release than to spend a tiring week negotiating with a government official or minister. They can also be used to highlight suspected or possible future unlikely events for populations in danger, like a 100% mortality rate. Press release can also be posted on the Hope website and help raise awareness but more importantly money from the public for much needed life saving relief supplies. They should as much as possible highlight the effect of everything that could go wrong going wrong.

Professionalism: This means making do with what you've got and giving it a go.

Proximity:  The easiest way to get proximity to the people is to personally give life saving humanitarian relief supplies to poor people or having a photo taken with loads of kids. If you are a you  doctor you can take a photo with a stethoscope on the chest of a sick beneficiary, to best show proximity.  

Rebels: Working in rebel areas to help the population in danger is a lot more important work than in government areas. The public instantly understand the importance of working under difficult conditions in rebel held areas and this sounds a lot better than working under great difficulties in government held areas.

R&R: This is like a mini break and can sometimes last up to three weeks.

Solidarity: This is being down with the people and experiencing what its like to live in poverty without the hunger and usually with running water. It is easier to give solidarity if you are in the field. You can also give solidarity if you are a lawyer and are working as a humanitarian affairs officer and think about the beneficiaries and there precarious humanitarian situation a lot.

Termoinage: This is a really difficult French word that can't be translated into English and you can't really use it properly unless you understand French a bit.

The Field: Where the Humanitarian action takes place, where you get down with people and give hope and a helping hand to the beneficiaries.

Transparency: This means that your book keeping balances and you have receipts for all the money you spent (sometimes you have to make up a few receipts, but this is Ok).  

Underlying Causes: These are the reasons for a problem (like malnutrition). Usually you can't do much about them but they should always be in the back of your mind and should be mentioned in donor reports. Just to think about them is usually enough and to ask the opinions of the population in danger about them, so at least you can show solidarity and proximity. If the donor wants you to do more a latrine programme is always a good way to show you are dealing with the underlying causes of pretty much anything.

Volunteerism: Just getting stuck in and giving it a go.