Ukraine one month on: hold on to hope
Today marks one month since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Today marks one month since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is less than a week old and most of us have watched in horror as Russian tanks rolled into a sovereign country only to face the resilience and bravery of the Ukrainian people determined to defy the odds and push back the invading army. Many of us will be feeling a sense of dread that things will get worse before they get better, and that we are witnessing the most dramatic geopolitical tectonic shift in a generation. Almost all of us are feeling completely powerless.
Yesterday, Sunday 15th August, the Taliban declared that Afghanistan is now under their control. We are continuing to monitor the situation as it develops, and our thoughts are with all the men, women and children of Afghanistan who have been affected by the current situation. We stand in solidarity with all those who will be continuing to work towards peace in the country.
We recently passed the year mark since the COVID-19 pandemic forced most of us to retreat to our homes. In that time, those of us working in international development, aid and peacebuilding have been confronted with a number of hard truths about ourselves.
We are calling on international aid organisations to decolonise aid and tackle structural racism head-on, in our new report, ‘Time to Decolonise Aid‘. The report is a study into the colonial legacy of the aid system. It outlines the steps needed to transform power relations towards greater equity. As part of the research, we hosted a … Continued