Rats can save human lives
As a child, Bart Weetjens, from Belgium, bred rodents to sell to pet shops. Now he’s the founder and director of APOPO, an NGO operating from Tanzania that trains rats to detect landmines. APOPO’s team of mine-sleuthing rats is active in Mozambique, and will begin mine-detection operations in Read More...
James Maskalyk's experience as a doctor in Sudan
Canadian physician James Maskalyk on why he left a comfortable teaching job to work for Médecins Sans Frontières in Sudan. Marco Visscher | June/July 2009 issue James Maskalyk has been working to improve public health in developing countries ever since he was a medical student at the University Read More...
Book Excerpt: Six Months in Sudan
Ode presents an exclusive book excerpt from Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village, by Dr. James Maskalyk. Ode Editors | June/July 2009 issue "What's his hemoglobin?" I ask. "Six," Mohamed says. "Six? Shit." I look down at Manut. His eyes are wide and worried. Today is the Read More...
Interview with Kjerstin Erickson, founder of FORGE
While economic upheaval has caused many businesses to fail, Ode has interviewed several entrepreneurs who have found ways to thrive and remain focused on positive social change. We interviewed them about their companies, how they view the current economic situation, how they define success, and how Read More...
Interview with Gretchen Wallace, founder of Global Grassroots
While economic upheaval has caused many businesses to fail, Ode has interviewed several entrepreneurs who have found ways to thrive and remain focused on positive social change. We interviewed them about their companies, how they view the current economic situation, how they define success, and how Read More...
Africa by air
For 20 years, George Steinmetz, has taken aerial pictures from a motorized paraglider flying above some of the most stunning landscapes in Africa. George Steinmetz | November 2008 issue Photographer George Steinmetz has seen it all, in ways most people could never imagine. For some 20 years, the Read More...
The media should show Africa some love
In his book Don't Africa Me, Nigerian-born Paschal Eze, a former newspaper editor, criticizes the media for ignoring the positive news coming out of Africa. Marco Visscher | October 2008 issue Paschal Eze, author of Don't Africa Me. Photo: Sandra Dyas How do the media damage Africa’s Read More...
From here to Africa
People trying to help the poor are often targets of criticism. They are not effective, their intentions are not pure. But once you've witnessed desperation in fellow humans' eyes, things change. Ralf Bodelier | May 2006 issue If Veronica Kuchikonde hadn’t called that November evening in 1999 I Read More...
How Africa developed the West
Without Africa's wealth and resources, the West would not have prospered. A conversation on the Western debt to Africa.Marco Visscher | March 2006 issue In the late 17th century when Dutch traders returned home from Africa and described their impressions of a region of Africa in what is now Read More...
Let peace and justice ring
In Africa, cell phones call for social change Andi McDaniel | April 2006 Read More...