HuffImpact readers, I have some sad but hopeful news to announce: I will be taking an extended leave from The Huffington Post to practice what we preach.
While launching and coaxing Impact towards success during the last five months, I've learned some powerful lessons from the stories we've told and the people we've featured. Here, I've learned to stop and listen: to refrain from judgment or hasty action until I can fully empathize with those who need help and understand the problems they face. I've learned that often, hope doesn't come from big ideas, but from everyday actions by determined individuals.
So for the next six months, I'll be putting those ideas into action.
First, in South Africa, where I'll be documenting local cultural stories to be told in advance of the World Cup. I'll be working on a new kind of travel guide that will put curious, intrepid travelers into the thick of a nation in flux.
Then to northern Iraq, where I will work with the nonprofit I help to run, The Tiziano Project, to teach aspiring and professional journalists new media and multimedia journalism skills.
I've been working for over a year to help The Tiziano Project prepare for these upcoming training sessions. We provide community members in conflict, post-conflict and under-reported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives. Our organization has found its success through collaboration -- something that, over and over, our Impact bloggers have stressed is necessary to overcome the financial and bureaucratic confines of nonprofit business. We work with news agencies to promote stories that wouldn't otherwise be heard, to train people who wouldn't otherwise have a global voice, and to create sustainable community work where otherwise there would be none.
For the duration of our Tiziano: Near East program, we will be working with community members from the Iraqi Kurdish minority to produce multimedia stories about their singular experience of facing centuries-long discrimination and their recent turn to near-autonomy within northern Iraq. I, and my fellow trainers, will be working with our students to produce additional reporting to give those less familiar with this culture context and depth.
I will be posting regular updates from the road right here on Impact, but if you want to follow my stories from South Africa and Iraq more closely, there are a few easy ways. Follow my blog for stories and multimedia from my journey, or follow @tizianoproject for updates about our work in northern Iraq. I'll never be far from Twitter, so you can personally drop me a line there anytime.
In advance of this adventure, I'd like to thank Impact readers and bloggers for opening your hearts (and every so often, your wallets) each time you visit our page. You've set a great example for me and though I'll be taking this time to broaden my own horizons, I hope you'll join me for the journey.