I was introduced to the Weekly in 1999 as a VSO volunteer, working in a South African township. The Weekly provided insightful development and human rights news that helped me understand my local township experience of poverty and discrimination within the bigger context. When I returned to the UK to do a master’s degree, the Weekly was an invaluable source of global development news. I then moved to India for three years to work as a South Asia adviser for an NGO. The Weekly came with me everywhere – up Himalayan mountains in Nepal, on trains across India, on boats to Maldivian islands and kept me going during endless hours in remote airports.
Now back in the UK, I continue to work for NGOs and travel regularly to Asia, Africa and the Middle East for work. Living in the bubble that is London, it is easy to forget the other world out there, so I continue to subscribe to the Guardian Weekly to ensure that I keep my life and work informed by the global context. I value the Weekly’s focus on ensuring that important issues in the world are reported, with headline news about environmental, conflict, development and human rights issues that rarely get more than a mention in daily newspapers.
The Weekly has been a constant in my life: the same comforting yet challenging journalism, values – and Notes & Queries contributors!
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