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We’re proudly working with the Headington Institute to help them continue to provide excellent care and support to aid workers when they need it most. To this end, Chasing Misery contributors are donating at least 10% of the book’s royalties to Headington. Their President and Cofounder just sent us this very kind response:

One of the reasons we thought that Chasing Misery would be an important book to publish was that not enough attention has been paid to the psycho-social issues that women in aid work face either while they continue to do their work or after they return home. A number of essays in the book reflect on these issues as the essayists share their own struggles with depression, fear, and guilt.

Today, in the Guardian an article has been published highlighting this very topic called, Aid workers and post-traumatic stress disorder. This article explains clearly explains the battle and guilt that some aid workers face.

We’re working with Headington Institute (also mentioned in the article) to help develop resources specifically for women working in aid work. To this end, 10% of any royalties will go to Headington to help them in their important work!

I’ve climbed the bleached plywood steps to knock on the tinny door of the travel trailer. The air is still. As I give it one more tap while scanning the ghostly emptiness of the sterile trailer park, the door creaks open. Hunching in the doorway, blinking into the sunlight, is a man so emaciated, so pale, I’m certain he is a breath away from the next world. I adjust my NGO-issued baseball cap and clipboard and explain my purpose.

Thus writes Miranda Bryant in her essay From New Orleans to South Sudan: How I Healed by Moving to a War-Torn Country. In this moving essay – from the forthcoming anthology, Chasing Misery – Miranda recounts the surreality of responding to a disaster in her own city. In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States wreaking unprecedented damage. In total, 1,836 people died, millions were left homeless and property damage was estimated to be $81 billion USD. On its own doorstep, the United States experienced the death, damage and displacement normally associated with natural disasters and wars in other countries.

When asked why she wanted to be involved in the Chasing Misery project, Miranda said:

Ironically I’m not one to subscribe to gender disaggregated bodies of work. But, in this case I felt compelled to write about an experience that left an indelible mark on my life. My essay is about the early days of my career. No matter how many locations I have since worked in or titles I have had, I never forget what it was like to be working as a root-bound resident of a large-scale natural disaster location — to realize that this “ruin is my surround.” It’s been an honor to be part of this work that I hope will have readers appreciating the emotional complexity of working in this business that is equal parts bitter and sweet.

Miranda’s essay can be read in Chasing Misery, an anthology of essays from women working in humanitarian responses. The anthology will be published on 8th March, 2014, and will be available from Amazon in paperback and eBook formats.

The editorial team is very excited to announce the imminent launch of Chasing Misery on 8th March, 2014 – International Women’s Day.

A vast amount of work has been put into this anthology by the authors, photographers and editors. We are all very proud of the finished product and cannot wait to share it with you.

The book will be available from Amazon in both paperback and eBook formats. Check back here on 8th March, so you can get your hands on your very own copy.

To keep updated in the meantime, check out our facebook page and twitter feed (@chasing_misery), where we will be releasing exclusive content from the book to whet your appetite!

Thoughts on an advance copy of Chasing Misery by contributor Kati Woronka. Click here for the full blog post.

But reading the essays is bringing a lot of memories to life. I’ve worked in many places, difficult places, fun places. I’ve lived in so many countries that I might consider “the most beautiful place on earth” that I would be at a complete loss to choose a winner. None of them are anyone’s top-ten-tourist destination list (unless that someone was an aid worker, or a bit crazy)… Competing for top ranks include Timor Leste, Kosovo, Syria, Darfur. I’ve woken up to mountain landscapes, and ended my days to sunsets that snatch my breath away. And each of those precious moments was all the more precious because I felt so privileged to be there. Not everyone gets to live in the Balkan Mountains or in Southeast Asian rice fields. I could do it because of how awful life was in those places.

I saw evil. Always it was at arm’s length, never did it invade my personal space. But it was always just an arm’s reach away. Genuine, perverse, pure, nasty evil. Hatred, abuse, torture, disdain for humanity – these took the shape of a wide array of expressions which were nothing if not evil.

And all this darkness made the natural beauty of the places where I lived all the more beautiful.

Now, I know there’s plenty of evil surrounding me here in cozy little London. Evil is far from the sole property of the developing world and conflict zones. But it was most certainly more in – your – face.

And after a day of talking to people who have suffered, writing reports about poverty, witnessing injustice in everyday encounters, the grandeur of the desert would fill me with a sense of awe that will never be matched in London, where life is just a tad more respectable.

Attention everyone out there in ‘the field’ in need of a bit of a de-stress. Now there’s yoga just for you…

http://emergencyoga.wordpress.com/

We received hundreds of stunning photographs from female photographers for submission to Chasing Misery. We (and by ‘we’ I mean mostly Jenn Warren who did the heavy lifting (www.jennwarren.net) have narrowed it down to nine photographers and 50 gorgeous photos. GOR-GEOUS photos. Need a sneak peek?

Washington Institute has just published a brief interview with the head of the Editorial Team, Kelsey Hoppe. Check it out here!

The fact that you’re reading this means that our website has gone live! Yay!

Unfortunately, it also means that you’ll have to ‘mind the mess’ as we get pages up and running. If you click on a page and it’s not there yet please don’t be deterred! It will be up soon.

We hope that this website will be a place where you can find out more about Chasing Misery – the book – which will be published later this year. However, it’s also a place where you can get to know a bit more about us, who we are, why we’re doing this. We also want it to be a place where women working in aid work can leave their experiences and stories – click here for ‘share an experience’ – and find help if they need it – click here for ‘get help’.

We’ll be putting news and updates right here so you can check back in from time to time to find out what we’re up to!

Thanks for your support!