We welcome stories from guest contributors. Here’s what you should know.
Inquiries: While we’re happy to consider a completed story, we suggest that you begin by sending a one-paragraph inquiry telling what you’d like to write about, and your background for writing it.
Subject: This site looks at the ways that foreign aid, international NGOs, and U.N. development agencies largely undermine the countries they claim to help, while actually just benefiting themselves and the donors. And at what we can do about it. Your story should contribute to this discussion. It may be based on your own experiences, or on research
Length: Stories of 600 to 1000 words are best; 700-800 words (a 3-minute read) is ideal. Longer stories will be considered, but the longer they are, the fewer readers you’re likely to get.
Byline: There are understandable reasons that many writers may prefer to be anonymous, but a story published under your real name will carry more credibility. We are more likely to accept a story that is signed.
Payment: This is a non-commercial site. It does not generate income, it is run on a volunteer basis, and we do not pay for stories. The limited funds we have available are used to promote stories to a wider audience. We invite submissions from those who share our goal of calling attention to the many ways that the aid industry harms the very societies it claims to help. In return, we offer an opportunity for you to make your views more widely known. If you have a Twitter or other social media account, you can expect to get more followers. (Tweets announcing our first two guest columns, in November and December 2020, have been retweeted more than 4600 times – as this writing.)
Rights: You are giving us only the right to publish your story on our website. You retain all other rights. If you wish, you can authorize us to publish your story under a Creative Commons license, which gives others permission to reprint it, provided you are credited as the author, without seeking further permission. If you wish to do this, just type “CC-BY-SA 4.0” or other license at the end. (Click the link here to see details of this license, and other options.)
Address: Please send your inquiry or story to us as a TXT or DOC file at: karmacolonialism@gmail.com
Top illustration (typewriter): by KoalaParkLaundromat
Previous guest columns
(As it happens, our first two guest columns were written by individuals working at NGOs, in Kenya. We welcome submissions from people in other circumstances and countries, as well.)
Right: “Sometimes I feel like a sign board.” A Kenyan professional, working at a Western NGO, tells what it’s like: Pointing the way for an ever-changing succession of ex-pats who are paid much more, but don’t know what to do.
Other stories of interest
Right: Boys thrown under the schoolbus. U.N. agencies and NGOs focus almost exclusively on girls’ education. But girls are faring better than boys, whose needs are ignored and who are falling behind.