Practitioner Experience Notes (PENs)

Powerful exposition of the inherent contradictions and limitations of front line aid work, that can only be written by someone who has lived and survived the experience. Trauma leading to PTSD - the only question is why is this not much more clearly recognised outcome of aid delivery.

Never, ever turn a blind eye. If you kmow something is wrong, do something about it. System work, maybe not 100%, but you can always improve.

You don't have to tug your forelock to every proposed VIP visit. The best defence is a published process for controlled access that you can refer requests to.

Reality trumps everything, Adapt quickly, document clearly, and keep the clinical logic simple. Brief was to help establish a Rehab Centre in Qui Nhan for war-wounded children

With the greatest of affection, a remembrance of Major Jamie Campbell, former Save the Children Field Director in India and other places. He was a one-off, as the funeral address by his neighbour on Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Charles Arbuthnott, makes clear.

Learning lessons from our past may prevent us making the same mistakes in our future

Cultural stereotyping is not only wrong it can be dangerous in our work. Build relationships so you can ask the right questions. People will help you to help them if they can - you just have to ask.

Problem was engaging people, companies. trusts with fundraising pitches. Solution was to use Eglantyne Jebb's story, as well as programme material.

You MUST have proper Media Training as a field-worker if you are meeting the media. No excuses, it's not an admin course.

Gifts-in-kind sound like 'value for nothing' and an easy acceptance. In reality there are significant hidden costs and unless you plan the activity, you'll end up wasting valuable time and effort.

An unconventional biography of an unconventional woman. Eglantyne Jebb, not particularly fond of children herself, nevertheless dedicated her life to establishing Save the Children and promoting her revolutionary concept of human rights. In this award-winning book, Clare Mulley brings to life this brilliant, charismatic, and passionate woman, whose work took her between drawing rooms and war zones, defying convention and breaking the law. Eglantyne Jebb not only helped save millions of lives, she also permanently changed the way the world treats children.

Defining KPIs around programme quality can be hard to get right. To avoid KPIs being gamed and shown as green (all fine) when they're actually red (action needed), consider if they are unambiguous in measurement, can be checked or verified by others, and that they are understood to measure something that really matters.

Save the Children Alumni exists both as a fellowship connecting people with shared experiences, and also where possible to collect and make available institutional knowledge. It was this later objective that led to the development of Eglantyne, an AI Research Assistant built to give trusted answers to humanitarian quesitons.