our global garden of joy Hi 👋 I’m Jasmine, founder of The Bloom. We have a phenomenal selection of social impact resources this week for you to bloom & forward to your friends!
"supported with love by Algbra" "supported with love by Algbra" supported with love by Algbra
Welcome bloomers, Here is your summary of the newsletter this week: 🌱 Interview with fellow at Institute of Peace & Conflict 🌱 3 lessons from corals on climate resilience solutions 🌱 UNESCO prize for women & girls education with love & light, Jasmine Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of The Bloom to your inbox with top social impact jobs, uplifting stories, and global resources. Partner with us! We're looking forimpactful organizations to partner with The Bloom to bring connections, resources, and opportunities to our global community.
Social impact careers learning platform: Joinour buzzing community to learn from extraordinary social impact professionals in networking and mentorship events.
fresh soil
Over the course of 3 years, The Bloom shared over 11,000 job and fellowship opportunities 🤯 That's why we're thrilled to blend career interviews from the community with the success stories of The Bloom's impact; in 2024 we'll interview bloomers awarded fellowships, grants, jobs and more through our newsletter. There's no more joyful way to become your best self, going after your dreams, than reading the candid stories of others who did and were successful 🦋
What inspired you to apply for the opportunity you found through The Bloom?
I had been thinking/looking for some time about funding that allows me to work on an extension of a personal project that I had started in 2019 with my mother called Spice Zi Kitchen about sharing and preserving Tamil heritage food in Singapore. Then, I saw this grant opportunity pop up on The Bloom about tourism and conflict, and my brain started ticking…..as I had experience in tourism - working with regional tourism boards, and also working and living, in areas that are described as ‘post conflict areas’ like Medellin in Colombia and Karachi in Pakistan. I started thinking about how and what ways food, particularly, heritage food could look like in those areas. I did some primary research on publications, journals and books on war food and I found that the ones that had been written about were mostly from about war food eaten by American soldiers (corned beef, SPAM), Korean food (army stew), bagels/crossaints, etc. They were mostly about food that were used to feed soldiers who were sent to fight in the war. And I started thinking, wait, what about regular people not soldiers who had to feed themselves during the war - what were they eating/cooking, how did they survive when land was being destroyed? Then I started looking at countries where this kind of food could be present but was not well documented like India, Pakistan, Rwanda, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka….Then, I dug deeper into what was close to me and my heritage, to help me decide where I could do work about this and really meaningful connect to the topic. Walk us through the way you currently in your day-to-day work connect with social impact: what does this work look like for you?
I’m currently in the middle of finishing my research in Sri Lanka about Tamil food and its relation to culinary heritage. So, at the moment, it looks like waking up to go to travel to a village or a person’s house, where I speak to them, cook with them, learn about the recipe and process. Then I return back, take time for myself by reading, doing some meditation exercises, and having a coffee or time for myself and then transcribing my interviews in the evening.
Share with us a part of your application that you’re especially proud of?
This is going to sound very trivial, but I included a photograph of myself in 2012 in Sri Lanka, where my research proposal was based on eating chickpeas with sambol with a spoon that I had brandished from my bag. This was a moment in a tamil-dominanted area in Nuwaraeliya Sri Lanka, where I remembered fondly speaking in Tamil to the chickpea store owner and being blown away of the ways we can be connected across the world.
Apart from that, I’m also really proud to have included research from other few brown women who had written about this topic that I had included, to show how little was even written on the topic and why it was important to build on this material.
What did you learn in the application process, that you’d love to take with you in future ones?
Personal stories matter!!!! I didn’t for the life of me think that me speaking my mother tongue, one of the oldest languages in the world, Tamil and wanting to visit and do this research in place, where I am curious about, drawn to, inspired by but am not citizen of would be considered. I always thought I need to have more ‘credibility’ whatever that means…but i am starting to realise that credibility is also sharing my lived experience and the multiplicity of my identity (brown girl, speaking tamil, third generation singaporean, living out of singapore in Europe, etc).
In travel journalism, writing personal stories about places we would like to visit or have visited, we are often asked to think about why ‘you are best suited to tell this story’, and i think i would like to carry this perspective to other roles i apply to!
Reach out to Taahira directly in our global social impact community. And make sure to check out the upcoming incredible mentorship and networking events 💜
Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists: Fully funded travel opportunity for journalists hailing from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania. This fellowship aims to provide journalists with an immersive experience covering the deliberations of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City. The program spans approximately 10-12 weeks, coinciding with the opening months of UNGA. Both full-time and freelance journalists are invited to apply. Aspen Young Leaders Central Europe Program: Brings together an interdisciplinary group of approx. 30 young people from Central Europe who, over four days, debate the role of leaders, their core values, the challenges we are facing in today’s society, and the role we play in solving them. LGT Impact Fellowship: Includes seven opportunities for mid-career professionals of diverse backgrounds who are passionate about improving health systems across Africa and India. The opportunities range from research to marketing.
💸 Grants & Awards
Collective Impact: Seeking artists who can transform ideas into visual stories. They believe in the power of art to spark change, and we want others to join. Themes for submissions include but are not limited to global feminism, social solidarity, resistance, justice and empowerment. Mediums can range from digital art, traditional illustrations, mixed media – the reward for 5 selected artists is USD 150 each.
Intercultural Innovation Grant: The program offers holistic support to up to 10 selected organizations at the intersection of diversity, inclusion, and social integration to connect with global grassroots organizations, empower communities, and elevate intercultural innovation with a financial grant of up to USD 20,000 to support their projects.
European Youth Forum: Calling for proposals for research on EU Youth Programmes, focusing on Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). The selected consultant will receive a fee of 10,000 EUR for their work. 2024 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education: This esteemed prize recognizes and celebrates the remarkable efforts of individuals and organizations in advancing girls’ and women’s education, with each laureate receiving an annual award of USD 50,000.
Women in Digital Economy Fund: For solutions working to close the gender digital divide, grants ranging from USD 500,000 to 1,500,000 will be awarded to successful applicants. Additionally, awardees will benefit from tailored technical assistance covering program design, implementation, and evaluation.
pollination partner
Our newsletter this week is supported with love by Imaginepod, a powerhouse consultancy led by social impact industry leaders at the intersection of fundraising, tech, and storytelling.
In talking with dozens of social impact leaders, they're finding 3 top takeaways and themes that might be useful to others in The Bloom who want to have plenty of financial resources for the big social impact issues you're tackling, and for the next month, they are offering FREE support across fundraising, tech, and strategy for organizations to have pro bono support while working on bringing in the resources you need in order to soar 💸💚 Send us an email at team@readtobloom.com to receive the 3 takeaways from these philanthropy leaders and a direct introduction to the team to hear more about their free fundraising strategy support.
community garden
Finding a network of extraordinary social & environmental impact leaders to nourish your career growth and build relationships of reciprocity has never been easier: here's a few Asks & Offers in the community this week: 🌱Carolina: I wanted to share an interesting opportunity for impact-focused entrepreneurs in London.In my current role at Big Issue Invest, I lead the Power Up London accelerator programme, and we are currently on the lookout for early-stage environmental and social enterprises based in London to join our second cohort. It's a four months accelerator programme offering mentoring, business support and the possibility to apply to up to £22,000 in grant funding at the end of it. The programme is funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Please check the website or feel free to reach out directly.
🌱Yarminiah: I'm a creative director, photographer and culture informed climate advocate. I'm hosting a free virtual workshop on March 20th for women of color creatives who are ready to finally invest in and launch their dream sustainability career without selling their soul. To my climate-curious creative women of no-color: If you’ve been in your head and frustrated with your career pivot into sustainability, I’m here to tell you: sis it’s time. It’s time to get your creative point of view together via a pitch deck that transforms connections into clients and helps you stand out in the market. In this free masterclass, I'm diving into the specific strategies and tactics I’ve used to launch my career in sustainability. Approaches that you can adapt to begin seeing results in your climate journey. Join my live masterclass on Wednesday, March 20 at 6:00pm EST. Can't make it live? No prob - the replay will be available to all registrants.
Connect directly in the "Asks & Offers" section of our social impact community platform.
grow new roots
🤎 Social Impact Employer Spotlight
Attention, jobseekers in Communications looking for a visa sponsorship to work in the UK 🇬🇧 A phenomenal social impact employer we feature this week in our job board is hiring ❤️ Global Canopy is a data-driven not for profit that targets the market forces destroying nature. They do this by improving transparency and accountability, providing innovative open-access data, clear metrics, and actionable insights to leading companies, financial institutions, governments and campaigning organisations worldwide. Check out the Communications Lead opening below!
Email team@readtobloom.com to feature your organization and job openings to 40,000 diverse and talented bloomers around the world. Warning: spicy sidenote comments might appear when we want to *extra* express how much we love these job openings 🌶️ LATIN AMERICA + CARIBBEAN Associate director global and Latin America – Co-Impact Multiple consultants – Institute for War and Peace Reporting 🇲🇽 Healthy masculinities consultant – Global Fund for Children Anticorruption specialist – Dexis Consulting Group Development/economies officer – IRC 🇬🇹 Specialist in criminal investigations – Dexis Consulting Group
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Hi all, I've just started reading Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm about 5 chapters in and so far it's very good! I'll link to it again later if I finish it/
