Becoming a Sidekick isn’t easy. Some would say that its down-right unnatural. Maybe so. But, for us, we believe that the fundamental difficulty lies in our primal disinclination to saying “I do not know.” Take a moment. Try to say it. It’s not easy. Why? We don’t know. All we know is that it is important to say. Because, when we say it, we tell others that we are ready to learn. And, that is where a true Sidekick begins.

So, how do you get to “I do not know”? Well, we start by humbling ourselves. And, how do we do that? For us, we always start with Ivan Illich’s “To Hell with Good Intentions“. And, after that, we return again and again to the following resources. But, we think it’s important to emphasize that we do not do nothing. Each of us continues to work in our own way towards ending global poverty. We just do it as Sidekicks.

ARTICLES

• The Art of Medicine: Narrative Humility by Sayantani DasGupta
• Palestinian Refugees are not at Your Service by Moe Ali Nayel
• Poverty Professionals and Poverty by Ravi Kanbur
• What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Service by Adam Davis
• The Poor Are Not the Raw Material for Your Salvation by Liam Black
• Thoughts from Around the Globe on Social Action, Ego and Bullshit by Liam Black

BLOG POSTS

• Your White Savior Complex is Detrimental to my Development by TMS Ruge
• The white tourist’s burden by Rafia Zakaria
• The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems by Courtney Martin
• Privilege, Reduction, and a New Paradigm of Development by Mike Galant (a reply to Courtney Martin’s piece above)
• The Problem with Little White Girls (and Boys): Why I Stopped being a Voluntourist by Pippa Biddle
• If Only I had Known by Jennifer Lentfer
• Do-Gooders, Multicolored Saviors and Representations of Development by Tobias Denskus
• Between Arrogance and Defeat by J
• Honesty 101: What We Get by J
• The Do-Gooder Industrial Complex by Shawn Humphrey

BLOG SERIES

• Do’s and Don’ts for Do-Gooders by Shawn Humphrey

BOOKS

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
• The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi
• Letters Left Unsent by J
• How to Work in Someone Else’s Country by Ruth Stark
• White Man’s Burden by William Easterly
• Tyranny of Experts by William Easterly
• Learning Service by Claire Bennett, Daniela Papi-Thornton, Zahara Heckscher and Joseph Collins

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

• Two Dollar Challenge

FILMS

• There You Go! by Survival International
• Poverty Inc.

GUIDES

• “Social Media Guide for Volunteers and Travelers” Radi-Aid

ORGANIZATIONS

• Learning Service
• Radi-Aid
• Mama Hope

PEOPLE

• Jennifer Lentfer
• Tobias Denkus
• TMS Ruge
• Linda Raftree
• Saundra Schimmelpfennig 

PODCASTS

• Peter Singer: What Do You Want To Live For? (Do Gooder Podcast)
• Pippa Biddle: Little White Girls and Voluntourism (Do Gooder Podcast)
• Emily Worrall: Barbie Cannot Save You (Do Gooder Podcast)
• Kent Goldsworthy: The Commodification of Good Intentions (Do Gooder Podcast)
• Joseph Cheer: Extracting Exoticism (Do Gooder Podcast)

POEMS

• Aid Work: An Insult to the Poor? Admiral Ncube

SHORT STORIES

• “Barefoot in Church” by Gary Adams (Santa Barbara, California)

VIDEOS

This is not a comprehensive list. It’s one that includes resources that we have had the time to review and recommend. If you have others that you would recommend, please Contact Us. We would love to know what else is out there!