About
About
This website has been designed to provide a resource for people studying international development or contemplating making a career in the sector. It provides an overview of the work of Powerful Information over more than quarter of a century and examines some of the many lessons that we learned in the process. Much of the content is concerned with our work in West Africa but we have also included a note on our work in Eastern Europe. And we've included a short section on 'Why work in international development?'
Powerful Information in Brief
Mike Flood set up Powerful Information in early 1990 following a fact-finding trip to West Africa. We were awarded charitable status in 1992 and became a charitable company limited by guarantee in 2002. Our main aim was to empowering disadvantaged people in low-income countries with the information, understanding and means to tackle poverty and discrimination and promote good health and sustainable livelihoods.
Over the years we set up and managed educational and community development projects with some 38 local partners (21 in Europe and 17 in Africa), some in close collaboration with other international NGOs.[1]  Around 100 individuals played a part in this work and or in running our office — 13 served on PI's Board, 7 served as project officers; we also had 7 bookkeepers, 3 office managers, 1 Finance Director, and about 35 interns and volunteers; and we called upon the services of around 20 freelance consultants.
As Powerful Information’s Director, Mike was primarily responsible for raising resources for over 120 development projects and seeing that they were delivered, and also reporting in full to funders (around 60 in total). He stepped down from the post in December 2017, and the following month the charity rebranded as Grassroots Action  under Jill Chinn as Executive Officer.
Need a Speaker?

Mike is available to speak to local groups, schools and colleges on his experiences working in international development and on setting up and running grassroots projects in low-income countries. You can find a brief biography here  and a note on Mike's current work on fake news and mis/disinformation.
Why Work in International Development?
It will be clear from some of the observations and comments on this website that international development is not an easy profession: it requires a wide range of technical and inter-personal skills and a lot of hard work and patience — and that's in addition to the formal qualifications required by charities (that is, if you're thinking of becoming a professional). It can also involve dealing with difficult and frustrating situations, even putting yourself in uncomfortable and occasionally, hazardous situations. So why do it?



"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Mahatma Gandhi
Well there are many reasons. Few if any people choose to work in development to get rich or become famous; their drive is invariably altruism — wanting to help and empower others and give something back; but also, personal development — wanting to experience different cultures and traditions, and develop a better understanding of the world. It was Archbishop Oscar Romero who said “aspire not to have more but to be more.” [2] Development can certainly help you to “be more.”
And the rewards can be considerable: you can get to work with extraordinary individuals, visit places and see things that tourists rarely do, and be welcomed into people’s communities and homes. And you can learn so much about yourself in the process — some of Mike’s fondest memories are of the warmth and generosity of people living in poverty, who to Western eyes have very little, who  nevertheless had enormous generosity of spirit and would insist of giving him gifts that they could ill-afford (and he could nor refuse for fear of causing offence). The experience of working in very poor and disadvantaged communities can bring new meaning to one’s life. It also provides an insight into one's own culture and values, perhaps ways of doing things that you had accepted before without question. You come to see things with different eyes...
Mike also learned a great deal about working with and managing people, and trying to understand rather than judge their motives and views. And he is particularly pleased to have developed his communication skills (though sadly not his ability to speak other languages), and also to have learned how to cope with and manage information — a vital art these days with the internet! 

So we hope nobody will be put off going into international development by the challenges, not least the effort required to get the necessary formal qualifications (and preferably, in-country experience); rather we hope you will enter the profession better informed and better prepared, and with you eyes open to the opportunities. And who knows, having taken the plunge you may one day wake to find that you have done what Mahatma Gandhi so passionately advocated, become a part of the change that you wished to see in the world.

Making Contact

You can contact Mike on: mike@powerfulinformation.org or [+44] 1908 666275; or you
 can send a message using the form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Notes

1   We ran projects with or for PAN UK, the Transrural Trust, Sightsaversand Children in Crisis. We also collaborated with Advantage Africa, the Olney Newton Link and VillageAid.

2   Archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, El Salvador's spiritual leader, paid a high price for speaking out for justice and civil rights: he was shot in 1990 by a lone gunman as he took mass in his Church of the Divine Providence.

The photo was taken in GEDeW's Learning Circle Madiyawona ('Love One Another') in Kabala, Sierra Leone.
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