painfully honest: The Tale of a Recovering Helper

A beautiful thing has happened in the last few decades. It has become increasingly popular and Instagram worthy to travel to marginalized spaces in the world and Help. In this book the author, Kathy Brooks, describes her own painfully honest journey of realizing how often helpers believe a single-story about those who live in these spaces and are ignorant of the complexities within the culture. And because of that we begin with the wrong questions, if we ask questions at all. In this book Kathy shares how she, an aritist turned social entreprenuer, came to terms with her own ignorance and savior mentality. She writes openly about her mistakes, (there are many ) which are partly hilarious and partly heart stopping. These are the stories of a recoving Helper who arrived in Gonaives, Haiti and built a small company, 2nd Story Goods, despite her many blunders. She writes candidly about her struggle to learn to lead well. She insists that true leaders make people see their own goodness and personal power. True leaders share responsibliity for outcomes and most importantly, true leaders create more leaders She maintains that establishing systems of Justice is the bedrock for real change. And that real leaders work for these reforms, not against them. It is also the narrative of great and gentle hope. It is an inspiring, timely tale about personal faith and processes. She takes the reader through story after story of what happens as she learns to ask the right question and climb down off her self imposed pedestal of rescuer and onto the path of a true ally. Hers is a journey of learning respect and discarding pity. For all those out there that want to learn to truly help better, this book is for you.…