The conversation explores the forgotten local roots of humanitarianism, the gap between localisation rhetoric and reality, and why communities often know best what support they actually need. Marina shares insights from her “Already There” research project, which asks communities a simple but powerful question: “What does help that really helps look like?”

Together, Tom and Marina discuss power, mutual aid, dignity, funding inequalities, and why genuine humanitarian reform requires shifting trust and decision-making closer to communities themselves.

Check out MapAction's work here, they're really great! https://mapaction.org/

Aiding & Abetting is a podcast about the politics, power, and contradictions of humanitarian aid.

Hosted by humanitarian worker and researcher Tom Colley, the series explores how aid really works, who benefits from it, and why efforts to help can sometimes reinforce the inequalities they seek to address.

Through conversations with aid workers, activists, researchers, and community leaders, the podcast examines the colonial legacies, political interests, and institutional incentives that shape humanitarian response today.

Produced by Karama, a network supporting locally led mutual aid initiatives across conflict-affected regions, Aiding & Abetting offers an honest, critical look at humanitarianism and explores what a more accountable, community-led future could look like.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Aiding and Abetting, Tom Colley speaks with Ghassan Al Sheikh, Executive Director of Al Majd Community Development Association in Jenin, about life in the northern West Bank under occupatio, and the growing sense that much of the world has stopped paying attention.

From military raids and displacement to the psychological toll of permanent insecurity, the conversation explores the quieter violence shaping daily life in places like Jenin and Tulkarem. But it also goes further, interrogating the contradictions of the international aid system itself: the gap between rhetoric and action, the failures of localisation, and the uncomfortable reality that humanitarian organisations often operate within, rather than challenge, the structures creating crisis.

This is a conversation about dignity, solidarity, mutual aid, and resistance, not only political resistance, but the daily act of keeping communities alive under conditions designed to exhaust and force them to leave their land.

Please find more information about Al Majd Community Development Association here: https://www.facebook.com/ALMAJDSOCIETY/

Al Majd do not have a fundraising platform for themselves, but Ghassan has asked if donations can be sent via Karama's crowdfunding site: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/karama-solidarity-network

Aiding & Abetting is a podcast about the politics, power, and contradictions of humanitarian aid.

Hosted by humanitarian worker and researcher Tom Colley, the series explores how aid really works, who benefits from it, and why efforts to help can sometimes reinforce the inequalities they seek to address.

Through conversations with aid workers, activists, researchers, and community leaders, the podcast examines the colonial legacies, political interests, and institutional incentives that shape humanitarian response today.

Produced by Karama, a network supporting locally led mutual aid initiatives across conflict-affected regions, Aiding & Abetting offers an honest, critical look at humanitarianism and explores what a more accountable, community-led future could look like.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite years of commitments to inclusion, many humanitarian programmes remain inaccessible, fragmented, and designed around rigid sector-based systems rather than the realities of people’s lives. From inaccessible aid distributions to the failure to adapt services in meaningful ways, this episode examines why disabled people and older people continue to be left behind during crises.

Host and Karama founder Tom Colley is joined by inclusion specialist Diana Tilly, who brings more than 40 years of experience working on disability and inclusion across humanitarian and development contexts.

Together, they discuss the limitations of mainstream humanitarian approaches, the overlap between people’s needs, and what genuinely inclusive humanitarian action could look like in practice.

Learn more about Karama and its work supporting locally led humanitarian responses at: www.karama.org.uk

Aiding & Abetting is a podcast about the politics, power, and contradictions of humanitarian aid.

Hosted by humanitarian worker and researcher Tom Colley, the series explores how aid really works, who benefits from it, and why efforts to help can sometimes reinforce the inequalities they seek to address.

Through conversations with aid workers, activists, researchers, and community leaders, the podcast examines the colonial legacies, political interests, and institutional incentives that shape humanitarian response today.

Produced by Karama, a network supporting locally led mutual aid initiatives across conflict-affected regions, Aiding & Abetting offers an honest, critical look at humanitarianism and explores what a more accountable, community-led future could look like.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aiding & Abetting is a podcast from Karama exploring the uncomfortable realities, contradictions, and power dynamics behind modern humanitarian aid.

Hosted by Karama founder Tom Colley, the series goes beyond familiar charity narratives to ask deeper questions about who really holds power in the aid system, and whether the current model is fit for purpose.

Through conversations with aid workers, activists, researchers, and local responders, the podcast examines issues including localisation, mutual aid, donor politics, colonial legacies, and the future of humanitarian action.

Produced by Karama, a network supporting locally led mutual aid responses and advocating for more dignified and accountable humanitarian systems. Aiding & Abetting is for anyone who wants an honest insider’s view of how humanitarian aid actually works, and what meaningful alternatives could look like.

You can learn more about Karama’s work at:

www.karama.org.uk

You can also support the wider project through Karama’s crowdfunding campaign:

Before It Breaks – Community-Led Action

Aiding & Abetting is a podcast about the politics, power, and contradictions of humanitarian aid.

Hosted by humanitarian worker and researcher Tom Colley, the series explores how aid really works, who benefits from it, and why efforts to help can sometimes reinforce the inequalities they seek to address.

Through conversations with aid workers, activists, researchers, and community leaders, the podcast examines the colonial legacies, political interests, and institutional incentives that shape humanitarian response today.

Produced by Karama, a network supporting locally led mutual aid initiatives across conflict-affected regions, Aiding & Abetting offers an honest, critical look at humanitarianism and explores what a more accountable, community-led future could look like.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.