My book,
Water Walkers: portraits of Ghana's street vendors is now available on Amazon!
melissa.haeffner
people.nature
I have a strong theoretical framework for understanding intrinsic motivation and creating innovative services to promote sustainable behavior. I am available to consult with organizations to evaluate their impact on communities and the environment.
nature.people
My focus is on protecting human rights of persons displaced by climate change and environmental disaster. I am interested in innovating new social services and policy to prepare, respond and recover from this growing concern.
selected.works
I am an adventurer who has traveled to 18 countries but still hasn't made it south of the equator! My favorite activities are writing, commuting by bicycle, and challenging my fears (I just learned to swim!). I have 2 advanced degrees in the social sciences and 12 years of work experience in non-profits. I currently reside in Chicago taking consulting work in social research and policy analysis. My ultimate goal is to work in the international development sector.
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melissahaeffner at gmail.com
Skype: melissa.haeffner
Twitter: _melissahaeffner
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Water Walkers: portraits of Ghana's street vendors
**If you live in the Cambridge area, come see my photo exhibit during the month of April at Rotch Library, MIT 77 Massachusetts Ave, 7-238.
Praise for Water Walkers:
Ralph and I spent the morning over pancakes and reading Water Walkers from cover to cover. We loved it! It is such a work of beauty, and so much an expression of your own talent and genius! It is EXACTLY the expression of what drew me into this work in the first place these girls and women and the way their lives are shaped by water ah so much heart-felt LIFE!
- Susan Murcott, MIT faculty, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Summary:
A grand challenge of our era is to bridge technical expertise with a human rights agenda. No longer can we impose structures on the unwitting "for the good of the most." Anyone working in sustainable development today realizes that we must consider how all projects great and small impact each and every individual. As a sociologist, I contribute to this discourse through intense on-the-ground work with the least visible and least heard actors. This particular work is a product of 100 interviews with street vendors, mostly young ladies, who are active participants in moving water around developing cities.
Urbanization of water is a fact of life in developing countries where growing cities require alternative flows of water to meet demand. Yet, so little of the literature has previously considered the role of young vendors in water distribution in developing countries.
Through digital storytelling, this book presents the daily experience of water vendors as they negotiate their way through spatial dimensions of traffic and market, home and school. Although my portraits are often of individuals, collectively, they represent the broader community of a new generation of young adults growing up on the rapidly urbanizing streets in the developing world. The implication of this work is to contribute to the current discourse in sustainable development by adding the social context to this primarily technical project of water distribution to urban populations.
