The Uncommon Good Story
Having a fascination with other cultures as a child, I was finally able to take my first international trip in college where I served in an Eastern European orphanage. I knew the system I was observing was not the optimal way to care for orphaned and abandoned children, so after college I temporarily moved to East Africa to study different orphan care systems and methodologies, and to learn about best practices.
My biggest desire was to serve in the Middle East and Central Asia, and years later I was finally able to experience that region of the world, and later moved to the Middle East to work with refugees and Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP’s).
My career took a turn in 2020 when I began working full-time in international disaster and humanitarian relief, which opened my eyes to many more ways to serve those who are suffering from war, poverty, natural and manmade disasters, and persecution. I shifted gears once again in August of 2021 by focusing on evacuations out of Afghanistan and then a few months later transitioned to Ukraine evacuations and emergency relief.
It was in January of 2022 that I began to reflect and realized that I could clearly see three areas of passion; child protection and care, disaster and humanitarian relief, and supporting those who have fled their homes due to persecution or disaster. As more and more opportunities began to pop up to serve in these areas, it became clear that it was time to launch Uncommon Good International.
Having 20 years of experience in the nonprofit/humanitarian sector, I have seen plenty of examples of the dark side of aid, including abusive and manipulative work environments, a lack of organizational and personal accountability, the exploitation of populations being served for the purpose of fund raising or professional gain, a lack of financial integrity, and a pridefulness that hinders organizational and personal growth.
The values of Uncommon Good International (UGI) are integrity, excellence, and compassion, and it is with these in mind that UGI desires to seek outside financial accountability, input from professional advisors and collaborators, and to set up an organizational structure that promotes health. At UGI the goal is not to claim to be perfect or that UGI is better than others, but there is a deep desire for growth, to improve how things are being done, to partner and collaborate with trusted organizations, and to be less wrong tomorrow than we are today.
Thank you for joining UGI on this journey!
