Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.

After leading a small nondenominational church and helping to serve the homeless community for 30 years, former pastor Kimberly Bowman set out on a social experiment that was decades in the making. A lifelong curiosity in human interaction and a passion to enact social change distilled themselves in the Undercover Bag Lady project.

Carefully disguised in tattered layers of dirty rags, Kimberly Bowman assumed the life of Jean, the homeless bag lady, and approached 10 different churches from the heart of the Bible Belt. Over the course of eight weeks, Jean attended Sunday morning services and took note of the reception her indigent character received.

From outright hostility to overwhelming generosity, the undercover bag lady encountered the full spectrum of humanity’s potential for acceptance. In beautifully poignant prose, “Undercover Bag Lady: An Exposé of Christian Attitudes Toward the Homeless” examines the silent hypocrisy and the humbling benevolence that exist beyond the closed doors of the Christian church. In beautifully written prose, this unyielding exposé of a silent, fringe community’s experiences turns the mirror on the Christian Church and compels it to examine if it is truly following Christ’s message of unconditional love.

How much have development programmes supported women in their daily lives, and in their struggles for equality and justice? Important though it is for development interventions to be accountable to funders, they are equally responsible to the women and men with whom they work. Monitoring and evaluation tools are needed, therefore, to examine the effects of development and humanitarian work on women’s empowerment and gender equality. Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning explores the tools and approaches used by different organizations to monitor women’s economic empowerment, incidence of violence against women and girls and other aspects of women’s empowerment. Contributors include experienced practitioners from organizations such as CARE, IRC, Oxfam, Helvetas and Womankind Worldwide.

Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.

After leading a small nondenominational church and helping to serve the homeless community for 30 years, former pastor Kimberly Bowman set out on a social experiment that was decades in the making. A lifelong curiosity in human interaction and a passion to enact social change distilled themselves in the Undercover Bag Lady project.

Carefully disguised in tattered layers of dirty rags, Kimberly Bowman assumed the life of Jean, the homeless bag lady, and approached 10 different churches from the heart of the Bible Belt. Over the course of eight weeks, Jean attended Sunday morning services and took note of the reception her indigent character received.

From outright hostility to overwhelming generosity, the undercover bag lady encountered the full spectrum of humanity’s potential for acceptance. In beautifully poignant prose, “Undercover Bag Lady: An Exposé of Christian Attitudes Toward the Homeless” examines the silent hypocrisy and the humbling benevolence that exist beyond the closed doors of the Christian church. In beautifully written prose, this unyielding exposé of a silent, fringe community’s experiences turns the mirror on the Christian Church and compels it to examine if it is truly following Christ’s message of unconditional love.

How much have development programmes supported women in their daily lives, and in their struggles for equality and justice? Important though it is for development interventions to be accountable to funders, they are equally responsible to the women and men with whom they work. Monitoring and evaluation tools are needed, therefore, to examine the effects of development and humanitarian work on women’s empowerment and gender equality. Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning explores the tools and approaches used by different organizations to monitor women’s economic empowerment, incidence of violence against women and girls and other aspects of women’s empowerment. Contributors include experienced practitioners from organizations such as CARE, IRC, Oxfam, Helvetas and Womankind Worldwide.