Entries by Nan Doyal

The Healing Power of Art

While working on ‘Dig Where You Are’,  I had a conversation with Lily Yeh about her experience in Rwanda.  She recounted for me how art and the process of creating something collectively helped a village of genocide survivors to heal and rebuild their lives.   “When you go to Rwanda for the first time you must experience the Genocide,” said […]

Digging for Purpose

Sometimes when you dig where you are, something unexpected happens. One of the questions I dreaded being asked when Dig Where You Are was first published was: How are you digging where you are? After all, I had written the book, certainly I must know how to do it. But even with all I had seen […]

Kids Fighting For Kids – a new ‘Dig Where You Are’ story

In Costa Rica, a young surfer has turned his love of Jiu Jitsu into a transforming experience for kids at risk. “I always tell the kids here that nothing is impossible. The ‘impossible’ things just take longer to do,” says Leonidas (Leo) Ruaro, the twenty-nine-year-old surfer who created the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Jaco Academy (BJJJ) […]

Veronika Scott Shows Us How to Dig Where You Are

I came across the Empowerment Project entirely by accident but decided I had to share what I have learned thus far about it. Veronika Scott is a young woman in her 20s who lives in Detroit. She was given an assignment in school to design something useful. What she created was a down coat that […]

Thoughts for a New Year

To laugh often and love much, to win the respect of intelligent persons, and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to give one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a […]

Welcome to Dig Where You Are

In 2008 I set out to find seven people in the world I had once known. Each was busy solving problems that had stumped experts and governments for years. Not only had they found a way forward, but in the process had empowered the people around them to join the effort. When I started this […]