You can immediately tell from the constant, mysterious tension that this podcast was made by experienced podcast makers. Marije Schuurman Hess traveled to Bosnia, a country that received a lot of aid during and after the civil war in the 1990s. She wants to know how much that really helped. It’s a tough job: the personal approach, sombre accordion music and the many storylines require quite a bit of concentration. But Help is also a special research into aid. A number of people report on the help they provided – their motivation and performance. Others describe the perspective of the aid recipient. From there, Schuurman Hess tries to unravel what the secret of good help is.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 24, 2023.