Hard Up Humanitarian Seeks Same

Pretty funny article from the Globe & Mail

LINK

It's not easy finding a soulmate when you're a displaced aid worker, vegan vixen or eco warrior. Many are turning to a new breed of do-gooder dating sites, Zosia Bielski reports ZOSIA BIELSKI

November 13, 2008 at 3:55 AM EST

With usernames that aren't particularly sexy - think Veganqueen and Positivelyidealist - and profile pics that would hardly qualify as arousing - a man struggling with a mud-lodged SUV in Sudan and another hunched over in a canoe in an East Indian bog - do-gooders are finding new ways of hooking up through a burgeoning crop of online dating sites.

There are humanitarian aid workers, who exchange war stories, medical advice and

impassioned blog posts on subjects such as China's oppressive regime on Humanitariandating.com. There are raw foodists and animal-rights activists who connect on Planetearthsingles.com. And there are "vegan vixens" and "eco warriors" who "simply want to make a better world" - and flirt - on Ethicalsingles.com.

Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags billow on the homepage of Humanitariandating.com, which now counts 3,300 members from more than 100 countries. Much like Facebook, Humanitarian Dating includes photo albums, friend lists and privacy settings. But unlike Facebook, it is rife with thoughtful blog posts and profile pics of members carrying out humanitarian work - not posed, lecherous or drunk.

"I just think they're a much nicer group of people on my site," said Robert Simpson, a 37-year-old emergency program co-ordinator from Australia. He launched the not-for-profit site with his wife, Tamara Prinsenberg, in 2006.

The two met during Doctors Without Borders briefings eight years ago in Amsterdam, where they now live together with their son, David.

Mr. Simpson says dating is a challenge for many aid workers because they are scattered around the world on contracts.

Elijah Spencer, a 25-year-old New Jersey man who is finishing his medical studies in Mexico after working there in free mobile clinics, has met two women, he says. But one lives in Mexico City and the other in Wisconsin. Distance has made intimate connection difficult for Mr. Spencer, as for many NGO workers. [... read the rest.]