Humanitarians at Heart

Alumni are making it their business to better the world

Graham Huff, ISyE 98, MS ISyE 05, was on a mission trip to Haiti through the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta when the January earthquake struck. They felt the ground move on the island of La Gonave, located in the bay off Port-au-Prince. The group had been scheduled to stay at the Hotel Montana, where many Americans died, just two days later.

Following the earthquake, Graham Huff, left, escorted a shipment of water treatment supplies to Haiti to begin chlorine production.

Five days after getting out of Haiti, Huff went back, arranging for and escorting a shipment of water treatment supplies directed to Deep Springs International in Leogane, where he then helped begin chlorine production.

He recently started his own nongovernmental organization, League of Hope, based in Atlanta. Huff’s efforts in Haiti are recounted at leagueofhope.blogspot.com.

On Jan. 28, he wrote that he was excited about “organizing a partnership of hospitals, doctors and suppliers of prostheses to help the estimated 100,000 that have had amputations as a result of the earthquake. This plan was hatched last night after a conversation with my friend, Ingrid Arnesen in Petionville, Haiti, who described walking through a clinic with human arms and legs lying all over the floor. If you want to join in the effort, please let me know” at [email protected].

As senior director of international programs for Habitat for Humanity International, Tony Chan, ISyE 94, MS Mgt 98, was focusing his efforts to provide aid for Haitians in the wake of the earthquake.

Chan said he developed “the supply chain strategies for our recovery effort in Haiti, including the shipping and distribution of the initial 10,000-plus emergency shelter kits” in February.

His job at Habitat for Humanity also includes the development of global strategies and implementation plans for programs and operations serving more than 85 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Tracy Hawkins’ company also works in locales around the globe but has heightened its efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.

Hawkins, ISyE 85, calls herself a “humanitarian engineer.” She is the vice president of FilterPure, a company that implements the manufacturing and distribution of ceramic water filters for home use. Production has been increased in the Dominican Republic for delivery to Haiti.

“My industrial engineering background has been key in helping me to support this humanitarian project because I have been exposed to so many sciences,” Hawkins has said.

After a career working with hardware and software companies, Ric Gray, ISyE 87, saw the opportunity to apply such technologies in another area: disaster response. Gray joined Emergency Visions, which provides consulting and technological assistance on disaster preparation and response.

“The problem we saw after 9/11 was that collaboration among the entities that respond to disasters was virtually nonexistent,” Gray said. “Emergency Visions set out to create a software solution that will help any organization that responds to disasters with preplanning and drill activities and collaborative response to disasters to help quickly and efficiently save lives and property.”

The company played a more active role in the response to the earthquake in Haiti, sending in a search-and-rescue team that included a dog to detect the scent of living people trapped under rubble. Emergency Visions has since begun utilizing its software in the recovery.

“Our team was able to get in country quickly, enabling them to save lives and make a positive impact,” Gray said. “The stories and details from our team’s daily debriefs were at the same time heart wrenching and heartwarming.”

Many Georgia Tech alumni have been inspired to devote their lives to making a positive impact around the globe.

Jeff Beech, kneeling second from the left, is helping a community in Kenya develop irrigation for farms. He is looking for volunteers to return with him in June.

During his latest trip to Nakuru, Kenya, in January, Jeff Beech, Mgt 87, took a group of 44 volunteers that included several doctors and nurses. Over several days, more than 3,000 patients came through a temporary clinic.

The Beech Foundation also has worked with a Presbyterian church group to help build an orphanage and school in Nakuru. The orphanage holds nearly 100 children and the school has 576 students, with both of those numbers growing steadily. In addition, the foundation works with a special-needs school run by the government.

To support the projects, the foundation has partnered with Nakuru residents to create a system of wells and farms. A new greenhouse produces one of the largest tomato crops in the country.

A mission trip to Chinandega, Nicaragua, in 1998 inspired John Bland, MgtSci 83, to walk away from the software company he co-founded to create Amigos for Christ a year later and serve as its executive director.

The Buford, Ga.-based nonprofit (amigosforchrist.org) continues to lead mission trips to Chinandega, where it works on water, sanitation, education, health care, community development and infrastructure problems. It also launched Bead Amigas, which helps Nicaraguan women generate income by selling jewelry they have handcrafted from recycled paper.

Currently, Georgia Tech senior mechanical engineering students are working with Amigos for Christ on the design of water pumping systems.

Jose Montero, ISyE 95, is chair and president of Trekking for Kids, which he founded with his sister. Since 2005, the nonprofit has been organizing purpose-driven treks in the world’s most remote locations to raise funds for orphanages in the areas they visit.

Each trekker commits to raising a preset financial contribution for each kilometer walked. Donations from all trip participants are pooled together and used in their entirety to help the orphanage.

Based in Washington, D.C., Trekking for Kids’ 14-member management team is scattered throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. The organization’s motto is “Improving Today, Securing Tomorrow … One Step at a Time.”

Georgia Tech alumni, students and faculty have been working with the nonprofit Health in Harmony (healthinharmony.org) for more than a year to design a hospital for a small village on the west coast of Borneo. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.

“I can say this has truly changed my outlook on the world,” said team member Sarah Hilton, IE 08, MS HS 09.

Studio instructor Arief Setiawan, PhD Arch 09, wrote a paper on the hospital design project in which he explained that an interdisciplinary team of graduate students from the College of Architecture and Health Systems Institute “were presented with a remarkable opportunity to bring quality health care to the impoverished region of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.”

Setiawan said the “project would not have been possible without … the vision and passion of Al and Lola Pierce. Al and Lola were the catalysts for the project.” Al Pierce graduated from Tech with an architecture degree in 1958.

Georgia Tech’s worldwide outreach also has had a major impact on the Peace Corps. In February, the Institute was ranked 21st among all U.S. volunteer-producing schools, with 22 alumni currently serving around the globe. Since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961, 234 Georgia Tech alumni have served in its ranks.

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