Past Volunteers

Kristi Zan, USA

Kristi and her husband Eric arrived Buea on Tuesday July 6, 2010 to volunteer with HINT for about 6 months.
Kristi comes to join the rest of the team on the on-going School PCs Project.

Kristi had this to say about herself:

I am currently the Development Coordinator for a local non-profit organization. I research and develop grant proposals to obtain funding for our organization. I also maintain our donor database and am largely responsible for donor relations. As a member of the development team, I help develop and execute marketing schemes, as well as, aid in coordinating special events.

While in school, I worked as a social work intern for two health-related organizations (one hospice organization, and one focused on patients with cancer.) At these agencies, I had the chance to work one-on-one with clients, conduct needs assessments, and help clients work toward psychosocial well-being.

I also volunteered as part of the full-time summer staff with an Orphanage Outreach in the Dominican Republic.

While Eric will be focusing on the IT Project, Kristi will put her fundraising and project proposal writing skills to work and help us hpefully get more resources for our on-going projects.

Through DevelopAfrica.org and Firsrgiving.com, they have been able to realize more than $3,000 that will go towards supporting the School PCs Project. Thank you Eric and Kristi for your support. We look forward to working with you.

Eric Zan, USA

Eric and his wife Kristi arrived Buea on Tuesday July 6, 2010 to volunteer with HINT for about 6 months.

Eric comes to join the rest of the team on the on-going School PCs Project.

This is what Eric says about himself:

I got my undergrad at the University of Texas in Computer Science in 2004. I’ve worked as a software engineer for the past 6 years building simulators for aircraft. I will be there for 6 months starting July 6. I’m interested in international development and the digital divide. I heard about this opportunity through idealist.org and coincidentally found out Genesis was good friends with a co-worker of my brother-in-law…small world.

While Eric will be focusing on the IT Project, Kristi will put her fundraising and project proposal writing skills to work and help us hpefully get more resources for our on-going projects.

Through DevelopAfrica.org and Firsrgiving.com, they have been able to realize more than $3,000 that will go towards supporting the School PCs Project. Thank you Eric and Kristi for your support. We look forward to working with you.

Amber Shevin, USA

Amber Shevin arrived Buea from the USA (via RSA) on Sunday July 4, 2010 to volunteer with HINT, specifically working with the School PCs Project.

Here’s what Amber says about herself:

I am currently working on my masters in International Relations and Sustainable Development at Chapman University and living in Southern California. I have traveled a fair amount around Southern Africa before but have never been to Cameroon or the West African region. I will be there from the beginning of July through the end of August. As for random facts, I love to surf and I horseback ride competitively around the US.

Amber was able to raised $4,100, enough to help set up 3 computer labs in 3 schools with 10 computers each making a total of 30 computers!! The school PCs Project facilities access to ICTs in school by proving up to 60% of the total cost of a complete computer lab with 10 computers.

Welcome Amber and thanks for being a HINT Hero. We look forward to working with you.

Andro Mandakovic, Chile

Welcome Andro!

Andro is originally from Chile but lives in the USA. He has come to join our large team of 8 international volunteers from the USA and UK.

Here is what Andro says about himself:

I am originally from Chile, but lived some years in the states (7 in total). I studied commercial engineering (mix between Industrial engineering and Business administration) in Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. Then I moved to Miami where I worked for LAN Airlines in the Pricing department for 3 years.

Personally speaking I consider myself very open minded. I love to travel and highly appreciate diversity. I love to meet new people, new cultures, new ideas, new foods, adventures, etc. I am looking forward to experience all that and of course to help as much as I can while sharing with a group of great people.

We look forward to working with you.

Robert Arlt Jr., USA

Robert arrived Buea on June 16, 2010 (together with Brandon Turner) to be involved with our School PCs Project that is installing computer labs in schools and other educational establishments and providing IT training to teachers and students.

Robert had this to say about himself:

I’m a Physics major pre-med Woman and Gender Studies minor at MIT. I run a server here and I’m employed as a resident computer consultant. I’ve also done computer work for businesses in the Bethlehem, PA and Reno, NV area.

I am also one of the founders of Blackstone Operations, along with Brandon and will be accompanying him in Cameroon.

I have lived in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennslyvania, and Nevada. My family is from Chicago and my brother lives in New York.

Together with Brandon, they raised $9,900. The funds will be used to pay for their trip, their stay in Buea and up to $3,000 will go towards supporting the School PCs Project.

Great Job Robert. We look forward to working with you and getting to know you more. Welcome!

Brandon Turner, USA

Brandon Turner arrived Buea on June 16, 2010 (together with Robert Arlt Jr.) to be involved with our School PCs Project that is installing computer labs in schools and other educational establishments and providing IT training to teachers and students.

Here’s who Brandon is:

My name is Brandon Turner and I am a Biophysics student at Wake Forest University. I live in California (when not in school) and am particularly interested in teaching and research. I’m going to be in Cameroon from mid June to Mid August. I got involved with this as a member/leader of a group called Blackstone Operations that specializes in connecting kids with different opportunities and encouraging interaction and exposure to new things.

Random fact about me: I love baking and enter a few baking competitions from time to time (never won anything though but it’s all for the fun).

Together with Robert, they raised $9,900. The funds will be used to pay for their trip, their stay in Buea and up to $3,000 will go towards supporting the School PCs Project.

Welcome Brandon and we look forward to working with you and learning from you.

Adam Jones, UK

Adam Jones from the UK arrived Buea on Monday June 14, 2010 to continue research on improving water supply for the people of Buea.

The initial research was carried out by Brendan Sherry and William Douglas (both students from two different Universities in the UK) and their results suggested that further research be carried out into the possibility of harvesting, treating and using the enormous amount of rain water in Buea.

Adam’s research will therefor focus on Rain Water Harvesting as suggested by William and Brendan.

Welcome Adam and have a nice stay in Buea and we wish you success with your research project.

Sabrina Repa, USA

Welcome Sabrina.

We are pleased to finally see you here. Thanks for coming and giving of yourself tot help make a difference in people’s lives in our community. We hope you enjoy every single day of your volunteering experience.

Sabrina has come in from the UK and will join local nurses in conducting a number of medical outreaches and training Community Health  Educators who will go and help educate their “worlds”. We believe each one has a ‘world’ they can influence and it consists of the people you can reach and influence.

The program begins on June 10 with a 3-day Seminar to Train Health Educators on HIV. The Health Educators will be equipped with information to enable them educate their communities, families and the social groups to which they belong.

Following will be a 2-week outreach to freely screen the population of diabetes and hypertension. Services will be free, admission will be free and there will be free distribution of essential medicine. The first week is planned to take place at Bonduma village in Buea and the second week will take place in a Banana plantation camp in Muyuka.

Our budget for the entire program is CFA 1,462,250 (US$ 2,788.642). We need your help.

Here are some of our needs:

  • MONEY. Yes, we do need financial support please.
  • 10 Diabetes Testing Machines (Accu-Cheek (Aviva), Onetouch Ultra, BREEZE)
  • 800 test Strips
  • 4 Packets of Gloves.
  • 5 Packets of cottons
  • Needles for collection of blood for diabetes test.
  • Health Information leaflets (2000 copies)
  • Transport and food money for facilitators and volunteers.
  • For Hypertension, we need BP Machines (GIMA OR VISOCOR)
  • Training Manuals.
  • Projector and Computer.
  • Food and Transport for Participants.
  • Snacks for Presenters.
  • 3 boxes of Paracetamol 500mg
  • 3 boxes of Mebendazole
  • 2 boxes of Metronidazole 250mg
  • 3 boxes of Contrimoxazole 480mg
  • 3 boxes of Ibuprofin tablet 400mg
  • 2 cups of Vit B –Complex
  • 2 boxes Coartem tablet

If you can support financially or provide some of these material, please contact us. Thank you to all of you that have already supported Sabrina/us in this project. GBP 620 have been donated already.

Brendan Sherry, UK

Brendan Sherry, UK

We would like to welcome Brendan Sherry to HINT.

Brendan is from Imperial College London and currently completing his M.Sc in Environmental Technology. He will research on the project “Enabling Safe Water Supply” that is intended to  provide safe portable water to three villages: Bonduma, Wotolo, and Bokoko.

For more information on the project, click here or visit the project on the website of Engineers Without Borders, UK.

Welcome Brendan

To contact Brendan by email: Brendan Sherry

William Douglas, UK

We would like to welcome William Douglas to HINT.

Will is from Cranfield University in London and currently completing his M.Sc in Environmental Technology. He will research on the project “Enabling Safe Water Supply” that is intended to  provide safe portable water to three villages: Bonduma, Wotolo, and Bokoko.

For more information on the project, click here or visit the project on the website of Engineers Without Borders, UK.

Welcome Will.

To contact Will by email: William Douglas

samlee

Samuel Le, USA

Samuel Lee of America nationality joined our rank of volunteer in October 2008.

While working on an internship studying HIV at the University of Buea, he still took off time to help at HINT.

Sam was able to update our Funding Proposal on our Microfinance Project aimed at providing training and loans to rural women in Cameroon. Right now we need fundraisers whwo can help raise the required funds for the project. If you can help, please contact us and let’s work together.

To contact Sam by email: Samuel Lee

Phebe Etchu

Phebe Etchu, USA

We would like to welcome Phebe Etchu our newest volunteer at HINT.

Phebe is an Economics Student at the University of Texas in Austin, USA and will be spending just 2 weeks with us.

During her time, we will be working together on a Business Management Seminar for young entrepreneurs. While the seminar is originally intended to benefit our current loan recipients, it will be open to the general public. Those in business or who are planning to go into business are advised to attend the seminar as valuable business success insights and tools will be delivered.

I will be coming alongside Phebe with knowledge I gathered from the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) at Santa Clara University, USA.

The seminar will run from Jan. 8-10, 2008 at BCC Auditorium in Buea.

Seminar Documentation:

Click to download Seminar Information

Click to download Registration Form

To contact Phebe by email: Phebe Etchu

Tobias Blaser, Switzerland

Tobias worked with HINT for over 3 months from November 2007 to February 2008. He holds an M.Sc in Electrical Engineering and is also a specialist in computer hardware maintenance and networking, with additional knowledge in software and computer administration. Tobias’s IT contribution to HINT has been very huge and transformational. His major achievements were:

  1. Setup of a server with backup and a router with a decent firewall (blocking file sharing traffic)
  2. Migrating to Open Source Software – Linux and enabling dual boot
  3. Switching our timing software to Outkafe – Open Source
  4. Redistribution of UPSes to computers
  5. Arranging Ethernet Cables in an easier order
  6. Writing documentation to ease understanding of his set up at HINT and to enable easier set up of other Open Source IT Centres

Right now, while back home in Switzerland, Tobias still provides technical support through email and remote access/login to our servers.

Tobias, we cannot than you enough for your tireless support tot HINT. We are very grateful.

To contact Tobias by email: Tobias Blaser

Joanna Tilson, USA

Joanna Tilson, USA

Joanna worked with HINT for close to two months from July 2007 to September 2007. She continued to work on the proposal for a Community Library Project written by Heather Talbot. She wrote down all the rules and regulations governing the set up and functioning of the library due to start in September 2007. She made the whole process of running the library very clear and easy for HINT staff to follow after her departure. Thank you Joanna for your time and resource investment and we will always remember you.

Joanna has a Masters of Librarianship with; 14 years experience as a community college librarian, working extensively with ESL students and native-speakers enrolled in vocational programs, college-level classes and pre-college classes. She has also bought materials for the ESL collection..

Helen Savage, UK

Helen worked with HINT for over three months from May 29, 2007 to September 13, 2007. She continued with Heather’s HIV Educators Seminars as well as HIV Sensitisation. She also worked quite a lot on our Micro-credit program, researching and writing, proposals and clear guidelines for for our micro-credit project. Thank you Helen for your time and resource investment and we will always remember you.

If you want to hear more about what it is like volunteering for HINT, then you can contact Helen through email for more information about her time with us.

Heather Talbot, UK

Hev worked with HINT for one full year from July 2006 to June 2007. While here, she conducted a research in the Bonduma/Buea area that revealed the most urgent need of the population which is a Health Centre. She then had to overcome many obstacles to pioneered the setting up of the Wotolo Community Health Centre to provide free consultation & general health advice, HIV/AIDS Counseling, and access to affordable/essential drugs.

If you want to hear more about what it is like volunteering for HINT, then you can contact Hev through her web blog or email: hevtalbot@hotmail.com for more information about her time with us.

Hev is a Senior Nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England.

Joseph Talbot, UK

Joe worked with HINT for one full year from July 2006 to June 2007. While here, he re-built our website, giving it a real professional touch and enabling online donations. He also wrote a manual: An Introduction to Web Design, and taught more than 20 students the fundamental of web design using HTML and CSS.

If you want to hear more about what it is like volunteering for HINT, then you can contact Joe through his website or email: web@josephbloggs.com for more information about his time with us.

Joe is a Senior Project Officer at the Oxford University Computing Services in Oxford, England.