by Donna May Lyons, REI Communications & Fundraising Assistant

Engaging, encouraging, equiping, and empowering local people in developing nations.

Building People to Build Nations has been REI’s mission for over twenty years. Encouraging, equiping, and empowering local people in developing nations to strengthen the strategic sectors in their countries is what we strive to accomplish. That mission is fulfilled through the tireless hours of our dedicated staff and volunteers. Del Goehner, Dr. Brent Senior and Courtney Potter, are just three examples of REI volunteers committed to REI’s mission.

Del Goehner of Sammamish, WA is an accountant by trade but his passion is to share his business and finance knowledge with others who are less fortunate. Del completed his seventh annual trip to Vietnam earlier this year as part of “Business Week 2011” organized by REI. Del traveled with a team of six professionals from Chicago, St. Louis, Florida, and Singapore. Del and his colleagues worked with university students around Hanoi teaching them the principles of finance and accounting, and building and managing a business. Del’s quest to see the world and help emerging nations began following an 8-month trip to Guatemala during his sophomore year in college.

Over the past 14 years, Dr. Brent Senior, Professor of Otolaryngology and Neurosurgery and Chief of the UNC School of Medicine Division of Rhinology, Allergy and Sinus Surgery, has provided medical care at hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Earlier this year, Dr. Senior traveled to Vietnam with other otolaryngology/head and neck surgeon (ENT) specialists from across the country. The group, led by Senior, treated patients and shared their medical knowledge, skills, and equipment with Vietnamese physicians.

The colleagues that traveled with Dr. Senior included Dr. Gi Soo Lee, a pediatric otolaryngologist from Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Cynthia Tung, a pediatric anesthesiologist and medical acupuncturist at Boston Children’s, Dr. Do Il Kim of Anyang City in Korea, focusing on rhinology, Dr. Michael Sillers, a rhinology specialist at UAB in Birmingham and past president of the American Rhinologic Society, UNC otolaryngology residents, Dr. Deidra Blanks and Dr. Michael Stadler, Dr. Lamont Jones of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and one of his residents, Dr. Robert Deeb, both facial plastic surgeons and craniofacial reconstructive surgery specialists, Dr. Harold Pine, a pediatric otolaryngologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and Dr. Robert Cullen specializing in otology/neurotology in Kansas City.

Courtney Potter, Photographer and Multimedia Journalist, has captured REI’s mission in action by telling REI’s story through her amazing photography and multimedia presentations. Courtney traveled to Vietnam with Dr. Brent Senior and his colleagues telling the stories of REI volunteers in action. Besides her work for REI, Courtney has also served as a Spanish translator and has worked on an assortment of multi-media projects featuring Appalachia, Chile, the Galapagos Islands, Patagonia, the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, and the World Special Olympics in Panama. Courtney is a 2009 graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Communication.

The work that these and other REI volunteers have accomplished in emerging nations is impressive and is a prime example of REI’s mission in action. Equally important are the relationships that have been created and cultivated over the years. What started as professional relationships have ultimately grown into close family-like kinships – a full-circle fulfillment of REI’s mission of ‘building people to build nations’.

Check back frequently to learn more about REI’s efforts around the globe. Click here if you’d like to support REI with your resources.