SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019
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S^BY(LEFT)ALLHANDSANDHEARTS^(^2);^STEVENREIN
HOLD(RIGHT)“ The most special part of this project
was when I left the school area and
walked up into the hills, where the
children were sitting outside their
homes. They wanted their pictures
taken with me and kept saying, ‘You
build school?’ —all with the biggest
smiles.” –SCOTT EMMONS, TRIP PARTICIPANTto earn enough money to pay off the loan on her farm. (According to
All Hands and Hearts, all the women who have participated in the
program since it started four years ago have subsequently found
long-term employment.)
This approach—volunteers working alongside local men and
women—is more tha n just a good employ ment model. It ’s a lso a connec-
tion model. I got to learn about one mason’s recent arranged marriage,
and how he and his fiancée, both in their 20s, only met for 10 minutes
beforehand (so far so good, he laughed). After work there was cricket,
Frisbee, and language lessons. And on community night, everyone
danced until the bonfire died down. There’s nothing complicated about
it, but I was left with the feeling that if the world is to become a better,
more connected place, this is the way to do it.
It’s unlikely David Campbell saw all of this coming when he
planted the seeds for All Hands and Hearts 15 years ago, in the after-
math of the tsunami that devastated Thailand in 2004. Campbell,
a tech executive nearing retirement at the time, immediately trav-
eled from Boston to Thailand to help. He assumed that with so
much need, any volunteer willing to jump on a plane would be put
to work. But the large aid agencies would rather have donations. So
Campbell simply went directly to where the help was needed. Soon,
he found other like-minded, boot-strapping volunteers and laid the
foundation for what would become All Hands and Hearts (in 2017,
Campbell’s nonprofit merged with another aid organization that also
arose out of the 2004 tsunami). The model is simple: Volunteers pay
nothing to participate (they cover their own travel) and need no spe-
cialized skills. Today All Hands and Hearts operates in nine loca-
tions in the U.S. and abroad, doing disaster relief and recovery.
In Nepa l, volunteers come a nd go during the bui ld sea son (October
to May), staying anywhere from a week to a month or more. When we