Challenging Injustice & Changing Lives | Coping with Capitalism Interview #8
An interview with Hank P.
Don’t have a Medium account? Click here to view this story with no account.
To start, could you share a bit about yourself and your journey into the work that you do today?
Two specific incidents led me to the humanitarian work that I do now.
1st situation — I’ve had many different jobs in my life. From 2003–2008 I was director of a preschool in my basement (I had two young daughters) I decided our preschool needed a “sister school” in a foreign nation that we communicated with, so the toddlers could understand that there was a big world out there. I ended up partnering with a wretched impoverished school on the island of Mindoro in The Philippines — a school of indigenous, malnourished Mangyan children whose parents did plantation work for 75 cents a day. This was my initial introduction to abysmal poverty. I ended up buying the Mangyans 10 acres of land and I still help support them today.
2nd situation — In 2012 I was Managing Director of a think tank. I got perturbed because it was all ponderous academic talk and no grassroots action. I did a cell phone drive with the staff, fellows, and 25 affiliate scholars to acquire and ship cell phones to Africa and I only got about 10 donated…
