Name: Andy Chaggar
Contact: [email protected]
Place I Call Home
Leicester, UK, but I'm frequently away
Languages Spoken
English, German to a reasonable level, plus some basic Spanish and Thai
Volunteer Experience
I've got about two years, full time experience volunteering in two different disaster zones pretty much all of which has been in supervisory positions. Overall I have directly managed around 500 volunteers and contributed indirectly to the management of about 4000.
I started in Thailand following the 2004 tsunami and spent about 13 months in management positions with the TVC. The majority of this was as a construction project manager where I had overall responsibility for a volunteer team who helped one community, Tap Tawan, rebuild permanent housing. The first phase consisted of 36 complete homes, and the second phase involved extending an additional 31.
After these projects were completed I spent about 4 months working as the TVC's Volunteer Support Coordinator where I worked on tsunami evacuation procedures, accommodation advice, handling the occasional serious volunteer incident and generally trying to deal with people's frustrations when they arose.
In late 2007 I travelled to Peru following a large earthquake which leveled the city of Pisco earlier that year. After a few weeks working as a general volunteer with HODR I took up a project manager position with BWB until August of 2008. In this role I designed, prototyped and then coordinated multiple volunteer teams in building 14 permanent sanitation modules.
In September of 2008 I co-founded EDV and have been directing the organisation ever since.
Why I Volunteer
My involvement with disaster volunteering really stems from my personal experience with the 2004 Asian tsunami. I was seriously injured and bereaved by the event. The generosity of the locals and seeing the devastation first hand drove me to return to Thailand to help.
The work that has followed has played a huge part in my recovery. However there's much more to it now. I love the work and it's really inspiring to be around so many great people, both the locals who take you into their communities and the other volunteers who give up their free time so willingly.
I'm now completely committed to the humanitarian sector and can't imagine ever doing anything else.
Professional or Other Related Experience
Until late 2004 I had spent 5 years working as a semiconductor design engineer, ultimately at a senior level. This work and my more recent academic research into disasters has well equipped me for deployments.
To me being an engineer is ultimately about problem solving and logical thinking and I think the experiences gained have definitely helped me learn a lot about construction and more importantly helped me develop creative solutions to a lot of challenging issues in some crazy environments.
Following my experiences in Thailand I completed a Masters Degree in Social Development Policy and Management. I gained a distinction for the programme and was also awarded the Andrew Lochhead Prize for Development Studies. I also acted as an editorial assistant for a publication on the role of faith based organisations in development. My Masters dissertation, which focused on community based housing reconstruction following disasters, was widely praised and I've also received an offer to publish it both in the UK and USA. This is something I'm still working on though.
Random Fact(s)
Errr, I once sat in a bath of baked beans for nine hours (don't ask). I'm also a little bit competitive and once ate 30 chilies in a competition in Thailand, but I didn't even come close to winning.........
