You often hear of people holding down a regular day job and working a "side hustle" at night. That's not the case of PHC alumna Hannah Cudal ('17). Hannah is a "web designer by night" and a "volunteer by day."
After graduating from the International Politics and Policy track of the Government Major, Hannah road tripped the US East Coast and visited Thailand, where she met a medical volunteer with the Free Burma Rangers and felt led to join herself.
“At night, I work, designing websites remotely for faraway clients,” she wrote on her website. “During the day, I volunteer with the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a Christian organization that assists ethnic people oppressed by conflict in Burma. I help by providing tech support.”
FBR is a Christian organization equipping ethnic people oppressed by the conflict in Burma.
“There are over 500,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burma. These are ethnic people who have fled their villages to escape conflict but remain inside Burma’s borders. FBR has trained over 70 multi-ethnic relief teams to provide them with assistance. This includes help on medical, material, educational, and spiritual lines.”
Hannah and a fellow volunteer developed FBR’s IT department, creating order amidst the chaos. She established basic, fundamental needs like professional email addresses, which centralized communication and collaboration.
“Computers aren’t glamorous, but good communications are indispensable.”
As a web designer, Hannah is able to work remotely in Thailand and is now raising money to allow her to be able to spend additional time supporting the FBR team.
This summer, Hannah will begin a six-month goal to further equip FBR and to more effectively bring help, hope, and love to people in Burma, Iraq, and Syria through projects such as: creating an inventory software for medical supplies, providing communications and IT training to other volunteers, and integrating standard operating procedures.
