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Spotlights » Karla Pankow, '01
Karla Pankow, '01, recently returned from a two-week Habitat for Humanity International service project in Tajikistan, where she was literally changing lives - not the least of which was her own.
Karla, who earned a BBA in marketing from Grand Valley in 2001, is a sales representative for Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Grand Rapids, but her passion lies in helping the underprivileged. The frequent God's Kitchen and Degage' Ministries volunteer had an epiphany one night that she wanted to do something more. She went online and began researching global volunteer opportunities.
"For some reason, I went straight to the Habitat for Humanity Web site and directly to the global opportunities page. I thought that if I was going to do something, I wanted to do it big!" explains Pankow.
While on the site, she found information about a project in Tajikistan, a mountainous and landlocked country in central Asia vulnerable to annual natural disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, flash floods and avalanches. In 2005 and 2006 alone, 7,000 homes in the country were damaged or destroyed, 58 people were killed and more than 50,000 people were affected by these natural disasters, shedding light on the critical need for housing assistance and safer construction in a region where more than 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Karla had indeed discovered a "big" need, immediately filled out an online application and began the 6 month approval and training process. She raised $6,000 to pay for travel and accommodations and to assist with Habitat for Humanity's ongoing efforts in the area. To gain construction experience, she volunteered at the May 2008 GVSU Alumni Habitat for Humanity build in Grand Rapids, along with several other local builds. This experience proved to be quite different than what was awaiting her overseas.
On September 26, Karla met up with 10 other U.S. and Canadian volunteers in Tajikistan where she was assigned to help with the relocation of families from the landslide-prone Chal-Chal village in Nurek, to more a stable area nearby. The group helped to construct new earthquake-resistant houses from cement, stone, wood, mud bricks, and galvanized iron sheets. While the village will eventually have electricity (each house will have one light fixture) no power tools were used during the build. "Only the most primitive tools and construction materials were available," describes Karla. "It was an experience you just can't prepare for with all that is available to us in the United States."
While she assisted with all of the houses in the new village, Karla worked closely with one particular family. Asur, the father, and Emomaly, his six year old son, left the rest of their family of five in the old village to assist with the construction. The families have to provide at least 400 sweat equity hours, which includes digging the foundations and pit latrines, fetching water, and making bricks. Through building their own home, beneficiaries gain construction skills and knowledge on how to build seismic resistant houses with locally available construction materials, as well as the ability to repair and renovate homes to ensure future maintenance.
"It was particularly rewarding to work with Asur. Not only is his the poorest of the families being relocated, but he was initially very skeptical of Americans and our work-ethic. After the first day that my colleague and I worked on his house, he specifically requested that the two of us continue on his house. When we left, he was just so extremely grateful for what we helped do for his family that he had tears in his eyes," says Karla. "I think in the end, though, I got more from the encounter than what I gave. It has been the most humbling and life-changing experience I have ever had."
Karla returned to Grand Rapids on October 8 a changed person and is already planning other international Habitat for Humanity projects. She is researching future projects in Ethiopia or Nepal, and has been approached about the possibility of leading a group on a project. Eventually, she hopes to return to Tajikistan to view the progress in Chal-Chal and to reconnect with Asur and his family. In the meantime, she continues her many volunteer projects including local Habitat for Humanity builds and is focusing on ways to make this her life's work.
To find out more about the project, the needs in Tajikistan and other Habitat for Humanity International projects, contact Karla at karlapankow@hotmail.com.
Added November 2008
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