Veterans help fill gaps in refugee school projects in Iraq

During emergencies — whether natural disasters or manmade conflicts — education gets overlooked, TentEd co-founder Zach Bazzi said. But he argues that approach could result in entire generations of children growing up without basic literacy and critical thinking skills.

“You don’t want people starving or going without water or shelter, but I’d also argue that education needs to be up there,” he said.

Bazzi served in the Army and Army National Guard from 1997 to 2008 and later worked as consultant and volunteered in refugee camps in Iraq. When he returned to the U.S. in 2014 for graduate school, he teamed up with Scott Quilty, a fellow UNH graduate and Army veteran who lost his right arm and leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq. TentEd’s third co-founder is Patrick Hu, an Army veteran Bazzi met when both served in Afghanistan.

All three have day jobs. Hu is a market researcher at AT&T Mobility in Atlanta; Quilty heads MedScribes, a medical staffing company in Durham and Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina; and Bazzi is the Middle East manager for a non-profit called Spirit of America and is based in Washington, D.C. He frequently travels overseas to implement TentEd activities, identifying and responding to specific needs.

“We don’t build schools, we don’t design schools. We’re simply a rapid, efficient, responsive funding platform,” he said.

For the current project, the group is trying to raise $12,500 to outfit 10 classrooms with desks, whiteboards and other materials. Ray said that amounts to about 5 per cent of the overall school construction budget, but he greatly appreciates Bazzi’s help.

“It feels like he’s one of our cheerleaders, and really an advocate for us,” he said. “He’s basically crowd funding for our projects, and that’s just cool.”

Holly Ramer, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Veterans help fill gaps in refugee school projects in Iraq

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