Contact Info Subscribe Links

 

June-July 2025

A Clear Focus

 

Online Edition| ES

Screen Edition

Download PDF

 

------------------

 

History Resources

About

Archives

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

 

The Hanna Project Changes Lives

By Danny Gasperson

 

The Hanna Project (THP) teams perform numerous projects around the world to offer help, hope, and healing in practical ways. THP addresses a wide variety of needs. We have built schools, remodeled hospitals, and constructed playgrounds in under-resourced communities. We have introduced quality education for children and skill training for adults where it did not exist, and have provided relief and recovery assistance in places negatively affected by disasters like fires, floods, famine, storms, or warfare. Safe, clean water flows in villages or communities without previous access. Through these efforts, The Hanna Project strives to make a positive difference in the world.

While we are grateful for each of these worthy endeavors, they are not the reason we do what we do. The Hanna Project is never about projects. It’s always about people. Lives are changed through THP.

THP changes the lives of those we serve.

Our teams travel and serve people living in desperate, hopeless situations. We offer compassionate, appropriate, and practical help, hope, and healing that produces effective and eternal life-change for individuals, families, and communities.

“Mr. P” and his family lived in a remote, brick-kiln village in Southeast Asia. Their simple life was anything but easy. Their living quarters, provided by his employer, consisted of a small, single-roomed brick structure. With no furniture, family members slept side-by-side on a cloth covering the dirt floor. Simple meals were prepared outdoors on a makeshift cookstove heated with fire fueled by a combination of straw, sticks, and trash.

Every day was the same for Mr. P. He headed to the field each morning at 4:00 a.m. to begin his labor. The pile of dirt he had excavated by hand the previous day was mixed with the correct ratio of water carried in buckets from a distant canal to make clay. He shoveled the clay into wooden molds to form bricks, which were lined up in rows to bake in the sun. He moved quickly and skillfully as he repeated the mindless task he had performed innumerable times over the years.

 

 


 

Mr. P’s meager compensation was calculated by the number of bricks he produced, so his pace was rapid, and his breaks few. The temperature climbed with the midday sun, making the back-breaking work even more taxing. He worked until noon, ate a small lunch, rested for a couple hours, and then made his way back to the field. The afternoon was spent digging more dirt and carrying water to prepare for the next day’s bricks. The sun set long before Mr. P ended his workday and returned home for dinner.

Work, eat, sleep, repeat. One day was exactly like the one before and identical to the next. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. The routine never changed. How does one end up here? Mr. P inherited this fate from his father and would pass it on to his children. His family was part of a nomadic tribe scratching out a living in the wilderness area of his country.
His mother experienced a medical crisis requiring care his family did not have the means to meet. A seemingly benevolent owner of the brick kiln offered to help. He loaned them the money needed for her care, provided them a shelter in which to live, and allowed Mr. P’s father to make bricks to pay off the debt.

In desperation, Mr. P’s father agreed to the terms. However, the wage was insufficient to ever repay the loan. Additional crises created more loans, deepening the pit of indebtedness. For the remainder of his life, Mr. P’s father made bricks. The debt passed from generation to generation, rendering the family in perpetual servitude. Financial pressure forced Mr. P to require his sons to work in the brick kiln rather than attend school — extinguishing any hope for a better future.

 


After THP learned of Mr. P’s plight through our partners in the area, he received funds to repay his debt and grant freedom for him and his family. A simple but adequate house was constructed for the family, and other projects helped provide a quality school in the area. Now his children could hope for a brighter future. A THP-sponsored well in his new village gave them access to pure, healthy water. THP helped change the lives of Mr. P, his family, and his entire community.

THP changes the lives of those who serve.

The Hanna Project team members volunteer their time, talents, experience, and resources to benefit the lives of others. But typically, they find they receive far more than they give.
Neva Herrera served on the 2025 THP Cuba team. I asked her to describe the impact participating in THP made on her life.

I am a few months short of 60 years old and went on my first humanitarian trip with The Hanna Project to Cuba in February. It is now a month since I returned, and I am still processing everything. The countries that welcome humanitarian trips do not have easy access to simple, basic needs. This completely different way of life sent my senses on a rollercoaster. I am still processing them a month later.

Of course, you might expect a language barrier. However, today’s technology helps with that. I am “muttering efficient” in Spanish, so language shouldn’t have been a sensory rollercoaster, but it was.?It is an oddity when an American speaks the local language, so I was a curiosity. My muttering speech was an enjoyment to them. Everyone was eager to help me practice their language.?However, for most people, and I am no exception, when you communicate with people, you build a bond with them. This opens your emotions as you build relationships; you care about the individuals.

Because of these emotions, I noticed just how caring and nice they are.?They welcomed us entitled Americans into their world and gave us the best they had. I don’t mean financially, because THP is adamant about being a blessing to the countries we visit and not a burden. They made us feel appreciated and respected every minute we were with them. They let us know they were thankful for anything we helped them accomplish during our visit. AND the food presentation for each meal would have pleased Gordon Ramsey.?I miss them!?WhatsApp is often used!?

I noticed how strong and resilient they are. They get things done without having easy access to the basic tools sitting in American’s garages unused.?I realized this after forcing myself not to have a meltdown because I couldn’t just drive into town and buy another shovel and wheelbarrow to help move gravel into the Grand Canyon-size holes of their mile-long driveway — even though all of us brought money and could pay for it.?

Since I couldn’t have a shovel or a wheelbarrow, the one and only rake became my tool of choice. Well, my second choice.?Two young men politely asked for and never returned the machete I was using to clear brush. Oh well, I have a good picture of me and my rake.

My first humanitarian trip was a reality check. It was the most rewarding and yet most depressing time of my life. Rewarding because I saw how pleased they were we finished the task they had asked THP to accomplish.?That small part of their world just got better.?Depressing because I was leaving them in a country vastly unlike America.?Their lifestyle did not get smoothed out like their road.??

So where is this rollercoaster taking me??Lord willing, back to Cuba next February! Their lifestyle — the one I can’t change — makes them attentive, respectful, caring, nice, resilient, and a guardian of an old woman with a machete.?I will have Cuban friends the rest of my life!?That is the definition of rewarding.

The Hanna Project changes lives through our projects and our teams. This cannot happen without our generous supporters and faithful volunteers. We would love to have you join us in this effort.
THP will change your life.

 


About the Writer: Danny Gasperson is director of The Hanna Project. Learn more: https://hannaproject.com/.



 

©2025 ONE Magazine, National Association of Free Will Baptists