Web Site Connects Soldiers with U.S. Civilians To Aid Iraqis

In 2005, Tin-Yun Ho ’07 came across an article through Google News that profiled a civil affairs officer stationed in Iraq. The officer had sent a letter home to family and friends asking for school supplies that could go to local Iraqi students.

Ho was inspired by the story, and thought about how he could expand on such efforts. He realized that knowing how to find willing donors was a challenge for most soldiers.

“I was thinking at the time,” he said, “this is great, but not every soldier in Iraq knows the right person to ask for supplies. Mom and Pop are not going to send you Arabic language books.”

Ho also suspected that no matter what their political leanings, many Americans would jump at the chance to help local communities in Iraq.

“A lot of Americans really want to help out but they don’t know how,” Ho said.

With the aim of addressing these two challenges, Ho set out to create a Web site that would connect U.S. soldiers working in Iraqi communities with civilians in the U.S. “It’s amazing what Google News can do,” Ho said.

Together, Ho and his co-founders created BeyondOrders.org. Through the site, U.S. soldiers can request supplies that they think would benefit local Iraqi communities in which they are stationed, while civilians at home in America can donate and send these materials to the soldiers stationed abroad.

Matt Scherrer, a co-founder of the site, said that Beyond Orders’ humanitarian focus fills a gap in the U.S. military’s presence in Iraq.

“The military is great at getting bullets over there,” Scherrer said. “But it fails in the aspects that Beyond Orders works with—like providing school supplies and sewing machines.”

THE FOUNDING FOUR

At a Harvard Model UN conference in 2005, Ho spoke with a West Point cadet, Rajiv Srinivasan, about the burgeoning idea. Srinivasan said he thought the project could work, and Ho decided to take time off from school to start the organization with Srinivasan.

Back at Harvard, Ho mentioned the idea to his Adams House tutor, who referred him to Scherrer, a Harvard Business School student who had graduated from Princeton in 2001 as a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

After graduation, Scherrer had been commissioned as an army officer, and had served four tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq as an Army Ranger.

Although Scherrer said he did not interact extensively with locals, it was still apparent to him that much could be improved in the daily lives of local Afghanis and Iraqis.

At one point during his deployment in Afghanistan, Scherrer stayed in an Afghani school.

“I remember seeing one map on the wall, and there was nothing else,” he said.

Ho and Scherrer began to brainstorm together, but came across legal questions about how to set up a non-profit. In Oct. 2006, Scherrer contacted Kate Buzicky, a fellow Princeton ROTC member who was enrolled at Harvard Law School at the time.

Buzicky did not initially know the answers to all of their questions, but she started doing research and solicited advice from outside sources. By the end of the year, Buzicky had joined the Beyond Orders board.

Buzicky described herself as a “typical ROTC cadet” during college, spending time training and taking specialized classes on top of her standard Princeton course load. But instead of immediately entering the military after her graduation in 2002, Buzicky took an “education delay”—to study first at Oxford with a Rhodes Scholarship and then at the Law School.

“I had a great education, and I really value education,” Buzicky said. As a result, she said, she was particularly interested in giving aid to children.

“Every time I see a donation that’s made for children,” she said, “whether it’s school supplies or sports supplies, that for me is so meaningful because it’s an investment in someone’s future.”

BALLS AND SEWING MACHINES

According to Ho, the Web site has been responsible for more than $40,000 worth of shipments to Iraq in its first year of operation.

Ho recalled a shipment of medical supplies that U.S. soldiers brought to a rural area that had not received much medical financing or supplies.

“Soldiers wrote back to us saying it was one of the most fulfilling things they had ever done in their lives,” Ho said.

Scherrer said the “best project to date” was providing sewing machines for the Iraqi Women’s League in Al Qaim, which lies on the Iraq-Syria border. A donor group, identified on Beyond Orders as The Hugs Group, sent approximately 20 sewing machines to Marine Lt. Colin Ricks through the Web site in the summer of 2007.

According to Ricks’ request, which is posted on the Web site, sewing machines in the area are very expensive and difficult to transport.

“The biggest reason that the women’s center is important is that the women in the region do not have many outlets to go to improve themselves or help their families,” Ricks wrote. “The goal is beyond just sewing.”

Ho said that one request came from a civil affairs battalion that had entered a Sunni area and found crowds of children armed with toy AK-47s. Insurgents had disbanded the soccer leagues, trashed soccer fields, and confiscated soccer balls, which they replaced with the toy rifles.

Through Beyond Orders, the soldiers received hundreds of soccer balls, jerseys, and shoes, which they used to restart a soccer league for the children.

“They gave the kids a more constructive upbringing,” Ho said.

BEYOND POLITICS

Despite the substantial successes Beyond Orders has achieved, Ho said that the project is still in its early stages of development. He said he hopes to improve the site by reaching out more to military groups, making it easier for Americans to donate, and making the Web site more user-friendly.

Buzicky said that the format of Beyond Orders makes it particularly accessible to college students.

“They know about Craigslist or Facebook, and so our model makes a lot of sense,” Buzicky said. “That familiarity makes them perfect users for the Web site.”

Ho said that, regardless of their opinion on the war in Iraq, Americans should educate themselves on the situation.

“Once you know what’s going on, it’ll be easier to find out how you can help, whether you can help, or whether you should step back and protest.”

Ho said that he thinks that there are many “harsh opinions” on America’s involvement in Iraq. He emphasized that no matter what political stance Americans have, they can still contribute to the humanitarian effort.

“We believe that if soldiers can see something to be done, if suffering can be alleviated, then we can help,” Ho said.

—Staff writer Sue Lin can be reached at suelin@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Arianna Markel can be reached at amarkel@fas.harvard.edu.