Humanitarian International Services Group

Humanitarian International Services Group is a New York state non-profit corporation and a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. Its incorporation date is December 14, 2001. HISG specializes in private sector resource mobilization and management for crisis response and community development. Simply stated: “We connect resources to needs”. As a non-governmental organization, HISG provides support services to US and international for-profit and non-profit organizations for crisis response and humanitarian developmental initiatives.

Since 2001, HISG has mobilized and moved over $20 million in humanitarian aid and operates at less than 10% handling costs. Having prototyped new and innovative solutions, HISG has established an institutional capability to mobilize and manage private sector resources. HISG has now established a network of warehouses across the USA and around the world to work collaboratively to aid the poor and needy.

Humanitarian International Services Group typically initiates projects in areas where there is the most need, or areas where there is minimal other humanitarian assistance. A simple explanation of their mission to “serve the underserved.”

Origins

In the summer of 2001, four friends, Kay Hiramine, Mike McCausland, Rob Mabary and Michael Mastrodonato and their families vacationed in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in the scenic Rocky Mountains. Each of these men had successful backgrounds managing either businesses or non-profit organizations and had determined that they wanted to do something together to give back to the world. They decided to form a non-profit humanitarian aid organization to help orphans, widows and needy around the world, especially in the most oppressive areas of the globe.

On September 10, 2001, the newly-formed HISG held its first strategy development meeting. The following day (9-11) emphasized the need for people to reach out and care for others around the world. All four founders invested a significant amount of time and personal funding on due diligence to clearly understand the needs and challenges involving global crisis response and development operations. HISG principals interviewed many well known figures in the humanitarian aid arena and interfaced with multiple subject matter experts while forming HISG’s organizational strategy.

Within a few months, HISG personnel wrote many concept papers addressing the need for strategic alignment and mobilization of private sector

Private sector

In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...

resources as a means to meet humanitarian needs and carry out international development initiatives. The private sector

Private sector

consists of corporations, non-profit groups, educational institutions, faith-based groups and civic groups (i.e. Rotary International

Rotary International

Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...

, Kiwanis

Kiwanis

Kiwanis International is an international, coeducational service club founded in 1915. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Current membership is 240,000 members in 7,700 clubs in 80 nations...

etc); and each of these entities has skills, personnel and resources that are often overlooked is crisis response situations.

By December 15, 2001, HISG was delivering medicines and medical supplies to a Red Crescent Hospital in Jalalabad

Jalalabad

Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...

, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. Traveling from Peshawar, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

to Jalalabad over the Khyber Pass

Khyber Pass

The Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....

, HISG delivered over $20,000 worth of medicines to the 250- person hospital. At the hospital, the doctor thanked the HISG team and cried openly as he looked at bottles of antibiotics he had not seen in years.

Purpose, Vision and Strategic Initiatives

The Purpose, Vision, Mission and Strategic Initiatives for HISG provide the foundation and focus for all activities and initiatives undertaken by the organization.

Purpose

HISG exists to support relief and development initiatives across all impacted sectors of society.
Vision

HISG’s vision is to establish a stable environment with sustainable solutions that benefit the local population.

Strategic Initiatives

HISG’s mission is to connect resource providers to end users in areas of need by focusing on accomplishment of the following strategic initiatives:

Develop a humanitarian operations resource network.
Mobilize action-oriented coalitions of related practitioners.
Facilitate the development of stakeholder and societal sector networks.
Establish a global network of local community and regional coordination centers.
Organize networking and training venues.

Afghanistan, 2001

Only a few months old, HISG entered Afghanistan

Afghanistan

– an active war zone - to deliver medicine and winter clothes to people made homeless by civil war against the Taliban.

Asian Tsunami, 2004

HISG leadership was on the ground in Banda Aceh

Banda Aceh

Banda Aceh is the provincial capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia, located on the island of Sumatra, with an elevation of 35 meters. The city regency covers an area of 64 square kilometres and according to the 2000 census had a population of 219,070 people...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, near Ground Zero only eight days after the Tsunami. The networks that HISG is connected to sent shipments of medical supplies, foodstuffs, dental equipment, house wares, health and hygiene products, clothing as well as a medical team to treat people at one of the only hospitals in the area still standing.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 2005

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

emphasized the need for cooperation between private sector organizations and between the private sector and government agencies. HISG was asked to set up an operations center to organize and process all information coming in from emergency responders, aid organizations, and government agencies. They were commended for their efforts by Admiral Timothy Keating of United States Northern Command

United States Northern Command

United States Northern Command is a Unified Combatant Command of the United States military. Created on 1 October 2002 in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks, its mission is to protect the United States homeland and support local, state, and federal authorities...

in a report to the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

Global Information Center, 2005

The manner in which government resources were massively over-stretched after Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

highlighted the glaring need for this Global Information Center. The Global Information Center serves as an information hub for information from government agencies, the private sector

Private sector

, and the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

. During a disaster this information is used to build a complete and current picture of exactly what needs are unmet and what resources are available.

President’s Volunteer Service Award, 2007

Kay Hiramine, HISG’s CEO, was awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award for his work during Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

. He received the award from President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

in a ceremony at the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

World-wide operations

HISG divides their projects into two categories: community development and disaster relief. Community development projects move communities away from poverty and instability toward a more secure lifestyle and sustainable economic solutions. Disaster relief helps to minimize the economic impact of catastrophes that would impede the community development process. All of HISG’s disaster relief operations are carried out with a focus on long-term community development.

Community development

HISG has created a model for Holistic Integrated Societal Transformation (HIST), an approach to community development that addresses the different needs across all sectors of a community. For example, a direct cause of poverty in a community may be the lack of education. An indirect cause of poverty may be that because of conflict in the region, children are too frightened to go to school. A traditional, unilateral approach would consist of simply constructing a school building. The HIST approach, however, would help a community define its own needs before offering “outside solutions.” HISG would then support the community in building a school, addressing security issues in the area, clean water, public health initiatives, and other projects that would improve the educational opportunities.

Another key attribute of the HIST model is that it focuses on helping to change perceptions within the community. One of the major challenges in development work is that most impoverished people feel like they have no control over their own circumstance. They see humanitarian assistance as a sort of welfare system, in which the “rich West” decides who gets aid based on which communities present the greatest need. Similarly, many humanitarian organizations have a “needs-focused” approach and feel that outside resources contributed to a community are the only solution to poverty. The HIST model takes a different approach by helping people in the community adjust their worldview to focus on the assets and resources already in a community, and determine how the community can use those to begin to lift itself out of poverty.

HISG works with a wide range of implementing partners and local connections to integrate different sectors into development initiatives and maximize impact. Since 2001 HISG has supported projects in over 70 of the world’s most impoverished nations.

Disaster relief

HISG has also been involved in large-scale disaster relief, from Afghanistan

Afghanistan

to the Gulf Coast to Indonesia

Indonesia

. A major component of HISG’s disaster response capability is their Global Information Center in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. The Global Information Center (GIC) is an information hub connected to organizations from all across the private sector

Private sector

, government entities, and the United Nations

United Nations

. In a disaster response, the GIC receives information from all of these sources, and can provide constantly updated pictures of needs and available resources so organizations know how, when and where to best engage.

Similar to their HIST model, HISG has developed an International Disaster Response (IDR) model for large scale disasters like the Asian Tsunami of 2004. The IDR model outlines 14 primary service areas such as water, food, shelter, transportation and basic care services to which the private sector can respond. HISG also has subject matter experts who teach the IDR model in locations around the world to train communities in disaster preparedness and disaster response.

Regional offices

HISG's main office is near Denver in Palmer Lake, Colorado, but the organization also has international offices in Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

; Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

; London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

; Amman

Amman

Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...

, Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

; Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

; and Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

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