On a recent trip to our training facility in Haiti, Clint Keely, a first time visitor and volunteer for Extollo International, got to experience the impact Extollo is making first hand. We caught up with him after his trip for an interview. Listen to his words as he reflects on his time spent in Haiti as a volunteer tradesman:
“My name is Clint Keely and I married my highschool sweetheart, Jill, 22 years ago. We have 3 children; Alex 19 in the Marines, Emily 18 married to a Marine in March this year, Sam 16 in highschool. I started my electrical apprenticeship at the age of 17 and have done almost everything you can do in the electrical trade: from residential to commercial, industrial, power generation, estimating, project management, operations manager, and even owned a contracting company. If I ever get free time, I enjoy golfing and working on my 66’ Jeep Gladiator truck.
I have been blessed with so many opportunities to learn and grow and am always looking for a way to give back. I was recently discussing my intentions with a men’s group over burgers and one mentioned that they did some work with Extollo so I thought I would dig deeper into the organization. I reached out to the Extollo staff, my trip was planned and I traveled to Haiti with Extollo’s president, Keith Cobell.
After seeing Haiti for the first time, I was shocked by the way of life from what I saw on the streets. A lack of access to water and garbage removal makes hygiene and overall cleanliness very different from what I am used to. The way that I was brought up was that Education was not only available but was mandated by our own government; finding out that not all the Haitians even get a chance to get some sort of education is shocking to me.”
On average, women will only find 4.2 years of education and men 5.8 years of education.
- UNDP Human Development Report (2015)
Clint continues,
“While I was there, I had the opportunity to work with and teach a 22 year old named Donaldson. During our time together, we had the chance to eat lunch alone and just talk. He had such a burning desire to learn and get more education, something that I take for granted. I did what I could to impart what little information I could in the short time relating to the electrical trade to him and he was happy to learn and do the work. This left a big impression on me."
"Extollo appears to be an organization that I align well with. I see the desire to train the locals to do the work correctly and not impart “Western” ways to everything that is done. They are allowed to keep their culture while learning the valuable skills that come with a tradesman. As mentioned above, I have had so many amazing opportunities to learn and grow through my career and I believe that as the Bible teaches we are not to bury our “talents”. I am excited to give back some of what I have learned with the hope that the next generation is taught how to perform the trade properly. This is why I will continue to volunteer with Extollo!
If given an opportunity to visit the Extollo campus, Take it! If all you can do is just be a sounding board for the ones living on the campus, it would go a long ways. There are so many opportunities to help and give back. The work is never-ending and with the proper heart I believe that there will be a life changed.”
Thanks Clint, our hats are off to you! We are so excited to have you as part of the Extollo Team! If you would like more information about how you can visit and experience Haiti first hand, send us an email to find out more! info@extollointernational.org