I cannot think of a better 'hero' to shadow than a good friend of mine called Vinay Gupta.
Vinay is an engineer who is turning his talents toward a combination of humanitarian aid and measures to help the world become more sustainable and resilient to an ever growing possibility of life-altering changes.
He is currently most well known as the inventor of the Hexayurt; a shelter that can be built with local materials and labour, costs a quarter of what an average relief tent does, lasts three times longer with little maintenance, and is available completely open source. With the help of organisations like Science for Humanity and Engineers Without Borders, Vinay is working hard to get hexayurts built in Haiti to provide better shelter for the many homeless people there in preparation for the fast-approaching hurricane season.
His other major project is Buttered Side Down, a consultancy firm, based off the principles of 'Collapsonomics' (a term coined by Vinay and some of his colleagues), that seeks to help governments and organisations prepare for high-level worst case scenarios such as economic collapse, global pandemic, or other catastrophic events that could have major impacts on basic infrastructure. Inspired by Gandhi's Swadeshi movement, Vinay's philosophy is one of personal knowledge of where one's basic necessities come from, allowing people the ability to best determine how to maintain them should their current means of supply be interrupted.
I have the honour of knowing Vinay personally, so I am kept up to date as to his doings and have frequently offered my services to help him in any way that one with my skills set possibly could.
In addition to this, I stay informed of his projects and thoughts by following his several Twitter handles (@hexayurt, @leashless, @ButteredSide, as well as that of his partner, @MikeBennet) as well as his several websites (The Hexayurt Project, The Global Swadeshi Project, Buttered Side Down, and Leashless).
He has been a great inspiration for me in the early phases of my quest to help make the world a better place.
You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!
Join Urgent Evoke