Christian Dy is both a math teacher and a middle man between the First and Third Worlds.
While his day job is teaching Dr. Charles Best secondary students to crunch numbers and calculate ratios, his real passion is showing people how to multiply their positive impact in the world by appealing to the highest common denominator: our common humanity.
Both in and out of the classroom, Dy is always on the lookout for potential recruits for the many international aid projects with which he has involved himself.
"My goal is to try to get as many people [as possible] who would like to volunteer overseas, and I would be this sort of person who gets them there," Dy told The Tri-City News. "The biggest problem is you have these people who wanted to get more involved in developing countries but had no clue how to get there."
Dy said unnecessary administration fees and mountains of red tape that many aid organizations force upon potential volunteers are also turning away many would-be aid workers.
"All that's causing is fewer and fewer volunteers," he said.
And so, Dy began hosting seminars for adults who wanted to volunteer, becoming a kind of travel agent connecting wannabe aid workers with projects in need.
Dy's latest workshop was during last month's Pro-D day at Best, attracting more than 50 teachers from SD43 and neighbouring districts interested in lending a hand abroad.
"I just said, 'Give me your agenda, give me what you're looking for and over the next two years, I'm going to try to place you.'"
So far, Dy said he has placed one workshop attendee in Rwanda and 10 others in Guatemala for the upcoming summer holidays.
He is also leading a group of 17 people - mostly former students of his and now university graduates - to do aid work there this summer, his fifth development trip to the South American country, where he has previously worked in reforestation, helped with a coffee growing project and built an orphanage and a women's shelter.
"Most of the volunteers will be labourers," he said.
Like many of his former students, Dy first got involved in aid work after visiting Africa post-graduation. But now that he has three children of his own under six years old, he said it's tough but he still forces himself to make time for foreign aid projects.
"We're all busy," he said, "but we're never going to be less busy. So if you're into it, you'll find the time."
Dy stressed that the actual time his volunteers spend abroad is not the most important part of the project, noting, "When you're there, you're just an extra set of hands."
The real difference is made when volunteers get home and help recruit other volunteers and businesses and establish a network of aid organizers and volunteers, he said.
Dy said that when he first posted information about the workshop to gauge community interest, he was affiliated with four projects. But very quickly, introductions began to pour in from people who knew people who were doing similar aid work and needed volunteers.
"At the end of my workshop, I have them fill out a little evaluation... and I ask them if they know of any potential corporate sponsors or any other projects set up to take people on. And people just started giving me names."
Dy said that while he would like to be able to take students along on his aid trips, he is restricting interest to adults only due to both the maturity level needed to undertake a foreign excursion and because adults are more likely to get themselves and their businesses involved for the long-term once back home.
But there are always exceptions - and there is always a need.
"There's always more and more to do," he said. "Nothing is ever finished and I'm still closer to the start of this than the end."
Anyone seriously interested in overseas aid work is invited to contact Christian Dy at [email protected].
