A lot of former Hutchinson resident Chad Walker's aerospace engineering classmates at the University of Kansas are working in what he describes as "pretty cool" jobs with NASA. But for five years now, Walker, a 1994 graduate of Hutchinson's Central Christian High School, has pursued a different type of job satisfaction, with rewards born of working with impoverished, vulnerable people in the Philippines and the Sudan to try to make their lives a little better. "It's very satisfying work," said Walker, who's back from the Sudan and visiting his family in El Dorado while awaiting his next assignment with Action Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organization. "There are a few people who feel very privileged to do the work they're doing, and I'm definitely one of the people that feel I'm privileged to do work like this."
Philippines RPCV Chad Walker works with impoverished, vulnerable people in the Philippines and the Sudan to try to make their lives a little better
Central Christian grad returns from aid work in Sudan
Man leaves engineering career, called to relief field.
By Ken Stephens - The Hutchinson News - kstephens@hutchnews.com
Caption: Chad Walker, right, is seen with a team leader sharing a meal in a simple kitchen constructed for those living on base.
A lot of former Hutchinson resident Chad Walker's aerospace engineering classmates at the University of Kansas are working in what he describes as "pretty cool" jobs with NASA.
But for five years now, Walker, a 1994 graduate of Hutchinson's Central Christian High School, has pursued a different type of job satisfaction, with rewards born of working with impoverished, vulnerable people in the Philippines and the Sudan to try to make their lives a little better.
"It's very satisfying work," said Walker, who's back from the Sudan and visiting his family in El Dorado while awaiting his next assignment with Action Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organization. "There are a few people who feel very privileged to do the work they're doing, and I'm definitely one of the people that feel I'm privileged to do work like this."
After graduating from KU, Walker worked for a couple of years as a project manager for a company that was designing and building ethanol plants.
He enjoyed helping rural economies of the Midwest but in 2004 decided to sign up for a three-year hitch in the Peace Corps, which took him to the Philippines.
It was a job that allowed him to take his technical, analytical and science skills with him and add to them the "soft skills" of working with community organizers and volunteers.
"Sometimes we did surveys within more vulnerable type communities, squatter areas," he said. "Sometimes we just put together volunteer groups that allowed us to put in latrines and septic systems that kind of cleaned up some of the areas and tried to reduce some of the waterborne disease the health office was seeing."
After his Peace Corps stint, Walker spent some time decompressing and working as a guide in Alaska, all the while researching his next move to Action Against Hunger and its parent organization ACF International, which has more than 4,000 field staff working with 5 million people in 40 countries.
He lived on a stipend of about $100 a month in the Peace Corps. The salary with ACF is better but still small.
"But what makes it nice is that everyone on the team, whether it's the director in New York or the head of mission in the national capital wherever you are working, everybody is working together and making similar type sacrifices and trying to promote our objectives in very, very remote places a lot of other organizations don't dare do. So it's a very exciting job."
ACF dispatched Walker to the volatile South Sudan, overseeing water and sanitation programs in remote areas.
The violence of the South Sudan didn't touch Walker personally, but he saw its effect on the people of that nation.
"There're children dying from malnutrition," he said. "There's a lot of inter-clan fighting. In one of the areas I worked in ... it's not uncommon to hear about clans that go into another village and literally slaughter women and children by the 100s. So it's all around you.
"I wouldn't say it was directed at me, but it's amazing what 20 or 30 years of civil war will do to the psyche of the men and women in those communities. There's a tension there. Death, I would say, is a very real part of life there, and you have to be prepared for that if you're going to live and work there."
