Who is Global Relief Resources?
Mary Walker with scholarship fund recipients at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center in Narok
Donkeys used in transport to village near Tasaru Gilrs Rescue Center in Narok, Kenya
Azlan White and friend Isatou in Kenya
Tyler Rogers in the hills around Santa Fe, NM
left to right: Paul Stamets, Mikayla Lev and Azlan White at the 2008 Food and Seed Security Conference in Tesuque Pueblo, NM
Who We Are
We are a small grass-roots organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico, run by a small team of heart-driven forward-thinking organizers and volunteers. We are a visionary, a water and power systems engineer and an advisory board of directors filled with Spirit. Thank you to our Board and Advisors. We work with community organizers and natural leaders on the ground to gift fresh water resources to Safe Houses in Africa and in Global Relief situations, in ways that support communities and neighbors to be at peace with one another We share resources to support women to end violence.
In 2008, the “Bring Water, End Violence” Campaign was born. We gifted water grants to Safe Houses in Tanzania and Kenya.
In 2008 and 2009 Mary Walker, Scholarship Fund manager, volunteered countless hours of her time to maintain the scholarship fund and support every recipient in her entire process of application, attaining supplies and attending college. Scholarship Fund established itself as a functioning network of support for girls leaving the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center in Narok, Kenya. Global Relief Resources is currently providing scholarships to young girls who are choosing to say “No,” to FGM. These awesome young leaders in Maassai-land in Kenya are teaching us about how real change happens, one person at a time, one choice at a time.
2010 has brought our focus to Haiti. We are honored to join the world’s relief workers as a small, mostly volunteer-based, grass roots organization who can provide “the gift of fresh water” to a few small communities, or neighborhood “mothers.” The Fresh Water to Haiti project has brought in a whole new team of volunteers including our new board member Tyler Rogers, who has volunteered hours of his expertise and time already, Kathryn Ugoretz has been volunteering her time to organize fundraising efforts, Adria Ellis will join us in Haiti as a volunteer with a camara to document, along with supporting us with travel arrangements. Some of us did not know each other before this project so new collaborative relationships are forming on the spot, as everyone reaches in to support in their own way.
Please stay in touch with our team as we journey to Haiti to bring the gift of fresh water resources.
topMary Walker
Fund Manager
Mary Walker, Tasaru Scholarship Fund Founder & Administrator, first visited Tasaru in August 2007 as a volunteer assistant following a recent tourist trip to Kenya and subsequent research for volunteer opportunities with local women’s aid organizations. In addition to her fundraising responsibilities, Mary fills an important guidance role for the older girls as they complete secondary school and leave Tasaru. This includes assisting withÊtheir living situations once they leave Tasaru, registration for National Identity Cards and applications & preparation for college or vocational training. Informally, she participates as caregiver, tutor, handywoman and general administrator around the centre during her periodic visits.
Mary is passionately committed to securing the financial assistance for the girls from Tasaru for their post-secondary education and the important job skills training that go along with this opportunity. She saw right away that education and employment are the most important tools a young girl can have, to break the economic cycle of Female Genital Mutilation.
Mary attended Tufts University and holds a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of Arizona. Professionally, she has been a museum curator and a librarian but relishes her work for Tasaru above all else in her life’s work. Mary has lived for twenty years on the 100 year old homestead of her great-great aunt outside of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
topAzlan White
Executive Director
Azlan White, Executive Director, was born in Boulder, CO and raised in St. Louis, MO. where even as a young girl, she was outspoken about her desire for a world that allowed freedom of expression and showed care for all people and all life. Her childhood heroine was Harriet Tubman, the most famous leader of the “Underground Railroad,” aiding escaped slaves to reach the free states from the south.
Azlan studied in the respected journalism program at the University of Missouri in Columbia and began working as the assistant to the publisher of Mid-Missouri Magazine and Mid-Missouri Business Journal. During this time of being submersed in Media, Azlan underwent a training in Alchemical Hypnotherapy and specialized in supporting people to go into trance to receive their own guidance for health and life direction. Relocating to Santa Fe in 1993, she has been the host of several radio shows at KSFR, Santa Fe’s public radio station. Azlan’s devotion to self-healing lead her to study at the University of Natural Medicine, familiarizing herself with the natural curative power of herbs, elixirs and essential oils. Through years of independent study, she has developed a proficiency in astrology and personal ritual, through which she offers perspective and guidance for the lives of many people.
With a heart impassioned by justice and truth, Azlan became a highly effective “grass-roots” political organizer with activist groups, Move-On and Free Press, out of which she was invited to be a panelist at the 2007 Media Reform Conference for her successful work on the Internet Neutrality Campaign. In addition to this advocacy work, she was engaged in organizational development, on staff, from 2001 - 2006 at Bioneers, a non-profit dedicated to promoting solutions around social justice and sustainability issues worldwide through a nationally syndicated annual conference and other year-round programs. In 2006 Azlan was trained to be a facilitator for the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium of the Pachamama Alliance which is committed to “bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on the planet.”
Through a series of serendipities, Azlan met Bob Kline, the founder of Global Relief Resources, and was enlisted in August 2007 as it’s executive director. Having recently participated in a conference in Nairobi, Kenya with 30 African women activists working in their respective countries to end the violent cultural practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), Azlan was inspired to take GRR in a new direction while continuing it’s focus on making water resources available to people in less developed areas of the world.
topTyler Rogers
Water Solutions Engineer on the Board of Directors
Project Manager for GRR’s Fresh Water to Haiti project.
Tyler can be found weekdays, around the hills of Santa Fe, installing passive solar and geo-thermal high efficiency heating units, or repairing anything involving water systems and power systems. He has designed and built water treatment plants in New Zealand, Australia, Figi, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Spain.
Tyler Rogers was born in Seattle, Washington, got into trouble the way boys in Seattle will do, and then was transformed by his world travels when he saw the need of people in third world countries, for water hygiene and power source support. Tyler traveled around Central and South America with his own solar power generator and de-salinization plant. He built de-salinization and other water treatment plants in villages along his journey.
As Tyler went back through villages, he noticed people who had seen his solar system had ordered parts off of the internet, and then didn’t know how to put them together and make them work. He realized there was a need for a “do it yourself solar power generator system for dummies.” Tyler is the founder of a company called “Just Add Sunlight,” that manufactures Passive Solar Power Generators that are simple to use and extremely durable for high stress situations.
Tyler’s latest innovative contemplations are focused on building newer stronger, more durable, easier to operate systems that will serve more people. With your financial contributions we will build a system good enough to serve one community with fresh water at a time.
“Since the Fresh Water to Haiti project began, I have been on the phone with Tyler almost every day, discussing the details of water filtration systems. The spirit, genius and hands-on knowledge he brings are priceless. ” - Azlan, ED
topOur History
Global Relief Resources (GRR) was founded in 1999 by C. Robert Kline, an engineering and national security consultant to governments and international corporations, to develop and implement a modular, integrated emergency relief system incorporating water filtration and portable power equipment for immediate deployment to disaster areas worldwide. While he ran Global Relief Resources, Robert Kline guided the development of the Global Water Voyager, an efficient, hand-portable water filtration system. In addition to its focus on water and emergency relief, GRR has contributed to educational efforts in the area of natural resource protection. To this end, they were a supporter of the Pole to Pole project that sent a team of highly motivated students from the North Pole to the South in 2000, sharing stories and teachings about preserving our planets waters and forests.
In February, 2007, Bob Kline and Azlan White met in the Washington DC airport, as Azlan was returning from a trip to the “Conference for Grass Roots Organizers to end Female Genital Mutilation,” in Nairobi, Kenya.
In August 2007, Bob Kline passed the Executive Director position to Azlan White, remaining on the Board of Directors. Azlan, who had been working in development at Bioneers, since 2001, had recently participated in a conference in Nairobi, Kenya with 30 African women activists working in their respective countries to end the violent cultural practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Azlan was inspired to give support to this movement toward safety and empowerment for women in Africa, while continuing GRR’s focus on clean water resources and global relief efforts.
In December, 2009, Robert Kline, the founder passed his position on the board of directors over to Tyler Rogers. R. Kline continues to be a wellspring of guidance in the realm of international business and relations. Deep gratitude to Robert Kline and his family for their contribution to global relief efforts, and their legacy of excellence in providing water and power systems to communities who need them.
All those who have been involved and continue to be involved in the work of Global Relief Resources understand water is a basic human need and a human right while living on the earth. We believe water filtration is a temporary solution to a larger need for restoration of the earth’s living water systems.
Thank you to all those who have come before us and all those who join us in this work of providing water as a sacred gift of life.
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