Hams who help the World

Everyone knows how important Amateur Radio was before we got mobile phones and Internet, but even hams know little about what hams do every day to help people around the World.

Some of the help sent to the victims of the Tsunami in Sri Lanka by F6BFH and his French ham friends.

The members of the American based OMIK Amateur Radio Association provide public service and help youth to further their education through scholarships and other financial assistance. I am proud to be a member of this fine organization! 

Do you know what MAR, MARCO and AMINE stand for? These are organizations, started and operated by hams to offer medical aid to people in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

MAR, founded by DJ5RT stands for Medical Assistance Radio while MARCO, founded by W6CS (SK) and GJ0KKB.stands for Medical Amateur Radio Council. Both organizations support doctors in Africa with advice and medicine.

AMINE founded by JH1KRC and JH1RNZ stands for Asian-Pacific Medical Information Network. Combining their skills as doctors and hams they have built a satellite system to offer doctors in remote areas advice from specialists in Japan.

Other individuals do an outstanding job to combine their skill as hams with their humanitarian virtues. Among them, 9G5SW and DL8OL must be mentioned here.

 Walter, 9G5SW in Ghana was contacted by a local nun. She knew about his interest in      Amateur Radio and asked him, “You've got so many friends around the World, maybe they  could help us save a little girl who was born without legs and with just one arm.”

 Hams around the World now contribute to help this girl to a safe life. 

 Please look at  https://www.betterplace.org/en/projects/8598-blessing/opinions to join the  hams who help the girl.

 Let Blessing become a symbol for what Ham Spirit really means!

One day in 1982, Klaus, DL8OL, a fire captain (now retired), was on the firefighters´ net  talking to his ham colleagues, when Claude, 6W7FZ broke in and told them how two days  before, a fire in his area had revealed that nobody was familiar with the old fashioned fire  fighting equipment. Klaus thought about this for a few days, then changed the time for his vacation, waved goodbye to his family and went to Senegal. This became the start of several years voluntary work in Africa by Klaus and his wife. Imagine, would you spend your vacation in Africa doing the same job you normally do, but without being paid for doing it?

These are just some of the stories told in Chapter 1. This chapter also tells about several rescue operations after disasters. One of my favorites is what happened when the Army decided to take over the air traffic control from these two hams!

 VK2HF and VK2XB handling emergency air traffic 

Remember the phrase coined by VU2BGS:

        HAM = Helping All Mankind

Read Chapter 1 and see why we can all be proud of being hams!