THE STORY BEHIND ​PROJECT: WELCOME HOME, INC.

Shortly after returning home from the Haiti project, we met a man by the name of Ross Mason. Years prior, Ross was training for an IronMan competition and he sustained an injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He runs an organization called Healthcare Institute for Neuro-Recovery and Innovation (HINRI). Once we met Ross, we knew that we wanted to help those that have been left with physical disabilities. He is the inspiration for founding this non-profit. 

Sgt. Major George W. Meyer-United States Army

George Hazim Jr. talks about the Green Emergency Module (GEM)- News report that aired in Haiti

Ross Mason-HINRI Founder

Sgt. Major George W. Meyer, may he rest in peace, is the reason that we wanted to focus this project on our military Veterans. We want to honor the sacrifices made by these courageous men and women that provide us all with the freedoms that we so often take for granted.

Providing an environment conducive to dignity and independence for our Veterans

Back in February 2010, one (1) month after the catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti. We went to build housing for those displaced by the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince. Although the prototype only took roughly two (2) weeks to assemble, we were there for over nine (9) months due to the bureaucracy. We built a prototype called the Green Emergency Module (GEM) that was:

• Fully furnished with Ikea furniture
  
• Equipped with solar panels to produce clean energy
  
• Equipped with a machine that produced potable (drinking) water that was produced from the humidity of the air (6.0 to 7.3 Gls./ day)
  
• Completely portable
  
• Hurricane resistant to wind loads of up to 260 kph
  
• Anti-seismic to activity of up to 7.5 on the Richter scale
  
• Thermally and acoustically insulated (exterior walls & roof)
  
• Energy efficient, using low consumption CFL bulbs (between 18% and 20% consumption of incandescent bulbs of equal capacity of lighting)
  
• Water efficient the shower head (shower head consumes 1.5 Gls./Min.), kitchen, and bath faucets contained electronic motion sensors for considerably less water consumption, toilet was dual flush. (1.1 Gl./ for  liquids and 1.6 Gl./ for solids) a grey water tank was  integrated into the building, a septic tank was integrated into the building, etc.​
  

Our prototype made it into every newspaper and was seen on every news station, we even met with then Haitian President René Préval. This was the predecessor to  project. We want to incorporate all of the technologies that we implemented previously in order to build the buildings for this project.