Adam Torres and Byron Hack discuss literacy programs
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Show Notes:
Listen to Mega Mix Expo coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Byron Hack, President at GTi HOPE, explore Mega Mix Expo and GTi HOPE.
About Byron Hack
Byron began volunteering with GTi HOPE in 2006 after going on a Vision Trip. He joined GTi HOPE Board of Directors in 2014 and started working part-time for GTi HOPE in 2017 to establish a west coast office while continuing to work at Quantum. In January 2020, he made the jump to full-time with GTi HOPE as President.
Prior experience as User Interface Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Master of Arts (M.A.) focused in Leadership and Organizational Studies.
About GTi Hope
GTi HOPE’s mission is to transform communities by training and equipping leaders in South Asia.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have on the show Byron Hack, and he’s a president over at GTI Hope.
Byron, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. Great to be here. Great to Be a part of your podcast series and really appreciate the opportunity share. and good to have you here. And I understand you were sent over to us and introduced to the show by mega mix expo. I mean, I’ve been talking about this for any, to anybody that’ll listen, it’s going to be March 12th and 13th over at Santa Anita park which is the racetrack over in Arcadia, California, March 12th and 13th again and I’m telling everybody to come out, come visit, come see and I understand you’re going to have booth.
There and then you’re going to be talking about your organization. I mean, is this your first year attending it is yeah, no, it’ll be our first time at the mega mix expo. We were looking forward to it. Looking forward to meeting people and sharing more about GTI hope and then also seeing all the other vendors that are there Yeah, I’ll tell you it’s my first time too.
And I’m excited like, and I’ve been doing the interview. So I get to talk to a lot of the vendors , and the people that’ll be out there that have booths and otherwise. and some of them have been there since the beginning. I mean, since this thing just started, which it was, I think, you know, at a hotel originally, and then it got bigger.
Bigger than it got bigger last year. They had it at the, racetrack. And then this year they’re having at the racetrack again, but they’re taking a lot more square footage. I saw the layout and I’ve been over there and I’m like, Oh my gosh. Have you been to that track by the way? Have you ever, frequented ?
I have not looking for you’re gonna love it. It’s pretty. It’s pretty overlooks the mountains as a nice breeze that goes through. I mean, it’s just a really picturesque location and picturesque spot. So, yeah, it’s gonna be amazing. That being said, tell us a little bit more about your nonprofit.
So, I hope. Yeah, so we basically bring literacy and empowerment to men and women uneducated men and women, primarily in rural areas of South Asia most of that in India. And those are holistic literacy programs, so it’s more than just reading and writing and math. It also teaches empowerment skills, so they can start a business.
It helps them. Become aware of grants and opportunities available to them through their government so that they can receive grants for housing or clothing or bicycles, sometimes land. It’s a holistic program. So it’s educational uplift, economic uplift, but also social behavioral uplift. Family uplift, community uplift, and spiritual uplift.
So it’s just really transforms lives, families, and communities, and makes an incredible difference. did you originally get involved with this mission? Like, did that take place for you? My daughter in 2006, 2005 actually, in the 2005 had heard about this, this ministry and the work it was doing, and she was 12 and wanted to go see it.
And so we had to go on a vision trip and obviously she couldn’t go by herself. And so I went with her took a couple of weeks off of work and she took two weeks out of school and we were just blown away By the impact, you know, traveled with the founder of the organization for two weeks and met the people that were doing the work and just fell in love with it.
And so I started volunteering and that led to joining the board of directors, which led to becoming the liaison between the board of directors and the management committee of our partner. And that meant going to India every year for two weeks. And at the time I had five weeks vacation at my. Job and software development.
And then in 2018, I cut back to four days a week at My corporate job and then three days a week. And then January 1st, 2020, I left that career to become president of the, GTI hope and just to have loved every minute of it. Wow. And that all started from an original trip. what are some of the things, obviously this is a progression as you mentioned in cutting back days and then eventually going full time.
What are some of the reasons that led to that decision? You know, it was just. Going over there , and seeing the impact that literacy and empowerment has and how it really changes lives and it breaks the chains of generational poverty, it brings people hope and education is freedom. So it stops things like indentured servitude and alcoholism and child labor.
The people. You know, they learn about AIDS prevention and well baby care and prenatal care and sanitation and hygiene and they’re just so I’m grateful when we go and visit these villages you know, and the people are so excited to see us and share their stories. And, our partners been doing this since 1975, since was when they were founded.
They really started the literacy programs in the mid 80s. So they have a great system and it’s lot of accountability. It’s indigenous people basically training up leaders in that country to then bring literacy and empowerment to people in the rural and tribal areas and just very exciting to see that work and, Here in the U.
S., then to share those stories with people throughout the country, and to invite them to become a part of the process in transforming lives is very rewarding. And then you get the results, see how many people passed literacy classes how their lives were changed, you hear the stories, and just super rewarding.
Can you talk a little bit about the challenges and the demographics? I don’t want to assume that our listeners, you know, know about the need. Yeah. So we do our work, like I said, primarily in India. And so it’s, India is,, you have a contrast. You have very well educated people. Very wealthy and then you also have very uneducated and very poor in, in some of the more rural areas, and the government is , interested in helping those people become educated, and so there’s programs for them to receive, like I said, grants for clothing and housing and microenterprise loans so they can start businesses they get trees for their villages mango and coconut trees, for example.
And so we’ll teach them how to plant those. They can get roads and electricity and bus stops for their villages. And so it’s about helping them advocate so that they can fill out the forms and, you know, they may not even know those programs are available, so it’s helping them with all those programs are available and then how to apply for them and then helping to get those.
And then many of the women who go through the program. If their husbands are unable to work or perhaps they’re widowed if they’ve been trained in tailoring or, or they receive training in tailoring throughout the literacy program, then we’ll provide sewing machines. So then, businesses that get started are tea stalls and provisional stores or they may get into agriculture, but then some of them also get in, get sewing machines.
So they start tailoring programs where they’re Helping to make clothes or school uniforms or purses or whatever it is, and that can benefit , their community as well as the, as the woman who receives it. And then some of these villages don’t have access to clean water, so the women have to walk three, five kilometers to get water from a pond or an open well that may be polluted.
So in those cases, we’ll also provide bore wells for those villages. So they’re hand pump bore wells. Sometimes the local NGO or the local church will come along and add to that. So they’ll put on an electric pump or a solar powered pump as well.
Hmm. And how many people have been through these programs?
Well, in last year, 2024, 17, 700 women started the 10 month program. So since 2006 000, probably 150, 000. Wow. And then you have other programs that are for men and women, you know, so then you add that up. So I think last year, 2024, total about 32, 000 people started the literacy program, and those are, it’s 10 months, five nights a week, two hours a night, and they’ll come away with anywhere from a third to fifth grade education level, some of them do really well, and some of them struggle.
But 90 percent complete the program and Amazing. That makes a huge difference for them. Yeah. What do you think has made the program so successful?
I think the fact that it brings freedom, empowerment, and hope. You know, education is, such a big deal. And when people learn how to count money, for example, some of these people. Mm hmm. they don’t know how to read and write, but they also don’t know how to count money, and they don’t understand the importance of savings, or the dangers of alcohol, or smoking, or, don’t marry off your daughters at 12 or 13 years old.
So, they become educated, that gives them Some semblance of independence, and they learn how to save money, they learn how to make more money than they were making before, and they learn how to budget and so they have hope, they have hope for today and tomorrow and their children and they develop self esteem and self worth.
and that makes just a huge difference. And I think that’s why, you know, we go on vision trips. We’ll take you know, six to eight people on a trip. And that’s part of why we see this incredible gratitude and joy from these people. It’s because they’ve been given an opportunity which really transforms their lives.
Yeah. How do people get involved? Like, a lot of people be listening to this , and obviously, I mean, that success rate, 90%. I mean, that’s a substantial amount of success there, like even percentage wise, or even any way you measure it, quantity , that you’re helping to, , I’m sure people want to get involved.
How do people get involved? Yeah, our website is gtihope. org so very easy to go to and, and that website would explain about the literacy program as well as other programs that we, do. To sponsor a woman for a 10 month literacy class is 25. And that’s not 25 a month, it’s 25 to sponsor her for that type of one month program.
So people can get involved by signing up for our newsletter and receiving monthly updates. They can certainly sponsor one or more women. You can sponsor women on a monthly basis. So 100 a month will sponsor 48 women over the course of a year. And so then, at the end of that 10 month program when we get results that we put together a report that includes one or two testimonies from women from the class as well as results for the 300 or 450 women that went through the program for that particular project.
And then we also have Ben, you know, based in Southern California, but We have partners throughout the United States in Southern California, we’ll be having a banquet in March, and we’d love to have people come to that. We also sometimes have other events, such as, we call them Laughter for Literacy events, where we may have a comedian that shares comedy, and then We take 15 or 20 minutes to also share about what’s going on with these women.
And so people can get involved in that way as well. The other thing , we have a program to collect used Bibles and Christian books. And so people can donate those to us, especially people in Southern California. Amazing. Well, Byron thank you for coming to the show today. , a lot more educated on the situation I hope our audiences as well, and also how people can get involved with GTI Hope and all the good work you’re doing your team is doing for many, many years, helping tens of thousands of individuals.
That’s amazing. And breaking, generational curses and you’re helping a lot of people. So that’s great. That being said, one more time, what’s the website? I want people to go check it out. Gtihope. org. Fantastic. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll put, we’ll put the link to the website in the show notes so you can just click on it and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration. the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Byron.
I’m looking forward to meeting you in person at the mega mix expo on March 12th and 13th for everybody listening, go pick up tickets. Come hang out with me and Byron. Again, March 12th and 13th as it’d be an Arcadia, California, go to the website, mega mix, expo. com and you’ll see everything and a fire.
Thanks again for coming on. Thank you very much. Adam appreciate the podcast. that mission matters, that you’re making a difference, and, Open to people to get their story out. So I appreciate it and looking forward to meeting you in person as well.