About GYST

The Global Youth Service Team is a 501c3 non-profit corporation. Our directors and staff donate their time and expertise to the organization. Our student volunteers pay their own travel and living expenses. Thus we are able to keep our overhead costs at a bare minimum and commit no less than 95% of all contributions to funding the construction of solar powered energy systems, solar powered water purification systems and to the training of local community members. All contributions to the GYST are tax deductible and all donors will be given a receipt for their donation.

Our goals are achievable and sustainable because we have built partnerships with local organizations. See Partners. Such organizations help us to:

• Identify specific needs in a region
• Coordinate community organizers
• Consult on systems design
• Provide technical assistance
• Arrange for transport and translators

Working through our partners enables GYST volunteers to "hit the ground running" when we arrive at a project location.

The directors of the Global Youth Service Team (GYST) are interested in what it is that really awakens the passion in students. Young people want to feel that what they do is important and that their efforts will make a difference in someone's life. The GYST provides that opportunity for our kids. We do so in such a way that will prepare them to meet some of the biggest challenges that lie ahead, the conflicts that will occur over energy and basic natural resources.

Founder

Doug Hollinger, founder and executive director of the GYST has been a physics teacher at Pavilion High School for 26 years. He received a BA from SUNY Potsdam and a MS from the University of Rochester in 1987. He is an alumnus of Solar Energy International. In 2006 he established the Global Youth Service Team and began building a partnership with the Border Green Energy Team. He and his students have built solar-powered electrical systems and UV water purification systems for schools and clinics along the Thailand/Burma border and in Haiti. He has taught solar energy and sustainable water systems in refugee camp and migrant community schools. He wrote the "Solar electric system user manual" and "The ultraviolet water purifier, a manual for operation" that have been printed in five languages. His current interest is in the appropriate technology that could be used to bring bio-sand and activated carbon water filtration systems to remote areas.