Beyond Good Intentions

Those moments of lopsided devastation, where a trifle of inequality can mean life or death, drove the inquisitive Virginia native across the developing world as both an aid worker and a student. At 24, she’s already racked up visits to over 45 countries, including most of Europe, much of Africa, and some of Asia.

Now she’s turning her travel experience into a chance to make something more hopeful than heartbreaking tales. Together with fellow Duke University graduate Eric Scherch, the Rancho Santa Fe nanny is setting off this fall on yet another trip, this time to make a documentary about what types of humanitarian aid do the most good.

The itinerary is mesmerizing: Columbia, Peru, Argentina, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa. It began as a plan to take that trip every 20-something dreams of: the one-year, round-the-world tour. But Hogan wanted to do something bigger than travel as a tourist. So when she met Scherch last winter at a Duke Alumni event in San Diego — the two graduated in the same class but hadn’t previously met — her globetrotting plans solidified as a mission to find and understand the most successful kinds of aid organizations. It’s an unsung effort in much of the aid community, they believe.

“The general assumption is that if you’re trying to help other people, the good intention alone is enough to carry you,” Hogan said. "But we don’t agree. There’s a lot of good intentions out there, but we think it has to be a little more thought out.”

While Hogan’s background is in relief work — last year she completed a Fulbright-supported master’s degree in refugee studies at the American University in Cairo — Scherch’s civil engineering degree pointed his interests toward long-term development work. He founded the San Diego chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a volunteer organization that will take him to India this week to work on a potable water pipeline for tsunami victims.

According to Hogan, Scherch also supplies some artistic experience to their filmmaking equation, which is a fresh challenge for both of them. Aside from a short film they made about a Tijuana orphanage and presented to the Rancho Santa Fe Village Church, both confess to being “novice” filmmakers — though they’re not worried.

“I started to back off the project a little bit and said ‘Eric, I’m not a filmmaker. I don’t know what I’m doing.’ And he said, ‘’Since when has that ever stopped you before?’ And it’s kind of true for both of us. We kind of do the things that other people wouldn’t ever think of,” Hogan said.

In fact, although Hogan is scheduled to leave in September, the documentary duo hasn’t acquired their filming equipment yet. Hogan’s paying for her travel out-of-pocket, but they’re hoping local philanthropists will donate the $10,000 they say they need to purchase equipment and pay for translators.

Hogan and Scherch are also asking San Diegans about their experiences with aid organizations in the countries they’re planning to visit. They see their film as a tool for the many involved donors in places such as Rancho Santa Fe, Carmel Valley and Del Mar who want to know the most effective way to help with their time and money. Since the pair won’t decide which organizations to visit until they arrive in-country and they plan to spend four-seven weeks in each one, their project presents a unique opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of specific international aid efforts.

After they finish filming, Hogan and Scherch plan to donate their equipment to the Global Film Initiative, an organization that promotes filmmaking in the developing world through grants, distribution and other methods.

The pair readily confess that they aren’t at all sure what their project will turn out to be. Neither of them plan to be career filmmakers; Hogan has been accepted to Harvard a year in advance to complete another master’s degree in international education policy. But this project is a chance for them to answer a question crucial to the future of both of their careers — and the international aid community in general.

“When I left Africa, I first thought that the best thing I could do for the developing world was stay out of it,” Hogan said. “I didn’t think that I had a place there as a white outsider who came in with the assumption that I knew what I was talking about. But I later changed that impression because I realized that I did have some skills and I also had a really critical eye for aid and I could come in and possibly help reform what’s going on.”

Tori Hogan and Eric Scherch are looking for help from the community in the form of information about aid organizations to observe and donations to purchase filming equipment. You can contact them at rtw0607@gmail.com