Harry Blakiston Houston (EW14) delivers inspirational first London "Speaker and Social"
There was a packed house for the first of our series of Ampleforth Society "Speaker and Social" events as Harry Blakiston Houston (EW14) spoke about his work on the front lines in Ukraine, providing emergency insulation and hope to the most affected families.
"I didn't go out there thinking I would change the world by making pizza. I went looking for a problem to solve, where I could apply engineering to a humantiarian need.
After months of observation, one issue stood out and that was shattered windows. Every artillery shell creates a shock wave strong enough to shatter glass within a 50 meter radius. Thousands of shells land every day, meaning millions of windows have been shattered across Ukraine's front line."
This is how Harry began his talk, where 50 members of the Ampleforth Society sat spellbound as he spoke to us about the humanitarian work undertaken by his charity Insulate Ukraine and where it began. Harry took a break from his PhD to go out to Ukraine in the early days of the conflict, coming back with a problem to solve. In the lab at the University of Cambridge he developed a simple way to provide emergency windows to the most damaged homes in Ukraine, returning warmth, light and hope to families left to live in the worst of conditions in towns and cities on the front line.
His 20 minute talk, held at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Mayfair, took us right to the heart of the realities of life for so many people living in Ukraine and for his team who risk their own safety daily to tackle the problem of providing the most basic solution of a home to live in without freezing. Insulate Ukraine have now provided windows to hundreds of thousands of homes, businesses, government buildings and medical facilities.
The Q&A, chaired by Alex Hickman (D90) explored all areas of his work and Insulate Ukraine's mission, as well as addressing the issues of how to fund this vital programme through donations and corporate sponsorship. After the talk we were warmly hosted for drinks and wonderful home made Ukrainian soup and nibbles, lovingly provided by the community at the Cathedral. To find out more about Insulate Ukraine you can visit their website: Insulate Ukraine
"It was an education to hear his focused engineer's approach to identifying a really effective way to help people living on the front line of the war, and then to work out the most efficient way to deliver the solution. He clearly never stops pushing forward to work out the best way to scale up the programme and the funding to maximise the help. And underpinning it all is his clear vision to help to restore some normality to people whose homes have been devastated by war. I'm sure everyone there left wishing him every success for this undeniably excellent cause." - Marcus Henley (J73)
Details of future "Speaker and Social" events will be shared very soon.
