By Bruce Faudree
This next week, our firm will attend the Africa Stability and Development Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The International Stability Operations Association (ISOA) organizes this event, and I wanted to take a moment to highlight why we support them.
ISOA’s vision is to support “stability operations worldwide, providing critical services in fragile environments in an accountable, transparent, and ethical way.” To this end, ISOA represents a wide range of companies and organizations who are working to lay the foundation for long-term stability and growth in some of the world’s most unstable places.
ISOA’s efforts and vision stand in harmony with Mason & Hanger’s mission of “Building a More Secure World.” Through collaboration with other companies and organizations who share a common vision, we believe we can all realize the dream of bringing stability and critical services to the world’s most fragile and hostile environments. When everyone works together, good things happen – sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Nothing provides a better example than one of our recent projects in Juba.
The U.S. Consulate in Juba
Since 2005, Mason & Hanger has provided architecture and engineering design services for the U.S. Department of State Consulate General in Juba. Over the years, our team members witnessed firsthand the tremendous change that took place in South Sudan. During tumultuous times, we continued to provide services for several design-build projects. As expected, our lighting and wall designs provided a safe environment for Department of State Foreign Service Officers so they could promote peace and work alongside the local government. What 
we didn’t expect was the local community’s impromptu ingenuity, and how they would use our lighting design for their own betterment.
In an area with little to no electricity, children use the perimeter lighting along the embassy walls to study and complete homework. What started as lighting to enhance security has had the unintended consequence of enabling a new generation of great minds to develop. That unintended consequence will help support stability and development in South Sudan for years to come.
How You Can Support Stability and Development in Africa
At Mason & Hanger, we take seriously our mission of “Building a More Secure World.” ISOA supports the same mission. They assist member companies and organizations in a variety of areas, such as “contracting, partnerships, regulatory and legal developments, research initiatives, policy movement, and whatever else their members deem important.” Click here to learn more about this valuable association, and if their mission is one you share, please consider supporting them in any way you can.
