Veteran Charities Operate in Lebanon Evacuation
by Jay Heisler
As Lebanon teeters on the brink of an invasion from Israel, RUSI(NS) sat down with two of the top people in the field of refugee evacuation charities, to get their take on the crisis and their work in the country, but also on how readers can get involved.
Bryan Stern appears frequently in U.S. and international media, with his current project, Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, and previously with his initial project, Project Dynamo. RUSI(NS) got on a call with Bryan while he was in Beirut as part of his effort to evacuate U.S. passport holders and Lebanese nationals who are allies to countries like the U.S. and Canada.
Bryan started Project Dynamo as part of a widespread effort among veteran charities to deploy to Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul in 2021 to get U.S. allies and U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan. He then moved on to work on the Ukraine War, where the author of this piece met Bryan for the first time (although I was active in the Afghanistan effort as well).
When asked why he switched from Project Dynamo to Grey Bull Rescue, Bryan said:
“Dynamo was a start-up. I started it in my living room in August 2021, expecting to do one small thing in Afghanistan, and we kind of stayed a start-up, but at the end of the day, we were still just a start-up. I started it in August 2021 with the intent of turning it off in September 2021. Grey Bull Rescue is designed for longevity, it’s designed to be organized, it’s designed to be professional. The challenge with Dynamo was it was always Bryan Stern and Project Dynamo, because I did all the ops, we did 616 missions, and I led 591 of them.”
As for his work in Lebanon, Bryan told us, “I have some folks in the region and, obviously, our focus is Israel and Lebanon. We’re less focused on Israel than Lebanon.”
“The Lebanese government has been extremely hospitable to us,” he added.
For how to get involved, Bryan had the following advice:
“The best way for people to ask for help is the website, Gray Bull Rescue dot org. We need to get our name out, so people know where to go for help. One is the website, and two is to follow Grey Bull Rescue on social media. Of course, donations are good. We have a volunteer button as well, but we’re very small. Everyone wants to be a Lion until it comes time to do Lion stuff. We always need medical people, always, and I always need instructors. People who can teach internally to our team lots of things. Get every single member of Grey Bull Rescue EMT certified, for example. Finding an EMT instructor who can work around our crazy schedule is very hard.”
Amy Sins is a celebrity chef in Louisiana who runs a charity called Fill the Needs which deploys to many of the same conflict zones. Fill the Needs is one of the regulars in the industry of refugee extraction charities.
When asked how readers can get involved, Amy said:
“I stand firmly that everyone has a skill or superpower that a nonprofit can use. Fill the Needs has found a role in all kinds of volunteers- musicians, artists, balloon animal makers, babysitters, snack picker-uppers, computer programmers, graphic designers, teachers and so much more. Consider what you’re good at and what you love—then offer that to non-profits like ours. We may not be able to put your skills to use right this moment, but I bet we can find a way to incorporate them into our efforts.”
Photo: Jay Heisler, Lebanon 2008
Jay Heisler is Voice of America’s Canada reporter. He also teaches a mental health advocacy course at a Canadian university and works on various training and education projects in national security in the US and Canada. He is currently working on a book contract and at other freelance writing.