Asad Moten is the founder and the executive director of HealthNovations (previously WorldAid Organization), a nonprofit that seeks to mobilize college students worldwide to engage in global health development and delivery. He developed HealthNovations after spending three weeks leading water sanitation workshops in Northern Pakistan following the earthquake of 2005. Initially, he had planned to work with the Edhi foundation to deliver tents to the effected regions. However, upon arrival to Muzafarrabad, the earthquake torn region of Pakistani Kashmir, He saw thousands of people in displacement camps who had lost their homes, families, and entire communities. Problems, in the aftermath of the quake, included inadequate food, lack of clean water, and poor sanitation arrangements which in turn had led to the outbreak of cholera in these camps.

Cholera was transmitted by the poor quality of available water that was infected with bacteria and was claiming many lives. An additional problem in the earthquake affected regions was that roads were in dire conditions. This made it difficult for people to reach medical facilities or doctors to reach the affected regions.

It was at this time that Asad decided to take the initiative and offer solutions from locally available supplies. He led appropriate technology demonstrations in tents across Muzafarrabad with passionate volunteers from universities across Pakistan showing people very simple ways to purify their water of the cholera bacteria. For example, one technique demonstrated merely involved the use of an old cotton cloth folded eight times as a home-made water filter.

What happened next was quite incredible. Asad decided to use the promise of technology and the commitment of the youth he witnessed in the displacement camps of Muzafarrabad to address the needs of poor communities around the world. These ideas he culminated into a nonprofit called HealthNovations. Soon thereafter, he secured a grant from the World Bank, recruited community partners, and started chapters at universities around the nation. Asad’s enthusiasm, over the years, has won him several chapters at universities around the world, countless number of community partners, and thousands of student volunteers who donate their time for the cause of international development.