While The Salvation Army is relatively new to international disaster relief, both Majors Roland and Dawn Sewell are veterans of global relief work.

Major Roland Sewell, a civil engineer with a specialty in the development of water resources in emergency situations, is considered one of 20 top engineers worldwide in that field. Major Dawn Sewell is trained as a nurse.

Prior to being appointed coordinator for emergency and refugee services and assistant coordinator, emergency and refugee services, respectively, they served in Africa, where Roland was engineer of Chikankata Mission and Dawn was on the nursing staff.

In addition, during his years of service as a Salvation Army officer he has been seconded to other non-governmental agencies when needed. Among others, he has worked with OXFAM (Oxford Famine Relief–the largest non-governmental organization in Great Britain), the international committee of the Red Cross, and United Nations relief agencies. He has been involved in relief work in the Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Zaire, Jordan and Turkey.

Roland has been honored by the Queen of England by being named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

A biography is being written about his life, with the working title God’s Engineer. Slated for publication next year, its author is Ron Tomlinson.