Patrick Lussier is a father of two, Canadian Armed Forces veteran, project mining professional, and co-founder of ForBetterCommunity alongside his brother Eric. He also serves as VP of the American branch of a Canadian base mining contractor.

Patrick was deployed to Bosnia in 1993, where he served for a year as a bomb defuser. In 1997, Patrick was deployed as a combatant to Sierra Leone during its civil war. On his periods of leave, he stayed in Guinea. The people of Guinea and Sierra Leone faced deplorable living conditions and abject poverty. Despite this, Patrick was overwhelmed by their generosity and loving hearts.

It was that experience that led Patrick to reciprocate the love and hospitality he was shown. People in a thriving community need a sense of purpose and self-sufficiency, which begins with food security. His first humanitarian project was personally funding a rice plantation cooperative in the village of Manamamouroudou.

Patrick developed PTSD after witnessing the unimaginable carnage of genocide and war in Bosnia and Sierra Leone; his memories of childhood have been wiped, but his passion for helping humanity remains.

Patrick sums up his life’s mission this way:

“In my career, I have left dead bodies behind me, bodies of people who had families. I cannot change that. Today, I want to plant flowers where those bodies were.”

Patrick’s other passions combine with his love for the environment. Diving in the ocean has opened his eyes to the need to clean it up; he actively picks up garbage on beaches whenever he goes diving. He enjoys traveling the world and uses photography to capture the splendor of our planet. He also loves a good hike in nature.