"To transform the West's 2-3
million independent travelers into an
army of global ambassadors,
emissaries of peace, a roving force for good,
and thereby help to save our world."

APRIL, 2006 -- Welcome, and thank you for finding your way here. I'm Brad Newsham, a 54-year old San Francisco (California, USA) cab driver and writer. On September 11, 2002, I inaugurated Backpack Nation, and for the next three years was passionately consumed with it.

The project had some spectcular ups and some spectacular downs, many of which you can read about by skipping around this site (I apologize for the site’s incomplete nature—it may leave you with more questions than answers). On the upside, we raised $26,000, and, after a thorough review of some 300 proposals, Backpack Nation ambassadors distributed most of that money to individuals, families, villages, and projects in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Ecuador, Kenya, Guatemala, Jordan, Russia, Senegal, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The downside: I was never able to build an organization to move the idea forward. After three years the project consisted almost entirely of me tapping at this computer, and in September, 2005, exhausted, I put the idea on a back burner.

Several months have now passed, and while I am fully engaged by other things (currently I’m working on a book about a year behind the wheel of a San Francisco taxicab), my mind has again been searching for ways to forward the mission stated above. Lord knows, the world could use it.

Please look around (you might start with the Printable Version button immediately below), and if you have any questions or comments please email me. Thank you for your interest. Brad.

Printable version