(Note: In Phase One of this project I received donations of $10,000 intended for delivery to one compelling situation in the developing countries. As events unfolded, that plan became unworkable. Instead, I gave $6,750 to projects recommended by some of the people who applied to be the first Backpack Nation ambassador. These people and their projects are listed below. I've retained the other $3,250 and will use it to help fund Phase Three.
$2,000 -- Marc Gold -- 100 Friends
On the evening of September 11, 2002, at the conclusion of the meeting at which I inaugurated Backpack Nation, I was approached by a man named Marc Gold. Marc handed me his business card and asked me to visit the website of his organization, 100 Friends. I was overjoyed by what I saw there.
Nearly 15 years ago, while Marc was traveling in Asia, he met a deaf and destitute Tibetan woman who was near death due to a raging ear infection. Marc paid $2 for the antibiotics needed to clear up the infection, and was told by the woman's doctor that for another $50 the woman's hearing could also be restored. Marc pulled the money out of his pocket, and was later present when the woman's new hearing aid was flipped on. Marc says the look on her face was priceless. Not only had her life probably been saved, her hearing and her spirit had also been restored.
One year later, back in America, Marc sent a letter to 100 of his friends, in which he told them the story of the deaf woman and said: "I'm headed back to Asia. I have money to pay all my travel expenses, and I also have some other money that I'm going to distribute among the poor and needy that I will meet. If you send me some of your money, I will distribute that, too, and I will report back to you with the story of where the money goes."
Marc was expecting to receive perhaps $300-400, but his friends sent him $2,100 for that first trip. Marc has been on nine such trips during the past 15 years and has compiled a staggering list of places where he and his friends have distributed money -- in places such as India, Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, South Africa and Mozambique.
Marc, a teacher, lives paycheck to paycheck as do most of us, but he has one of the richest lives I know. Before his last trip, Marc's "100 Friends" (who now number in the thousands) sent him nearly $20,000. $2,000 of that was money that Backpack Nation supporters had sent to me.
Marc gave $1,000 of the Backpack Nation money to the Afghan Women's Educational Center in Kabul, Afghanistan. AWEC works to feed and educate destitute women and street children in Kabul, and to train them at tailoring and other skills, such as computer work. One of AWEC's biggest projects helps women who languish in surreal conditions in the Kabul prison. The Christian Science Monitor recently wrote a story about Afghan women jailed for crimes like adultery, traveling without being accompanied by a man, arranging their own marriages, failing to have divorce papers in their possession, or simply for falling in love.
Marc used other Backpack Nation money to arrange for a taxi ride to the Kabul zoo for a young boy with a terminal disease whose biggest wish was to ride in a taxicab. ("Every good story must have a taxicab...") Marc also arranged ongoing monthly financial support for an elderly invalid whose husband and family disappeared and most likely perished during the Taliban rule. He gave money to a family he met so they could winterize their home, heavily damaged during the recent war, with windows and a door. Additional funds went for rent money for a family of 17, who were about to be evicted; to a family with 4 children all of whom have muscular dystrophy; and to numerous others.
Marc tells all the people to whom he gives money that it comes from individuals in America who are concerned with the plight of the poor across the world. Imagine what these individuals and families think of America today!
$2,000 -- Adam Carter -- Brazil
Adam Carter is a writer and traveler who tries to help ease the hardships he observes in his travels. He has visited more than sixty countries in his thirty years, and finds himself particularly drawn to the country and people of Brazil. A couple of years ago Adam met a Brazilian man named Moreno who lives in a favela (shanty-town) of about 5,000 people on the outskirts of Rio de Janiero. Moreno, whom Adam describes as a "well-read, intelligent, soft-spoken, gentle man of about 40," grew up and still lives in the impoverished favela but managed to create a career in theater for himself.
Since Brazilian children attend school for only half a day, they are left with hours and hours of inactivity. All too often, the children of Moreno's flavela fall into the vices of drug dealing and the crime and violence of the shanty-town. A few years ago, Moreno, long troubled by conditions in the favela, opened his home as a sanctuary for the neighborhood kids. He recruited a volunteer staff to help the children learn to dance, juggle, draw, play musical instruments, and complete their homework. Moreno and the staff also shower the kids with attention and affection that are often lacking in their family lives. Moreno was so moved by the kids' response and appreciation that he eventually quit his job, obtained some minimal funding, and transformed his house into a community center for the kids. Moreno still sleeps on a mattress on the floor, but he is up every morning to greet more than 150 kids who come by before and after school each day to bathe in his kindness.
After his last visit to the center, Adam Carter said, "There is love in the air. Moreno's got some wonderful people working with him. And the kids... the kids are absolutely glowing. From the minute they set foot in the place, they love it."
A few years ago, funding from an Italian group allowed Moreno to put in concrete floors and walls and to create an open space. But when Adam first saw the center it was clear that Moreno was struggling to keep it going. "They needed cleaning supplies, necessities for the kids, paper and pens, snacks... Moreno wanted to be able to feed them something more substantial -- like rice and beans -- and he's been moving ahead with plans for a library and a studio where the kids can study dance and capoeria (martial arts). But the monthly expenses -- about $400 -- were killing him."
In 2003, Adam raised $1,500 from his friends and family near Chicago, and pitched in $500 of his own money and presented the money to Moreno. And in August of 2004 Adam went back to Brazil, where he had a job writing a guidebook, and delivered $2,000 from Backpack Nation to Moreno. When Adam presented the money, Moreno shed a tear and vowed that Adam had been sent from God. "Not quite," Adam responded, "just from Chicago."
With the donated funds, Moreno's project (called Final Feliz: "Happy Ending") is expanding its facilities and care programs. Adam says that the lunches Moreno has been able to provide are a nutritional boon that helps the kids in all facets of their lives. "But just as important as their physical health is the self-worth, confidence and love that Moreno and his staff give them every day."
$1,000 -- Microfund For Women -- Amman, Jordan
Microfund For Women has a decade of experience in making microloans to women entrepreneurs in the Palestinian refugee camps that ring Amman, Jordan. Thumbnail sketches of the lives of some of these refugees -- lives that most of us living in the West can barely imagine -- are posted on the MFW website.
Established as a pilot project of Save The Children, MFW has been on its own since 1994, and is considered a bright light among Middle East development projects. When I checked MFW out with the US State and Treasury departments and with contacts in the development world, I heard only good things about them. A Backpack Nation applicant from Phase One paid a visit to MFW in Jordan, and returned with a strong recommendation. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to lie at the heart of so many of the world's problems, I am thrilled that we can make this contribution.
$500 -- Beena Kamath -- Ecuador
Beena Kamath was finishing up a pediatric residency when she applied to be the first Backpack Nation ambassador. Her application said, in part: "Being the daughter of an Indian father and a Chinese mother, I have always held an international world view and a curiosity about travel and different cultures. I have used every vacation during my schooling to travel, and now I would like to return to the places that have touched me, where I can make a difference."
Upon completing her residency, Beena set off on her own personal ambassadorship, to southern Ecuador, to work for a year (virtually without pay) in a health clinic in the small impoverished town of Guadalupe. Toward the end of that year I asked Beena about her experience at the clinic. Among other things, she told me that a group of 30 young people associated with the clinic had recently started a Youth Group, "in hopes," said Beena, "of fostering a community spirit, unity, friendship and self-respect."
The group's plan was to organize sporting events for the young children in the town. I asked if $500 of Backpack Nation's money would make a difference in their efforts, and Beena said it certainly would. After I sent the money, Beena wrote, "This is the first time these young people have organized a project on their own, including origination and planning of the project and money management." I'm confident that no matter the results of the sporting events, everyone involved, including the Backpack Nation donors, comes out as winners. (Beena is now in Australia, furthering her medical education and career by working in a neonatal intensive care unit near Sydney.)
Kris Dreesen -- $500
When she was barely 20 and traveling in the Amazon rainforest, Kris Dreesen encountered a community of subsistence farmers who had been displaced by the Brazilian government's construction of a hydroelectric dam. The dam had not only displaced the farmers, but the water it trapped had stagnated and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes -- some of the farmers were being bitten up to 900 times per hour. When Kris met them, they were camped in protest outside the gates of the electric company. Kris spent a month documenting the farmers' story and trying her best to help. That experience, plus prior and subsequent solo travel experiences, fired Kris with a passion for travel and a concern for the world's disadvantaged peoples.
When she heard about Backpack Nation and the idea of individual travelers as roving ambassadors, things clicked, and Kris began to save up for her own ambassadorship. She is now employed as a journalist in upstate New York and is well on her way to having saved enough money to pay for her own ambassadorship. I have set aside $500 in Backpack Nation money for Kris to distribute to a compelling situation she encounters when on her journey.
Paul Munet -- $500
My daughter and I came upon Paul Munet on a park bench in Central Park in New York City on a perfect summer day in 2002. Paul was weaving and selling beautiful hats, baskets, and ornamental birds and fish -- weaving them from palm leaves that he had personally collected by climbing palm trees in Puerto Rico. Later Paul sent me a video, quite impressive, that showed him scooting up an 80-foot palm tree to harvest more leaves for more weavings. Parts of the video were shot in Thailand, where he was teaching villagers the art of palm weaving that Paul has practiced to perfection. Paul is also saving up money for his own ambassadorship, and I have set aside $500 in Backpack Nation money for Paul to distribute to a situation he encounters when the time comes.
Anne Jeschke -- $250 -- Bolivia
Anne was the senior and perhaps the most-traveled of the Phase One applicants. Anne and her family have for years been involved with an orphanage in La Paz, Bolivia, named Hogar Soria. Hogar Soria is home to seventy-five children between the ages of 5-16 -- some are orphans, some are lost, some are runaways (generally from physical abuse), some have parents who are in jail. The orphanage has a list of needs: new beds; hearing aids for some of the children; a covering for the outside laundry area to protect workers from sun and rain. I've sent $250 in Backpack Nation money for Hogar Soria to use as the staff sees fit. Anne has matched BPN's donation with $250 of her own, and Anne's son Matt has pitched in another $50. We'll hear a report before too long on how the money is used.
The remainder of the $10,000
I will roll over the remaining $3,250 to help pay for the Phase Three story submission event. And on we go.