茄子直播

Alumnus David Berkal studied Peace and Conflict Studies at 茄子直播 and honed his entrepreneurial skills in The Next 36 program (photo by Liam Sharp)

茄子直播 entrepreneurs: David Berkal

Backpacking with a purpose

In 2006, David Berkal was in high school and looking for an opportunity to volunteer abroad. He didn鈥檛 find anything that was affordable or matched his vision of what a volunteer travel experience should be, so he decided to make his own.

The following year, he and friend Jonah Brotman launched Operation Groundswell, a non-profit travel organization geared to youth. On their first program, a dozen participants visited northern Ghana, where they worked with a Canadian charity that provides food, shelter and other necessities to orphans and needy children.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have any grand expectations at the time,鈥 recalls Berkal, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree  from the University of Toronto in 2011. 鈥淲e just wanted to run this one program.鈥 But enthusiastic feedback from the participants and the charity led them to reconsider.

This summer, Operation Groundswell will send some 200 participants, mostly under 30, to programs in more than a dozen low-income countries. The organization鈥檚 six full-time staff operate out of a compact office in Toronto鈥檚 west end that looks like a converted loft apartment. From there, they handle the complex logistics required to ensure scores of young 鈥渂ackpacktivists鈥 safely reach far-flung locations and have a rewarding volunteer experience that also truly helps the community they鈥檙e visiting. (.)

Most of Operation Groundswell鈥檚 trips now have themes so participants can choose projects that match their interests 鈥 a global health program in West Africa, for example, or an environmental project in Southeast Asia. In Peru, the group worked with an NGO on the outskirts of Iquitos to build a drainage trench 鈥 needed to avoid unsanitary conditions. Zuly Manrique, who works with the NGO, wrote to express her thanks: 鈥淚 have seen the tremendous work you鈥檝e done,鈥 she noted in an email. 鈥淚 hope we can continue to collaborate on community actions like this to benefit families鈥︹

Berkal has faced challenges, too: he had to learn business on the fly, doing cash-flow statements and balance sheets between lectures while enrolled full time at 茄子直播. Critics, meanwhile, have suggested that Western volunteers tend to get more out of their travel experience than the communities they are meant to be helping. Berkal himself has doubts about programs where participants stay in luxury hotels, travel in air-conditioned buses and are 鈥減arachuted鈥 in to spend a few days with a local charity. But he emphasizes that Operation Groundswell participants live as locals do, sleeping in similar accommodations and eating the same food. The vast majority of time is spent at the charity, says Berkal, and trip leaders conduct regular 鈥渄ebriefings,鈥 in which participants 鈥渄econstruct what they鈥檙e doing and the impact they鈥檙e having.鈥

Dozens of handwritten notes from participants expressing their gratitude are tacked to a wall in the Operation Groundswell office.

鈥淭he kind of travel we do really changes people,鈥 he says. 鈥淧eople switch majors or start their own non-profits. At least half a dozen participants from last year are going back to the partners they worked with because they felt so passionately about the causes.鈥

And the community partners?

鈥淭hey ask us to come back every year,鈥 observes Berkal.鈥漈hat鈥檚 the fail-safe test.鈥

Berkal, 25, stepped down as executive director of Operation Groundswell last year, but plans to remain on the board while attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business this fall. Ultimately, he would like to see Operation Groundswell expand to thousands of participants every year. And with that many more backpacktivists in the world, he hopes the program might lead to broader changes in how people think about tourism 鈥 from simply seeing the sights to 鈥渃onnecting with local people in a meaningful way and working in partnership toward a lasting positive impact.鈥

Scott Anderson is editor of The 茄子直播 Magazine, where this story first appeared. (.)

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