Three Years and Three Schools

By Adam Swartzbaugh, Founder and Executive Director of The GENESIS Network

As you may have heard, I am in Thailand this month visiting our newest schoolhouse construction project. Three years ago I was sitting on a mountainside in Chiang Mai, Thailand looking down from where we would later build our first school. Seeing the children impoverished, without education, and at extremely high risk of human trafficking, prostitution and slave labor, I found myself asking the question: “Can we do anything about it? Can we really change anything?”

Today, three years and three schools later, standing on the same hilltop, the answers are clear. Yes, we can do something about it; Yes, what we do will change things – we can change everything. Inside the school that now rests on this hilltop, the village’s youth have become students. They are studying Burmese, Thai and English, reading and writing, science and mathematics. They are learning the basic vocational skills that will earn them jobs in the local economy. They are gaining the knowledge that will allow them to pursue higher education in other parts of the country.

Volunteers from Beijing lay bricks for the newest schoolhouse

For these children, education is not just a means to an end, but a means to any end they can imagine. It is opportunity and it is hope. It is creating freedom and building the capacity to escape any condition.

The GENESIS Network that built this first school encompassed only a handful of people. Now, the Network is made up of volunteers from America, Singapore, England, Brazil and several other countries. It encompasses students in schools from Brown to Shanghai University. It is supported by organizations like Amnesty International and the Australian Embassy Direct Aid Program. It is made possible by companies like Menotomy of Boston, Massachusetts and Sumitomo of Tokyo, Japan.

Today, more than anything, the GENESIS Network is you. You, who believed that we could make a difference. You, who helped pour foundations and lay bricks. You, who volunteered as an English teacher. You, who threw a wild college party to raise money for books. You, who contributed a portion of your sales to buy desks. You, who offered your experience and advice which in turn made our projects more efficient and sustainable.

Today, I see it. I know it. In these places, everything has been changed…by you.

Adam’s development career ranges from disability rights policy development with USAID and the UNDP in Vietnam to tsunami disaster relief and reconstruction in Thailand. He also is an active duty officer in the United States Army and received both his BA in International Relations and MA in Social and Economic Development from Brown University.

Brown University Club of Miami Hosts GENESIS

The doors to collaboration were swung open as the Brown Alumni Group of Miami hosted the GE NESIS Network this past Saturday, July 17th in Miami Beach.

A diverse group of uniquely passionate individuals gathered to listen as GENESIS founder, Adam Swartzbaugh, shared the experiences, observations and insights that have collectively shaped the structure and mission of this organization.

With audience responses running the gamut of human emotion, it was quite the presentation! I’m familiar with the many ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories of children with broken souls and stolen innocence. However, it is the overwhelming sense of humanity and hope that prevails as you listen to the one about a boy and a beaten down little dog becoming a catalyst to a behavioral shift within a community…How the power of perception – a simple introduction to a better way – can ultimately change the course by which a life is lived…or even saved.

That little dog, a daily target of random kickings and errant rocks, reinforced a passionate belief that it does only take one to make a difference. A few minutes of guidance from Adam resulted in a group of children looking at this creature with new eyes – suddenly it was no longer ‘ugly and useless’ but ‘soft, fuzzy and lovable’.

The following day, one of these kids witnessed further injustice against the little puppy by yet another group of children. The boy fights through the crowd, swoops the dog up into his arms and fervently enlightens his peers of this little dog’s value on earth – the benefits to loving him and even respecting him as another living creature. Puppy’s days as a soccer ball are over and a community’s younger generation has experienced a shift in a collective view.

Of course, the beauty in all this goes beyond fighting for the liberation of subjugated canines in Thailand. It lies in the power to change or inspire a course of action by sharing an idea, a vision, no matter how-off-the-wall it may seem.

As I spoke with guests, I heard everything from urgent needs to participate in the decommissioning of international trafficking circles and educators hungry to work GENESIS programs into their own curriculums, to young students ready to board the next plane to wherever they could be of use or desiring to start their own local revolutions. Really, some great stuff!

These are the ideas and visions that plant seeds that transform people,strengthen communities and brighten futures. It’s the ‘putting them into action’ that makes them spread like wildfire. This is one of the most wonderful elements of the Network. Collectively, we have the tools to make unbelievably impressive changes in this world. By way of social collaboration, everyone in that room had (and has) the potential to make tangible the visions they shared that evening.

The GENESIS Network has presented us with the tools many have long searched for, complete with the opportunity to witness the results of our efforts. The peace of mind that should go along with the concept of working with and supporting such projects, is once again, with the people. What we’re doing is making a difference and we are seeing it first hand.

I attended this event as a member of an organization – the work and concepts of which I’ve long believed in and supported. Sharing an evening with these people – some of whom I believe will be sharing their own stories in the future, about a school they hammered the final nail into, or of the family enrolling their child into school thanks to a mango crop they helped to plant – seemed to bring it all full circle. It is a level of humanness rarely felt as we run through our days, linked in and tuned out, swerving through traffic and schedules and crashing, exhausted, at the end of the day.

Witnessing hearts and minds opening and ideas unfolding makes all else fade, if only for moment. We realize that the world can be changed in a lifetime and this great desire to be part of something ‘bigger’ keeps growing. And why in the world would we not start now?

The opportunity is here and it is ours in whatever way we decide to make it our own.

View the GENESIS Events Page for upcoming events in your area.

Lauren Swartzbaugh is the Outreach and Networking Director for the GENESIS Network. Having worked with non-profit organizations ranging from human rights advocacy to environmental awareness and protection , Lauren has been working for GENESIS since December 2008. Lauren brings the GENESIS cause to life using a unique combination of social networking and local empowerment

Five Days in Haiti: A Relief Effort

Just this past month, members of the GENESIS Network and I traveled from the Boston area to Haiti to deliver hundreds of water filtration systems, medical supplies, and emergency relief support to communities in Port au Prince, Carrefore and Leogane, Haiti. The trip was made possibly by AquaSafe of Australia and Olyset Net of Japan. These two communities and the Haitian community of Miami, FL donated supplies that the team and I delivered to Haiti.

To help document my thoughts and emotions, I kept a journal during the five days in Haiti to share upon my return. Here are some notes from my journal:

Day 1:
Bumping along the crippled roads outside Port au Prince, my eyes drifted from one sea of dilapidated refugee tents to another. But beneath the rubble of crumbled homes lay Haiti’s true disaster. It is not one caused by an earthquake, nor by any other natural occurrence.

Day 2:
How could such a country, swarming with NGOs long before the recent earthquake, have fallen into such a state of distress? There are more international organizations per capita in Haiti than in any other country. But what have they accomplished? The Haitian people remain repressed under a regime of corruption, left adrift in the pocket-lining clientelism of a squandered leadership supported by an aloof international community.

Day 3:
“We are slaves to our government,” our local liaison, and former government official, stated as we sat around dinner reflecting on our own relief work. “The cycle of corruption among our leaders cannot be stopped without drastic change or without a true representative of the people…someone who cares for the people.” The majority of aid programs presently in Haiti may just as well be making direct deposits into the accounts of those now in power.

Day 4:
Today I realize that, absent of any earthquake, Haiti would still be in dire need of relief – specifically, from the political disaster its leaders have brought upon their people.

The nation’s leaders have driven their country to shambles by using its people as a personal expense account while the good intentions of local and international efforts run around picking up the pieces, all the while creating and deepening dependencies on foreign aid. Haiti does not need any more quick-pitch answers but, rather, real solutions to what are now systemic issues of neglect. Every effort must be made to improve education, professional training, and lending and investment capital opportunities.

Day 5:
Back from Haiti. The Haitian people have been abandoned by their government, yet they remain united. As NGOs and foreign aid agencies move toward longer term programs that can educate, train and empower the nation back to power, this is a significant variable that bodes well for future prospects.

It’s been a few weeks since the team and I have returned from the trip. I must say that the experience was truly emotionally and personally rewarding. I’m eager to hear reader feedback about Haiti relief. How can we continue to help the Haitians? How would you like to be involved?

Please share your comments.

Adam Swartzbaugh
Founder
The GENESIS Network