By
Peter Dalglish & Protege |
| Through his program, Horizons, Peter Dalglish takes privileged Canadian students to developing countries throughout the world to show them how fortunate they are and to show them that if they want they can make a difference in this world. |
Peter
says he is in the business of diversion; diverting a small number of people onto
another path away from McKinsey, Citibank, Shell and Bayer. “And I’m not
worried, those corporations will not suffer, they will continue to get the best
and the brightest in droves because they offer something that people want:
money. The work I’m offering, the path I’m showing these kids doesn’t have
a pot of gold at the end of it in terms of financial compensation. But it does
have something else, which I think is very alluring, and that is something
meaningful. The Muslims say the shroud has no pockets. And I say to these kids
that very few people on their deathbeds say to themselves, ‘Geez, I wish I had
spent more time at the office.’”
The test
for Peter on how much time he will spend on a particular cause, or project, is
will it make an impact? “People sometimes ask why do I work with affluent
kids? Because I can relate to them, you don’t have to be Freud to figure it
out. I was born into white bread upper class London, Ontario with three-car
garage and six bathrooms. These adolescents and I share a lot. But I wish
someone had taken me when I was a sixteen-year-old and shown me another path, an
alternative to law school or the corporate world, or aspiring to having a corner
office, a BMW, a cellular phone and a cottage on Georgian Bay.”
| “It’s
extraordinary how many young bright people who have had the luxury of good
educations end up in very tedious jobs, where they are making enormous amounts
of money, but they have made the Faustian bargain. So I’m diverting them and
showing them another path. They may chose to go all the way down that path; few
will. They may chose to go part way, turn around and come back, which is fine,
or they may chose not to go down that path at all, and that’s ok too. But they
should know that there is that option.” |
Rebecca Davidson & new found friend. |
A few
years ago, Peter started called Schools without Borders (www.schoolswithoutborders.com),
which he runs for profit, because as he spent more and more time with these
students organizing these trips his wife reminded him he had a kid to raise as
well. As he says, “If these kid’s parents are willing to pay “x” amount
of dollars for an orthodontist, therapist or tutor they can pay for my services
too.”
| But what does Peter look for when he chooses these students: “I’m looking for young people who are still curious, who haven’t had the last bit of spontaneity squeezed out of them by their schools or by advertisers, and Nintendo.” | 
Ed Barnicke just hanging out |
On this trip, Peter was supposed to take 12 students to Rio but the trip was canceled at the last minute due to an outbreak of dengue fever so he scrambled, got in touch with his good friend Father Joe Maier who runs the Human Development Center in the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok and put together a project at the last minute, called Camp Canada. It was based loosely on the program used at the Taylor Statten camps, where kids take part in a group of different activities throughout the day. The only thing missing was the water, sail boats and canoes.
Christian Donath & Crew |
| But Peter has brought Canadian students to Father Joe’s Center (which primarily helps street kids) in the past and there were problems, particularly with a lack of follow-up from the male students. “We have had young people that we expected more from afterwards. They came here, had a powerful experience and then the kids here never heard from them again: not even an e-mail or a birthday card." |
So Peter
wondered if he made bad decisions in choosing the students, or maybe he hadn’t
prepared them adequately, given them clear expectations or done a better job of
following up himself.
So he had
a sit down with Father Joe as soon as he arrived: “We talked about our
concerns, our suspicions, our doubts. We put all the cards on the table, we just
ran down the list: Why were we here? Was it guilty white liberal shit, Dalglish
wanting a cheap vacation to Bangkok, resume padding, famine tourism or party in
Patpong, or a little of all of the above? And why hasn’t there been any
follow-up from previous programs?
“So Joe, Nuri Frame, HDC’s Director of Development & Public Affairs (also a Canadian), and HDC staff member Nitaya Pongkasem came up with the idea that we run a structured program. We stay here, we teach English in the morning, and an activities program in the afternoon and we don’t go running off to McDonalds, take the kids to see films at Siam Square or on the Skytrain. We did take them to Wat Po, but most of the kids had never even been, and as they are Buddhists it was a great cultural experience for them.
“I have
even made the argument that I should only bring young women here. We have
learned in the developing world that the way to make an impact is to focus
resources on women. Men will smoke it, drink it and gamble it. One could argue
that the best way to assure we are making an impact is to just to bring women
and let the guys find their own way, but somehow I ended up doing this work, and
I think I have made a contribution, so I think guys can make a contribution as
well.
“The young Thai kids involved in these projects need men as role models, they need men to act as mentors, they need men who are not going to hurt or abuse them. They don’t need Elton John, Renaldo, or Madonna, they need men and women who are consistent, reliable and dependable. They want their volunteers to be on time and to show up because they have been disappointed and let down so many times in the past. One kid’s father left him at the railway station and told him he would be back in an hour: the kid was still there three days later.
Six of
the original 12 slated for Rio ended up making the trip to Bangkok. They are:
Christian Donath, the oldest of the group at 19, and a Trinity College School
student. Rebecca Davidson, 16, also from TCS, while three others: Ed Barnicke,
17, Andrew Edelberg, 17, and Ali Kanji, 15, attend Upper Canada College, and 17
year-old Ashley Peeps attends Branksome Hall.
Ali Kanj and one of Father Joe's charges. |
Commenting on his perception of the street kids and how he actually found them, Ali Kanji says: “I envisioned street kids as living in poverty with a lack of organization and structure but these kids have been taken off the street, so the most interesting thing for me is watching how they cope. They are always playing, laughing and smiling. The ones that I have gotten to know well seem to be having a blast, and this reflects on the organization of HDC. Had these kids been born into more affluent, well-off families they could be going to good schools and grow up to be great leaders. |
Ashley Peeps & Buddies |
| On what she’s gained and what she hopes to impart, Ashley Peeps says,“I really feel I have gained a lot more than the kids. They threw us in here the first day and said ‘Teach these kids English,’ so we had to stop and think how we were taught languages, where do we start? I’ve always worked one-on-one but this was a whole class of students. |
“While
I’m here, I want to give them all the attention they deserve. They don’t ask
many questions, they mostly just want to play with you: they want to braid your
hair, teach you handclapping games and teach you how to dance their way and then
laugh at you when you can’t do it all.
“I
communicate through hand gestures and facial expressions. I hope to give them a
better basis for English, help them form new relationships and friendships and
help them feel better about themselves because a lot of these kids here just
don’t feel very confident.”
| Just
before leaving, Andrew Edelberg summed up his trip this way:
“This is the most
rewarding thing I have ever done in my life and I love these kids. I just want
to have fun with them and that’s what they want too. They are always on the
go. My childhood is much more materialistic than theirs is, or will ever be, but
even though they do not have much money or many material possessions, they are
just as happy as any kids I have ever seen in the developed world. It just goes
to show you kids are amazing that way.” |
 Andrew Edelberg lending a helping hand. |
Whether Peter’s kids do go on to help more people in the developing world is up to them. But Peter Dalglish, Father Joe Maier and the Human Development Center have at least planted the seed.
FINIS
