Social Entrepreneurship Sustainability

A few weeks ago on the roof of a building in Tel Aviv overlooking the entire city skyline a group a dozen former participants in Adam LeAdam's Backpackers program met for a reunion. The Backpacker's program is designed to give Israeli travelers in India a way to contribute to the communities they view primarily as a tourist. They spend a few weeks in Tamil Nadu helping the community through programs they in part design themselves, so that the volunteerism is more personal and meaningful.

 Adam LeAdam program participants

The reunion was a chance for old friends to meet up again, have a drink, watch a slideshow, but there was one other aspect I think was the most important part of the evening. At one point one of the participants asked Uri and Yarden, Adam LeAdam's founders, "what's next!?" One of the tenets of the program is sustainability and it wasn't clear to her what they're supposed to do now, having all returned to Israel, to continue and sustain the work they had done in India. One of the goals of the program is not just to set up program in India that the local communities can continue once the volunteers have left, but rather to have the Israeli participants continue to be social entrepreneurs back in Israel. Yarden and Uri went on to explain that they want the Backpackers participants to continue to meet in Israel and design their own sustainable social entrepreneurship program in Israel.

Tamil Nadu, India

It was a light bulb moment, where the participants realized that it was in fact their own personal growth, and not necessarily the the environment and educational projects they had implemented in India, that was the key to the Backpackers program. It will be interesting to see what the group implements here in Israel and what the LeadEarth participants are able to continue in their home communities upon returning. This social entrepreneurship sustainability is one reason that LeadEarth is really a step above in terms of innovation in the volunteer world.

Finally, John Wooden passed away yesterday. I grew up, and am still, a huge UCLA Bruins basketball fan, and have an enormous respect for the man and his accomplishments. Here's a very good article that touches at the core of who he was.

- LeadEarth

Social Entrepreneurship Sustainability