Deep Impact?

It has been a glorious week in Toronto. The office crew is in high gear keeping up with trips already on the ground in Kenya, India, Ghana, Peru, Haiti, and Guatemala. When we aren’t drooling over mangoes and kiliwili or imagining what it’s like to hug a manatee we are working with, well we… wait for it… that’s right… impact assessment!

Don’t yawn! There are a million and one projects out there and we have all heard the horror stories of volunteering gone awry. So, how is the little non-profit that could going to stay true to our mission and our partners as we grow?

Here are the steps we have taken. This year we’ve brought on an administrative intern named Ali. She’s a wonderful gal who grew up in the great white north (Thornhill) and her main focus for these next few months is assessing OG’s impact.  So far, she’s read hundreds of pages of evaluations and reports from all of our previous trips. Next, she’ll be working with the team here to improve our reporting. This will include revamped trip reports, participant evaluations and brand new partner evaluations. Get ready for an end of summer report that will rock your socks off. It won’t be a puff piece. It will be a serious look at our successes and failures from this year. Most importantly, it will guide us on how to do our jobs better and how we can be the most effective and ethical backpackers.

In the end, we’re going to do our best to combine an incredibly educational experience with sustainable, community-requested projects. With Ali’s help and with the help of all the beautiful people working on this mission with us, we know we’ll succeed. Kid, we’ll move mountains. 

 Ali in Accra!