Problem solvers

Fourth-year U of C history student Nicholas Gafuik is a confident veteran of three overseas development projects aimed at solving some of the world’s heftiest problems in some of the world’s poorest regions.

Yet, he admits being pretty nervous the first time he arrived in Cambodia to take on the child sex trafficking industry, a multimillion-dollar business of abuse, violence and deep-rooted corruption. The Asian heat, dust, smells and poverty were also overwhelming.

“It was my first time in Asia, and it was a shock,” he says. “But we had confidence in what we were doing because of all the research we did.” Gafuik is a member of the Future Group – a national non-partisan charitable organization of young Canadian problem solvers that was initiated by U of C alumnus Ben Perrin.

In just three years, Future Group members have conducted the research, made the contacts, forged the partnerships and raised the necessary funds to help some people in this world who need help the most.

The volunteer-driven organization has already made two productive trips to Cambodia, a vulnerable country devastated by decades of civil war. They have also been to Eastern Europe and are now working in Moldova helping orphans and abandoned children.

Next up, is a trip to Africa to see where the Future Group’s volunteers can make a difference in the HIV/AIDS crisis in Malawi.

“Canada has a role in these problems,” says Perrin, executive director of the Future Group. “We want to make sure that Canada is contributing more to the solution than the problem.”

Members of the Future Group are typically Canadian students and professionals, ages 18-28. Other U of C students and grads are playing leadership roles include Denisa Gavin, a political science major, and Shuvaloy Majumdar, a history student.

Perrin and Gafuik say their philosophy is to work with local groups and organizations and pitch in where help is needed most.

“Working with the local organizations and groups is the only way to do something sustainable,” says Gafuik.
“In Cambodia, we went the first whole month just listening to what the locals needed,” adds Perrin, who is now studying law at the University of Toronto.

So what has the three-year-old Future Group accomplished so far? Trips to Cambodia in 2001 and 2002 have had an impact.

To date solutions include “activity books” for kids – modeled after a Calgary Police Service program – to help educate them about keeping safe from abuse and abductions. The Future Group also launched a peer education program. Perrin says they reached 10,000 children in 2001 and 70,000 last year.

The team also launched www.youwillbecaught.com, to help discourage sex tourists from preying on young victims. Similar brochures are now distributed by Cambodian airlines. So far, 10,000 have been distributed. International media attention they generated on the issue also raised awareness. As well, the Future Group has helped with first-aid training for development workers on the frontlines and small business training for victims.

What makes these accomplishments even more amazing is that the Cambodian child sex trade is an estimated $500-million (US) business. With this kind of money, comes heavy-duty corruption, says Perrin.

A limited budget is also a challenge. In fact, other development workers in Cambodia were shocked at how small the Future Group’s operating budget was.

To solve this problem, Perrin was back on campus earlier this month to host a Future Group fundraising dinner that featured a talk on Canadian foreign policy by Preston Manning.

“Our fundraising ranges from bake sales to major dinners,” says Perrin. “The bottom line is that we wouldn’t accomplish anything without our supporters and volunteers.”

Perrin came up with the idea for the Future Group in July 2000. After ending a summer job in Toronto, he spent a weekend with friends and was trying to figure out what he wanted to do next in his life.

“There was no logic to it,” he says. “I just had a desire to do something important and make a difference.”

After a weekend of brainstorming ideas with his friends, Perrin did more research and eventually launched the Future Group. The next step was to gain credibility.

“We were just young punks with lofty ideas,” he says. “So we built an advisory board of individuals with names and solid reputations.”

For the Cambodian project, one of these early advisors was U of C social sciences dean Stephen Randall.

The group also found key allies in the British ambassador to Cambodia and Joanne Kondrat, a Calgarian working in Cambodia with Jupiter Power, a utilities company. She provided the group with trustworthy contacts, office space and genuine support.

“She said, ‘you guys are crazy, but I’ll help you,’” says Perrin “and she has never asked for a thing in return.”

Gafuik, who will be going to the University of Waterloo next year to do his master’s in Canadian diplomatic history, has been involved with the Future Group since 2001. He had worked with Perrin on the U of C’s highly successful Model UN teams.

“I’ve seen Ben’s work. When he puts his mind to something it always comes to fruition,” says Gafuik.
In 2002, the team expanded its scope to helping orphaned and abandoned kids in Eastern Europe.

“The intention of the Future Group from the beginning was to address significant threats to all of the regions of the world,” says Gafuik.

After consulting with their membership, the Future Group sent a team to Romania.

But after speaking with locals and development workers, the team was told that the greatest need for help was in neighbouring Moldova, where the GDP has sunk by about 60 per cent since 1991.

Moldova has 4.4 million people. Half live below the poverty line. Many parents can’t even afford to buy basic books or pencils or pay the small fees to send their kids to school, says Gafuik. Worse, others simply can’t afford their kids at all, especially those with disabilities; these kids are abandoned or institutionalized.
In total, about 13,000 children are institutionalized, says Gafuik. And of these 13,000 children, about a third are anaemic and one in 10 are underdeveloped.

Besides providing just basic food and shelter to these abandoned and orphaned kids, Perrin says the solution needs to include education and nurturing. Specifically, the development workers need the skills to help these kids get jobs. These workers also need training to help provide support to families.

The team is hoping to return this summer to Moldova and continue their work building partnerships so they can begin to make a difference.

And Perrin is confident they will be able to help – and the sooner the better. “This is a country that needs immediate assistance.”

Want to help?
The Future Group meets weekly at the U of C and these meetings are open to the public. The Future Group needs volunteers with all sorts of skills: research, project development, communications, financial, legal and more. As well, the Future Group needs supporters. “We need people who can give us moral as well as financial support,” says Ben Perrin, the Future Group’s executive director. For more details, visit: www.thefuturegroup.org