The World is Within Reach for Young People with Brain Injuries

Awake early, Melissa Jensen walks out of the circular yurt into Mongolia’s vast rural lands. “I’m from Wisconsin, so I’m used to cows. But I’m not used to brushing my teeth at an outside sink with primitive plumbing and being surrounded by cows,” says Melissa, a college student from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. “That big culture change is what I love.” She’s working as a volunteer-tourist to help rebuild a destroyed Buddhist temple in Mongolia, just three years after her second head injury near the end of high school.

When Melissa began college, she didn’t know the extent of her injuries or how she would react in a school environment again. “I even had a doctor say I shouldn’t try to go to college, that I would be setting myself up for failure. But I just knew I was going to college and there was no doubt in my mind about that one,” says Melissa, who graduated in 2006 with a psychology and religious studies degree. In the same year she graduated, 98 other students with brain injuries were registered with disability services at the University of Wisconsin’s 2- and 4-year campuses.

"Since the effects of a brain injury vary greatly and recovery is dependent on many factors, it isn't always easy to predict how someone will do long-term," says Patricia David, Director of Operations for the Brain Injury Association of Wisconsin, which provides information and advocacy services.

When researching a trip to California after her freshman year, Melissa came across the website for the Cultural Restoration Tourism Project (CRTP, www.crtp.net) based in Pacifica, California. Its short-term volunteer opportunities in Asia immediately caught her attention. Aside from the flight to California that summer, Melissa hadn’t traveled more than three hours from her home.

“My parents just kind of laughed it off. I don’t think they thought it would ever actually happen, that it was just an idea I got and it would die out quickly,” says Melissa, about her first mention of the Mongolia trip. When it got closer, she eased them into it. “My parents were very supportive,” says Melissa, who took a year to plan her volunteer trip to Mongolia. “I don’t know the extent of how worried my mother was, because she tried to stifle that to let me follow my passions.”

Established in 1998, CRTP works closely with its volunteers in the planning stages. Although CRTP hasn’t had many people with disabilities participate, they have had people from ages 12-75 on their programs, including those with diabetes and those who participated as families, says Jennifer Weiser, a CRTP director. CRTP could connect volunteers with people to hire as extra assistants if needed, so that everyone can experience “being part of something really important that you don’t get from typical travel or staying at home,” she says. Like some other overseas volunteer programs, CRTP also has onsite staff to provide orientation, facilitate safety, do translations and answer questions for all volunteers. 

Volunteers book their own flights, but are greeted at the airport in Ulan Bator, Mongolia by local CRTP staff. Melissa booked all her tickets easily, and then started receiving emails that her flights had changed. Suddenly the three-hour layover in Korea turned into a 16-hour layover. “This was not optimal to say the least. It was my first experience dealing with airlines and being an advocate for myself,” says Melissa. After many hours of being transferred from one person to the next, the airline finally agreed to pay for hotel accommodations and a shuttle in Korea.

Despite moments like this, Melissa took it in stride and didn’t end up having any migraines during the trip. Melissa’s short-term memory wasn’t an issue either with traveling. “I had my itinerary with me and everything was written down. I’ve learned to accommodate for that,” says Melissa.

Once on the project site, Melissa met previous volunteers who knew the routine and CRTP staff who helped her settle in. She participated in various activities from planing boards or sawing rods for a new yurt to cleaning a temporary monastery for monks arriving during her second week.

“Mongolia is close to my heart because I booked my trip, I was in charge of what I did and when I did it, and I went on my own and met everyone else on the trip,” says Melissa. The experience also shaped her future goal to work with a social change non-profit organization “to make a difference but have the community sustain itself once I leave.” She is looking into graduate programs and, if she can raise $2500 again, into traveling with a different organization to Sri Lanka to help build a children’s center.

“We see a lot of positive changes in people with disabilities after they have returned from abroad,” says Cerise Roth-Vinson, manager of the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (www.miusa.org/ncde), which provides free information about people with disabilities participating on international exchange programs, including how to find a program and fundraising tips. “Once they have accomplished navigating a foreign place, everything else that comes up in their life seems very doable. They’ve already proven they have the skills to get through a new situation.”

Melissa is not the only person with a head injury who has traveled abroad with a purpose, says Roth-Vinson, whose organization, Mobility International USA, gathers such success stories. Other volunteer abroad programs, such as Cross-Cultural Solutions, the Peace Corps and Volunteers for Peace, have also had people with disabilities participate in their international programs all over the world.

In Mongolia, a twelve-year old boy in his monk robe asks to say a blessing for the new yurt that Melissa is helping to build. He pulls out his prayer book, says a blessing, bows and then runs off to play.

“To see that a line of distinction isn’t there, that someone can be full of life and lighthearted like people would expect from a kid and also very serious, focused and dedicated, is amazing to see,” says Melissa. She learns and teaches others that people aren’t always what they first appear to be. And, like others living with brain injuries, while she may not be able to predict what the future holds, she has a new understanding of what is possible.

410 Paloma Ave

Pacifica, CA 94044

Tel: (415) 563-7221

Email: info@crtp.net

Web: http://www.crtp.net

Programs hosted by Cultural Restoration Tourism Project are always community initiated. They help communities who want to help themselves, but do not have the resources to do it on their own. People from around the world pitch-in to help these communities regain a part of their cultural heritage.