"Barton Brooks's compassionate heart and leadership brings hope to some of the darkest corners of the world.
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I admire all his hard work and especially enjoyed seeing the positive difference he's making in Africa."
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– Laura Bush: First Lady of the United States of America
ABOUT
Barton Brooks
It's been over twenty years since I started "Guerrilla Aid" - crowdsourcing community projects around the world and having the adventure of a lifetime. I was a strong man in my early thirties, with a heart full of fire trying to put my mark on the world.
I had remarkable success, but was knocked out of the arena with a near fatal motorcycle accident on the border of Uganda and the Congo. Through the years of surgery that followed, I could never make peace that my favorite part of life was over. I spent years in rehab, battling mental demons and always wondering if I could get back up and try again. Plagued with self-doubt, and after languishing for over a decade, I mustered a bit of courage to try again. Incredibly, it worked.
So here I am, back out in the world doing what I love - being a bridge for those with needs and those that can help - and having an adventure along the way. It's different as a man in his fifties and a body full of metal, but I'm happy to say that the heart full of fire has returned.
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I've come to realize that it's never too late to pick up an old dream, and no matter how difficult things may be, you're never too broken to be brave.​
The long version: How it all began, ended, and began again...
I lived an itinerant existence most of my life - with lives in New York, LA, Asia, and Europe - never staying anywhere longer than a year or two. I was either running from my life or searching for it, and could never tell you why at the time. I was just an unmoored college dropout, never feeling like I had a place in the world.
During a familiar moment of frustration, I saw a show where Angelina Jolie spoke of Cambodia, and was hooked immediately. I bought a plane ticket that night, as it seemed about as far away as I could go - both in distance and reality. That decision changed my entire life. I still credit Angelina Jolie as the reason this all began, as every thing I've created in the world is because of her inspiration.
When I got to Cambodia, I started checking off the tourist sites, and while near Temple Bayon, met a group of monks taking care of some orphaned boys. We played a little soccer, struck up a quick friendship, and took a few pictures.
It was a simple moment, but when I got back to my hotel room, that picture brought something I hadn't felt in a long time - purpose. It made me want to go back and help that little community, so I raised some money and was back in Cambodia six months later - with a little cash, school supplies, and soccer balls for the boys. It was nothing at all - a couple thousand dollars and a rudimentary attempt to make someplace just a tiny bit better than when I'd found it.
***This was the picture taken that first day, the one that changed my entire life.
That simple event blossomed into a small non-profit organization focused on immediate global aid, where I'd travel the world and email youtube videos with requests like, "I need $7 for a beehive, will you help?" It took off dramatically, and I began to create change everywhere I went.
I gave cows to Maasai widows in Kenya, planted trees in Mozambique, worked with an orphanage in Nepal, built floating libraries in Laos, opened schools in Cambodia, and facilitated projects in Burma, India, Uganda, and elsewhere. At the time it was quite a novel idea, as this was long before GoFundMe or social media.
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My approach was fast and fluid, and I got attention very quickly. I got a call from the White House where I was asked to create something for First Lady Laura Bush in Africa and Asia. I went on to join her as an advisor at the United Nations, greet her in Senegal, help organize a trip to southeast Asia, and see her in Utah. She was always gracious and kind.
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Then came the lovely folks at Oprah, who wanted to highlight my work as I ran around the world doing "guerrilla aid." We even signed a TV deal for me to host a travel show on OWN about my work.
Traveling and posting for Oprah was remarkable, because it expanded my reach tremendously, and her readers would donate to build clean water wells, chicken coops, and other projects. Thousands of people were being helped, and I'd finally become the man I'd always wanted to be.
In March of 2009 (Friday the 13th), I was hit by a truck on my motorcycle in Uganda. My femur was shattered, I had a broken shoulder, cracked skull, broken arms, knees torn from the ligaments, and was left for dead on the side of the road. A taxi drove by, and I was folded up and put in the back seat, with my leg on the floorboards turned backwards. I went in and out of consciousness for the hour long drive to Kisoro, before I was stabilized at a small local hospital. A few days later, I was put on a Medevac flight to Kampala for procedures with no anesthesia, before being flown home to NY for years of reconstructive surgeries.
After multiple surgeries and months of rehab, I made it back to Uganda on crutches - determined to keep going. A few months later in 2010, I went to Haiti after the earthquake in an upgraded knee brace. I maintained my relationship with Oprah and called in to Gayle King's radio show weekly to talk about efforts on the ground. With her followers, we rebuilt the first two schools in the entire country, and I was officially back on track!
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But my leg was feeling wonky in Haiti, so before I moved on, I went home to NYC for a quick doctor visit. It was then that I learned that my femur was rebuilt incorrectly (catastrophically so), and in order to minimize further damage, my leg had to be rebroken to start again. Years of surgeries and rehab were to follow.
I checked back into the hospital, and my life on the road was over. Everything disappeared - funding dried up, projects languished, the Oprah TV deal was cancelled, and the effects of PTSD overtook my mental health. I retreated to my home in Woodstock, a completely different person than I was just a year earlier. I went from running around the world making a difference, to a melancholy man wandering his yard, tending to his chickens and watching the deer.​
With the loss of my sense of self, I floundered for years trying to take control of my mental health, failing miserably each time. I was hospitalized after nearly ending it all - I felt like I was already dead, why not make it official?
I was in the process of getting my affairs in order, weeks away from when I was planning to end my life, when I was introduced to a man named Bessel van der Kolk. He agreed to be my personal therapist, and quite literally saved my life. Bessel wrote the best selling trauma recovery book, "The Body Keeps the Score" and while working with him, I began the slow journey back to myself. The time he spent with me was another one of life's great gifts, as the lights slowly came back on. I spent hours a day working back to my carefree, optimistic, and adventurous mind, and when I finally started to feel like myself again, I couldn't shake the question, "what was I supposed to do now?"
One evening during a session with Bessel, he made the comment that he didn't think I was done with the aid work, and thought I would return to the old adventurous me. I scoffed at the thought, told him that guy was dead, but began to wonder if he was right. Was there any way to reconnect with my past? Was it even possible?​ I mean, God, I was now in my fifties and so much slower, with plates in my arms and shoulders, and a titanium femur that made me limp when I'm tired - who would believe in me now?​​
I decided to push through the self-defeating talk, and one afternoon found a bit of bravery. I called former supporters, donors, sponsors, and friends - telling them I wanted to try again, and shockingly, they all believed I could. Not only that, but they said they'd help.
It seemed like the only thing standing in my way, was me.
So long story longer, I'm back on the road, and it's better than I could have ever imagined (other than the slipped disc, torn rotator cuffs, surgeries in Bangkok, and the rabies scare) but, I've never been more at peace with my place in the world.​​
