‘My Hero Brother’: Crowd-funding a dream trek

In 2011, Enosh Cassel, 31, made headlines when he took his little brother Chanan, 25, who suffers from Down’s syndrome, on a nine-day backpacking trip through Nepal. The trip garnered heavy media coverage by Israeli TV’s Channel 2, which used Cassel’s video blogs of his journey for a documentary story.

Cassel is now trying to recreate his journey for others. With the help of his longtime friend, Itamar Peleg, who works as an organizer for trekking trips, Cassel started “My Hero Brother,” a project that would take 10 pairs of young Israeli siblings, one with and one without Down’s syndrome, on that same week-long bonding trip. The group has already done small excursions in Israel, but Cassel said his dream is to one day lead a united group to visit Nepal.

Cassel — who lives with his wife in Tel Aviv, about an hour away from Chanan in Jerusalem — and his partners sought assistance from the Israeli Association for Down’s syndrome, private companies and the siblings’ parents to help with the cost of a possible trip to Nepal or India, but they still fell short. The group decided to enlist the help of people around the world by putting the project up on Mimoona, an Israeli crowd-funding website.

Similar to popular sites like Kickstarter, Mimoona helps entrepreneurs and artists raise money from the Internet to help fund their dream project. “My Hero Brother” aims to raise NIS 55,000 ($15,000) by August 16. In reality, the project needs about NIS 150,000 ($41,000) to make it to Nepal or India, but NIS 55,000 in donation money will get them to a closer destination, like the former Soviet republic of Georgia. If the entire sum of money is not raised by the proposed date, those who pledged money are not charged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaR6IE4EvB8

Cassel talked to The Times of Israel about achieving his goal, the brother who helped him find his passion for helping others, and just how difficult it is to grow up with a special needs sibling.

How did you come up with the idea to take a backpacking trip with your brother?

Enosh Cassell: Chanan and I have always been really close. Since we were little, we’ve taken many trips together in Israel and he comes to visit me a lot in Tel Aviv where we go to the beach together. But I really like backpacking; since I left the army I’ve taken trekking trips to South America and India, and those were such amazing experiences. Most people go on after-army trips to Nepal or India and they have such an amazing time, I thought Chanan should also get to experience that.

I thought about it for about three years before we did it. I knew it would be really difficult, but in September 2011 we just did it, we bought a ticket and went there.

What was it like taking your brother out of his comfort zone and introducing him to a whole new country and new experiences?

It was intense because it was only the two of us. Chanan gets really bad anxiety when he’s in the dark. A couple of times, we were in dark places at night and he was so scared he wouldn’t go to sleep, so I had to think about what I could to do to help him. The challenge was just to be focused all the time. Something I always tell people when they want to join our group is that it is not going to be easy, it’s a very difficult thing to do and you have to be physically and mentally ready for it.

Why did you decide to raise money on Mimoona to help other siblings follow in your path?

When the Channel 2 story came out, I got a lot of responses from people who had brother and sisters with a similar condition and they wanted to take them on a trip like mine. I got together with my friend Itamar, and we thought about expanding this into a group where Chanan and I could share our experiences with different brothers and sisters. We founded it eight months ago and have a few people helping us, but we need more. So if people believe in our project, Mimoona is a platform for them to hear about it and be a part of it.

How optimistic are you? Do you think you will be able to achieve your goal in time?

I know a lot of people are excited and want to see this happen. I’ve gotten thousands of responses, but money is something different. I hope we’ll have enough money for Nepal, but you can never know how many people will want to give money and make this thing happen.

What is the hardest part about having a sibling with a disability like Down’s syndrome?

That’s hard for me to answer because for me, it’s nothing. I don’t find it difficult. Sometimes there are difficult moments, but I have a really good time with Chanan every time we meet. I think the only hard thing for us as a family, is that we have to make decisions for Chanan and you can’t really know if the decision you’re making for his life is really what he wants. Even though he’s 25, he’s not like a regular person where you can just ask him and he tells you whatever he wants to do. It’s a lot of responsibility and you can never know if it’s right.