A most creative way of seeing the world

Published Apr 30, 2015

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Cape Town - Mark van der Heijden is living a life many would envy. From meeting Nile Rodgers, one of the biggest names of the disco scene in the late 1970s, to rubbing shoulders with the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, his decision to venture out of his comfort zone is taking him places.

In 2013, just two weeks after getting his permanent contract as a creative copywriter at advertising agency Lemz in Holland, Van der Heijden, now 29, waved goodbye to his comfortable job, his home and family to undertake a journey that would forever alter his worldview.

“I was working for one of the best advertising agencies in the Netherlands and the world, but I had this feeling that there was more.

“I wanted to see of the world - meet new people, get inspired by different cultures and try different foods,” he says.

“I have always been addicted to travelling and really enjoy being in a different environment, (so) I said goodbye to my apartment and packed a backpack… I literally have nothing.”

Using his savings, he booked a six month around-the-world ticket that would take him to seven destinations, from New York City to Bali.

“I was ready to leave when I realised that I didn’t have enough money to do all the things I wanted to do, especially in the US where it’s really expensive,” Van der Heijden explains

“I asked myself: ‘What do I really need on a trip to survive?’ I already had the ticket and my physical needs were food and a place to sleep. If I had those two, I could just keep travelling.

“I came up with the idea that I could just exchange the skills that I had learnt in the past six years for food and shelter.”

That is how the story of the The Backpacker Intern began, he says.

After posting a video online of him explaining his plan, Van der Heijden received an overwhelming number of job offers from across the world.

“I had no expectations whatsoever and I was amazed when the video was picked up by different media from all over the world. I received 750 job offers from around the world, including Jamaica, India, Iran and Africa,” he says.

He started his tour in Thailand, working for Amnesty International, and in just over a year has travelled to five continents - Africa is his sixth - and worked for 28 companies in 22 countries, asking for no wages except food and shelter in exchange for his services.

His unique adventure has gained him a big social media following, an invite to the White House, and he was featured in TedX Teen and a number of publications around the world.

So far, he has received about 14 legitimate job offers.

Van der Heijden is currently interning at Ogilvy & Mather in Woodstock, where we meet him for the interview. The company is one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world.

“I just want to expand in my field, to see what it’s like to work directly for a brand and for charity. I have learnt that you can do much more with your creativity than what you think.

“I have worked in almost all the major advertising agencies around the world and it’s been interesting to see how they run their businesses.

“It’s also a social experience, to see what it is like not to work for money. “ he says.

Meeting the Pakistani activist for female education, Malala Yousafzai, in Liverpool last year has been one of the highlights of his adventure, he says. The 17-year-old, who survived being shot by the Taliban, was delivering a keynote address at the World Merit Day conference on her upbringing in Pakistan and her decision to speak out against the Taliban regime.

“Some people enter a room and you feel their energy in the room; she is one of those people but a hundred times more. She is so cool because she is like a normal girl, but extraordinary at the same time,” says Van der Heijden.

“The things she was saying were on a different level, really inspiring and intelligent. I realised that this person is talking about making the world a better place, but she is also still a child. That was an eye-opener for me.”

Other highlights have been the amazing people he’s met over the past months.

“When a lot of people travel to a place, they take pictures of all the highlights. I have since discovered that the highlights are not the buildings, but the people.

“I have had conversations with a Nobel Prize winner to people living in the favelas (slums) in Brazil who have nothing. I saw the beauty in all those kinds of different characters,” says Van der Heijden

He will be heading to Madagascar for his next internship.

To follow his journey, read his blog at http://thebackpackerintern.com/author/markvanderheijden/ or his Instagram page “Mark van der Heijden”.

Cape Argus

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