Andino - Communicating Hope

The Begining.

March. 04, 2009 -  

After two great years working in the distressed credit market for a Greenwich based hedge fund, I decided that I had been working hard and had saved up enough that I could enjoy a little self indulgence in the form of a new car. I was contemplating my yet to be purchase, when I took my first post graduate vacation; having completed my undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University's engineering school two years prior. I traveled with a friend to South America, completing our trip in Peru with a five day hike to Machu Picchu.

While traveling, I was unexpectedly confronted with the lives of street children. I was given a face to a problem and a number that I had never put much thought into. I had been unaware of or maybe just didn’t care about the millions of people living in poverty throughout the Andean region. I had no idea, that for over four decades Latin America has endured the unenviable distinction of having more street children per capita than any other place on earth and that for every child who sleeps in the street there are hundreds more in practically the same condition who live on the street by day, but at night sleep under a plastic sheet or in a woven reed or adobe hovel with their siblings.

I was struck by the helplessness of the children. The poverty I encountered in the villages and cities I visited was a stark clash with the beauty of the landscape and a constant reminder of the hardships that were endured by so many of the local people. Everyday I was in awe of the sheer intensity of the atmosphere. It was impossible to go anywhere without street children swarming around me selling cigarettes, post cards, or simply begging for money. I thought at the time how I wished there was something I could do to provide these children with the opportunity for a better life. It pained me to see young children on the street begging for food and money. It felt wrong for so many to live in such misery.

I wanted to do something to help, so I turned to google and began searching out charities that helped street children in the Andean region. I was disappointed by what I found. I discovered a slim selection of organizations and they generally consisted of colossus organizations. Organizations, where my money would go into there giant coffer and I would never see the results. I would just have to have faith in the organization’s impact. I do not mean to imply that such organizations do not accomplish tremendous things, but frankly, the lack of visibility wasn’t good enough for me.

So after two years working in finance, and with a skill set in hand, I decided to start a charity. I started a charity, in the fathoms of an economic recession, a time when few people were in a position to give to charity.

I packed up my stuff and got on a plane for Peru determined to put my time, energy and limited resources to work. I set high goals – tangible, transparent results.

I spent the first few months working for a small NGO, teaching basic math and the spanish alphabet to street children of all ages. I needed to fully understand their lives before I could effectively help them. Now, I not only had a face to the problem, but I had smiles, tears, stories and, of course… photos.

With great difficulty, I left the small school which I had grown to call home and set out to find another community in need - the easy part. Next, I put my car savings to work in a different way. Within weeks, I had found a community with school age children who were not attending a school, met with parents, kids, community leaders and on the last day of my third week opened a school.

Talk about transparent, obtainable results.

Taking kids not in a school, not on a path towards an education and getting them into a school.
So it began.

-Gregg Bell

The concept of Andino International was born.