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Amantani and The Ultimate Travel Company

The result was the creation the following year of the charity Amantani and the building of the first of three boarding houses, allowing the most disadvantaged children to stay close to their school. Over a coffee with Nick Van Gruisen, Chris Palfreyman (Co-Director of Amantani), described how the collaboration came about and what the Meet My World initiative is looking to achieve.

Chris: In 2011, we organised an exhibition in London to share the incredible pictures taken by the Ccorca children with disposable cameras. Laura Trace, South America specialist from The Ultimate Travel Company, came to the show and, shortly after, we contacted Nick to see if his company would like to get involved in the charity which, we believed shared, a number of core values. You did, donating £3,000 to help towards the setting up a new boarding house.

Nick: I believe we need to help those less fortunate communities who have been so welcoming to us and our guests. And it is such hands-on charities as Amantani where the money goes straight to those that need it, and not fancy offices and high salaried officials. I could see that a little money would go a long way with this project and that a modest ‘seed donation’ would allow Amantani to generate bigger donations and investment from other sources.

Chris: For Meet My World we asked twelve children to write and present films that will teach traditional skills from their communities. The idea is simple: the more people that learn from the children's films, the prouder they will be. The videos range from Yuri’s How to catch a fish with your bare hands to Magali’s How to dye clothes with vegetables. The films will be ‘premiered’ in London on May 6th and 7th with support from a number of celebrities including renowned Peruvian chef Martin Morales, founder of Ceviche and author of Ceviche Peruvian Kitchen (The Sunday Times ‘Cookbook of the Year’).

We hope to see as many of you as possible at the Meet My World event on 6th & 7th May. We are even giving away free tickets, keep an eye on our Facebook page! For more info and tickets visit: Meet My World. For a taste of Peru in London visit Andina or Ceviche, award winning restaurants serving Peruvian food the local way.