The first time I went to Iquitos, Peru was in 2017 and I fell in love with the place. It is the largest city in the world that can only be accessed by boat or airplane and it sits deep in the Amazon rainforest. I go back there almost every year. On that same first trip I became friends with a guy named Davide Grumelli. He is an Italian with a law degree that fell in love with the region after doing a 3 MONTH CAMPING TRIP LIVING IN THE JUNGLE OFF THE LAND. He literally had an indigenous guide that helped him camp, forage, hunt, and survive in the jungle for 3 months straight. They slept in trees to avoid getting eaten by jaguars (what a badass!). He has lived in Iquitos for over 15 years now and has a Peruvian son named Francesco. Davide and I have become life long friends I consider him my brother.
When COVID hit it had absolutely devastating results on the people of Iquitos. Davide and I teamed up and started raising money from friends and family before we realized we needed to go bigger and made a Go Fund Me campaign to raise $10,000 for food to evenly distribute to the families of his neighborhood (Tupac Amaru). We raised $7,841 from 128 donors (I put in additional funds to get us over the $10k mark).
We bought eggs, oil, pasta, rice, beans, cooking oil, toilet paper, acetaminophen, masks and more. These items are very cheap there, and the large grocery chain Pacific Mart really hooked us up. We organized our efforts and fed over 1100 people for over a month while the situation stabilized.
This was a great example of using entrepreneurial skills of marketing, social media, and organizational management to make a difference!
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