Changes for New Hope Humanitarian Magazine - November 2018 issue

HERO- ANTHONY CAPRA, CREATOR OF ONE FOR ALL- ALL FOR ONE SHARES HOW IT ALL BEGAN It had been two weeks since I officially created a non profit organization and now I found myself on a flight heading to Peru. For five years I had been thinking about starting my own organization, now I was on my way to collaborate on my first charity project. Immediately after creating 1.4.All.4.1 I emailed over a hundred different organizations/projects that were doing humanitarian work in hopes of teaming up together with them to help people in need. The following day I checked my email and I saw that I had received 50 automated responses and only one actual response. I didn?t know it at the time but the one person that did reply would go on to be a mentor to me. Someone who would be guiding me while I learned how to set the foundations of the work that I would be doing for the following years. His name is Jim Killon, he was the founder of Changes for New Hope, an organization that was created in 2009 with the aim of enhancing the lives of children living in destitution and extreme conditions in the Peruvian Andes. I was so eager to help that I simply asked Jim to tell me what I could do and when I could go. He explained to me that the children he was helping at the time were in need of basic necessities such as gloves and scarves for the weather but also board games, coloring books, crayons, toys and anything else that would help enrich their lives.

Over the next two weeks, I filled up 3 suitcases with donations that I?d received from over 30 family members and friends. On June 11th, 2016, I landed in Lima, Peru and hopped on a bus to start my 8 hour ride to Huaraz where I would be meeting with Jim. The ride was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. We drove through a different range of views from beautiful desert landscapes to scenic mountains, all while whipping around sharp turns that seemed to be hanging off steep drops that triggered my fear of heights. While everyone else was at ease with the ride, I was praying. During the drive my mind was racing through a range of emotions. ?Did I make the right decision??, ?people are counting on you.?, ?did Jim catfish me?!? I was in a state of being excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. When we finally arrived to Huaraz, I stepped off the bus and was greeted by Jim with a huge smile and an even bigger handshake. He led me to where I would be staying for the night.

The following day we were up early to go visit a group of kids that lived on a mountain top who Jim had been contributing to. Everything had happened so quickly but now everything was starting to settle in.