Understanding Travelers Philanthropy

Bonnie Lunt and Azama student by David Chamberlain

Bonnie Lunt couldn’t figure out why the little girls were tugging at her clothes and trying to take them off, right in the middle of Azama’s town square. But she decided to go with the moment.

“We were having a celebration, and we were all dancing, “Lunt remembers of that day last summer. “Before I knew it, they had dressed me in a new outfit, beautifully made traditional pieces, topped of by this gorgeous blouse.” One of the women told her that during festivals like this, they preferred that she wear their clothes.

Each had embroidered part of the blouse.

Seven years before this particular celebration, Lunt had paid her first visit to the remote village, part of greater Otavalo, up to 10,000 feet in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. The founder and president of Bonnie Lunt Management, a New York search firm for the upper echelons of the advertising and creative industries, was on her way to the Galapagos Islands to fulfill her commitment to a charitable project, a group home she and her friends were helping to build. When one of those friends suggested that Lunt visit the ancient Otavalo Market in Ecuador to pick up some wall hangings for the home, Lunt took the 1300 mile detour that turned her already full life in a dramatic new direction.

Lunt is known for placing marketing and advertising clients in high -profile positions, brokering big deals and activating her substantial network to do good. After Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1993, Lunt co-founded a organization dubbed People Helping People Disaster Relief, so many friends and contacts could donate dollars and offer help during the crisis. Active across the country from Northridge, California, site of the 1994 earthquake, to post 9-11-2001 New York City, the group got people to “come together, do what we had to do and then leave,” Lunt recalls.

“Until Ecuador.“

Captivated by the region’s people and natural beauty, Lunt returned again and again to Otavalo, built a home and got to know a teacher named Margot Cifuentes. Cifuentes was teaching a full day in a nearby city, then returning to the village to teach dozens of children on the lawn in front of her house. None of these children could attend regular schools because they had to work during the day, or just couldn’t afford the school fees.

Lunt watched the students “all gather around one piece of paper, which was their lesson for the day. If it rained, they would fling themselves over that paper to keep it dry.”

Lunt’s first idea was to put up a circus sized tent. When she asked a client if he knew anyone with a company that made canvas, he offered $20,000 and asked if that would be enough to help buy the tent. Lunt recalls telling him, “That is actually enough for a building. So we’ll build a school.” Then Cifuentes explained that, while the children had at least some education, they didn’t have any medical care.

Part of the reason? “A lot of attention and resources get diverted to Africa,” Lunt explained, “because the kids there are starving to death. There is just so much poverty here but it looks different. “She says 90 percent of the children in Azama are anemic. “They eat, but they’re malnourished. Many sleep on the ground and have lice, scabies and worms.”

So Lunt decided she was going to adopt the village. “I didn’t know what that meant, “she says, “but we had to change the education and the health situation.”

During the last two years, Lunt and her friends have built a primary school and community center, a health center and a dental clinic -all literally from the ground up. A modest woman who describes her impressive career as simply, “connecting the dots between people,” Lunt used advice from her mentor, advertising magnate Jay Chiat. “He told me, ‘Just go forward. If you make a mistake, It’s OK to come back and fix it, but unless you go forward, you don’t get anywhere.”

According to Helayne Spivak, chief creative officer of CCA Advertising, “Bonnie looks around, sees what she sees and says, I’ll bet I could help,’ And she does it on the strength of her personality.” When Spivak saw photos of Azama’s children crowding the walls of Lunt’s Manhattan office, she decided to provide not just financial support but also time and effort. Within weeks, the renowned copywriter and creative director was en route to Ecuador as “one of Bonnie’s ‘Band Aid mules.” “We brought 50 pound suitcases loaded with everything you have in your medicine cabinets and take for granted,” Spivak says. Dozens of top women in advertising and other professionals, including a group of female accountants from Yale, began making regular flights.” There was no persuasion necessary,” she says. “We’d do anything for Bonnie.”

As one of the forces behind the nationally recognized Miami Ad School, the first institute of its kind with locations around the globe, Lunt has a passion for education. During a recent visit to Ecuador, Lunt recalls,”the cutest girl, Pacorina, came to the door.” Paco, who is about 8, showed Lunt her new bilingual book. “She sits down at the table and reads the whole thing out loud. Then she starts reading the English version! Last year she couldn’t read at all.” Lunt remembers thinking, Wow, Its working. “I’d just had a birthday, and that was the best present. It made my heart smile.”

Today Lunt is in search of dermatologists and ophthalmologists (Because of Azama’s high elevation, eye and skin problems are especially serious). The clinic needs dentists willing to become philanthropic travelers, and the lack of clean water for non tourists is “beyond desperate.” At the same time, the generosity Lunt and her compadres find in Azama is a constant gift.

Each time Lunt leaves New York for her small Ecuadorian style stucco house with a tile roof and furniture handmade by local artisans, she has more company.

“Once people see it and get involved as philanthropic travelers, they want to spend more time here,” she says.

“Everyone who visits has returned, or plans to, and most bring other people.”

When the village has clean water and the school and health center can sustain themselves, Lunt hopes to replicate the same success in another Ecuadorian village using the same powerful technique that has had such an impact on Azama. “You just reach out, and something happens,” she says.

“Maybe not right away, but then the phone rings and it happens.”

Margot Cifuentes, children of Azama and Bonnie Lunt -by David Chamberlain

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“Alms for Azama To Transform one South American village, it takes a Woman.” by Kate Yandoh

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“If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time but if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” -Indigenous Saying

Philanthropic Travel is the Ultimate Luxury

The Exquisite Safaris philanthropic travel experience integrates indigenous local culture into every personalized luxury trip we recommend. These personal introductions create authentic cross cultural friendships that generate trust, respect, and generous donations funding philanthropic travel projects worldwide.