Meet Alex Angel-Benscher and learn how the street children of Cambodia inspired him to found Vurchoo
Today’s transformative travel story takes us to Cambodia with Alex Angel-Benscher, Founder and Designer of jewellery brand, Vurchoo.
Alex learned to draw on the streets of Essex where he grew up but like Saltee the inspiration for his business comes from a transformative travel experience.
In 2009 Alex spent 14 months travelling the world on his own both volunteering and working in various countries worldwide. It was during this time that Alex experienced a ‘lightbulb’ moment and understood how he could realise his dream to help people through his creativity.
The idea of Vurchoo was planted while travelling through Cambodia and seeing street children doing what they could to survive; some of them selling whatever they could, including fantastic creations they had made themselves, but without a proper outlet for them.
Alex shared with us that:
“I he wanted to find a way to use my passion for design to help these kids. I decided to work with schools in all corners of the globe, knowing that they all needed an extra source of income, and asked the school children to draw whatever meant the most to them. The results were fantastic, from the colours of Africa to the emotions of Asia, each one was a reflection of the child’s story and the culture they were surrounded by.”
Today at Vurchoo for every design sold the brand gives between 10-25% of profits to charities, in the UK and overseas, via their UK partner registered charity Teach a Man to Fish.
Alex adds
“This initiative empowers not only the pupils but also helps the communities they are part of, and with your support, Vurchoo will be able to keep helping change lives for the better around the world.”
Vurchoo is the most natural partnership for Saltee. Our businesses have a shared mission to have a positive impact on the World around us and an inspiration that comes from transformative travel experiences.
