{"id":21794,"date":"2016-06-14T19:44:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=21794"},"modified":"2020-03-30T22:50:29","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T02:50:29","slug":"travel-world-helping-fund-important-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/travel-world-helping-fund-important-project","title":{"rendered":"Travel the world by helping to fund The Important Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

What better way to get to know people than to travel around the world and listen to their stories? That\u2019s always been a dream for Ariston Vallejos, founder of a new nonprofit organization called The Important Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vallejos says the idea for his startup is to create an all-inclusive global community that\u2019s not separated by cultural, language, or physical barriers. He says he and his team have met some pretty inspiring people along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe interviewed a Syrian refugee who was imprisoned and tortured for over 50 days in Iran,\u201d says Vallejos. \u201cHe was smuggled into Turkey where he lived nine months in a barn before he sought asylum through the United Nations. We\u2019re definitely telling his story.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he was in college, Vallejos lived in Japan for six months. He came up with the idea for the Important Project even before he returned to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest lesson I learned while abroad in Japan is essentially that less is more,\u201d says Vallejos, a member at Portland\u2019s WeWork Custom House<\/a>. \u201cIn Japan, people typically have far less in terms of space and material belongings than we do in this country. I got rid of the things in my life that were excessive in order to seek a much more happier, simpler lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vallejos says he\u2019s determined to travel to 30 countries for a year to find subjects who have interesting and inspiring stories to share with the world.<\/p>\n

Vallejos hopes to publish a series of photo books featuring the people he has met on his journeys. His recently launched Kickstarter campaign<\/a> seeks to raise $85,000 to help defray the costs of printing and travel abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, we have interviewed over 800 people,\u201d Vallejos says, \u201cso this will be a very robust collection.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What better way to get to know people than to travel around the world and listen to their stories? That\u2019s always been a dream for Ariston Vallejos, founder of a new nonprofit organization called The Important Project. Vallejos says the idea for his startup is to create an all-inclusive global community that\u2019s not separated by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":917,"featured_media":21795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43911],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-member-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTravel the world by helping to fund The Important Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ariston Vallejos says the idea for his startup is to create a global community that\u2019s not separated by cultural, language, or physical barriers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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