Man Leads 13-Country Trek to Combat Poverty

Bob Hentzen, 74, plans to walk 13,000 kilometers

February 18, 2011

Bob Hentzen, 74, during his Walk2gether journey to raise awareness of poverty and develop solutions to eliminate it.

More than a year ago, Bob Hentzen, 74, set out on a remarkable journey - to walk with the poor in order to raise awareness of their plight. Since leaving his home in Guatemala, he's walked through El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Hentzen and his supporters have covered more than 9,000 of the planned 13,000-kilometer-long route to Valparaíso, Chile.

"We get up very early on a daily basis. We begin at a point where we had stopped yesterday. We’re careful to really, really walk the entire distance that we have promised," says Hentzen. "We are able to do the equivalent of a marathon, of 25 miles (40 kilometers) per day. And almost always we’re able to finish before the nightfall."

Twenty years ago, Hentzen, his brother, sister and a family friend established the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, to help poor families in Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. CFCA is now serving people of all faiths in 23 developing countries.

Walking is the most common means of transportation for the poor in those countries. They walk to school and work, to gather firewood and fill buckets with water. That’s why Hentzen decided to walk and meet with some of the people sponsored by his organization.