Not Forgotten Update 2014 - Smarter Every Day 126

[music] Hey it's me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. So last year about this time I made a video on the Project For Awesome website asking you to vote for an organization called Not Forgotten that's working to get sexually exploited children off the streets of Iquitos, Peru, which is a majorly isolated city and a hub for sex trafficking. Holy cow you people trust me because between the Project for Awesome and direct donations over $78,000 were raised. That is a lot of money. We actually built an orphanage in the rainforest and it is amazing.

So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna go show you everything we built and if you feel that we're doing it right, if you feel like you can trust us, I would ask you to support us again. But first, let me show you what we did, cause it's awesome. Let's go. My buddy CJ and I have been working with Not Forgotten for several years now. Iquitos, Peru is a city of 400,000 people that you can only get to via airplane or boat, which makes it the ideal place if you're a human trafficker because there's not a large government presence here.

OK now it's time to show you what we've done on the orphanage. This is the fun part. There's a wall, and let's go through a butterfly puddle on the way. Isn't that awesome? Let's go check out what's been built on the orphanage. The reveal. Wowwww. (Destin) Wow, so Project for Awesome built one of those. - They built two of those. - Really? From the private donations as well. - Yeah, between private donations and Project for Awesome both these homes have been built. - OK let's rack and stack what we've actually done with the money.

OK, step one. - That wall from last year, we completed it. And we're building this guard shack. - Keep the boys safe. Next thing. A decorative plant. - I hope you like them because we planted like 50 of them up the driveway. [laughs] (Destin) We built legit soccer goals for the soccer field. You're not gonna believe this. What happened here? This is one tree, right? - That's right. So this huge tree fell down in the back of the property, out in the middle of the jungle. So we cut it up and we're building a gazebo in the middle of the water. - Which is awesome! (Children) Gracias!

(Destin) Check it out, a farm. I have no idea what to call this stuff in Spanish, but Tyler does. - piña. Ahi. Banana. - But we're not really sure what that is. - Papaya. Cocona. [Very saucy accent] Hierba Luisa! [laughs] Mango. - Excellent, OK food covered. Now let's go look at the actual building that was built. OK check it out. This is the first building. This is the common room. Right here we actually have bedrooms for the boys. We're doing it legit. First aid, fire alarms, fire extinguishers. We're not messing around here. - We've got power! [laughs]

(Destin) That's a big deal. In summary, we built two buildings and in doing so we employed 14 local fathers. This income provided their family with more stability. We also funded the higher education of 4 older orphans in order to transition them more smoothly to adulthood, which is hugely important. For example, in Iquitos we were stopped by a policeman who was once a street boy helped by Not Forgotten. So clearly the system works.

The one thing we splurged on is a full set of soccer jerseys for a local orphanage that was already established. These kids loved them. So there you go. That's where all $78,000 of your money went. OK, the first step before you actually bring kids into the orphanage is to get the right families in place to host them. You can tell there's a meal going on here. We've got how many couples? - 6 couples. - 6 couples are being interviewed in here. [laughter and voices] Obviously they're happy people, so what we're doing is, the next what, 3 days..

• The next 3 days we'll be looking at their educational background, evaluating them psychologically, and seeing how they interact with kids to make sure we have the best people in place to take care of them. - It's pretty cool. Here's some footage we shot earlier of a psychologist going through a class with them and figuring out how these people rack and stack. It's pretty interesting. OK, that's what we did this year with the money for Project for Awesome. Physically built buildings.

So, if you trust us and you think we're doing this the correct way, the goal now is to use more money from this year, if you can vote for us, to hopefully get operational costs under control. That way when we get these kids, and we get the host parents here we have everything covered. Alright, have a good one buddy. Alright, so that's the last thing. We're about to start actually getting boys and bringing them to the orphanage. So if you'd like to help, please go to the Project for Awesome website, click the link at the bottom, vote for what we're working on here, it's a really good thing.

So thank you for your support in the past and I really hope you'd support us in the future. I'm Destin. You're getting Smarter Every Day, have a good one. OK, I've tried to make this as simple as possible. Click on that top red button there, or the first link in the video description to go to the Project for Awesome website. Scroll down and click Vote for this video and that will put us in the running. It's a really big deal. You have one vote though, but your friends have many.

So if you'll look at these other buttons, possibly share this video, you can help us with some compound voting. Thank you so much for your time and now I'll let the boys say thank you themselves. - Thank you Project for Awesome. - Don't forget to be awesome. - My name is Julio Cesar. I'm from Peru. I am 17. Thank you Project for Awesome.