Pieter Romein, a Dutch national, came to Peru in 2005, as a tourist with lot's of time on his hand. He had recently retired from Royal Dutch Shell. In Cusco he found what he was looking for: a great way to help thousands of families out of poverty, through Pachamama Raymi.

Pieter mobilized friends back home, and in less than a year he adopted three districts through DEXCEL-Peru, 34 villages in all, tripling the program DEXCEL-Peru had started just half a year earlier. It was Pieter who inspired the Millennium Champ Program.

Pieter founded the Association “Learning from Each Other” (Leren van Elkaar) to sponsor a number of villages to eradicate poverty in each one of them.