Before studying at Oxford University, Anthony Lunch spent 12 months doing Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), as a teacher in The Gambia. Some years later, he joined the Council of VSO and was active in this capacity from 1983 to 1990, gaining experience in volunteer projects.
He founded the Sermathang Project, Nepal, in 1990. This helped educate many hundreds of children in communities in the Helambu area, with a new school being built in 1995.
In 2000, Lunch founded MondoChallenge in order to widen the scope of the projects. MondoChallenge now sends volunteers to Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Kenya, The Gambia, Chile and Ecuador. Said Lunch: "My vision has always been 'People first, money second.' We are NOT a funding organisation, but I know from experience that the small amounts we do provide go much further than many international aid programmes! Although much of the volunteer contribution must inevitably go to covering our running costs, the MondoChallenge Foundation, our sister charity, fundraises and supports our development projects financially in the countries where our volunteers are working. This funding, together with the work of volunteers, has already had a huge impact on many schools, orphanages, and small businesses and ultimately the lives of many thousands of people that Mondo has been lucky enough to work with. This is how I planned it, and this is how I intend it will continue."
Lunch has a career background in international business with Unilever, the French multinational, Phildar, and more recently his own company, Business Link ExpoQuest. He was recently seconded to the UK Government's Department of Trade & Industry as Export Adviser for western Europe and has been involved for many years in supporting small businesses.
