Reversing the trend of young people from Central and South America crossing into our country and relying on our charity, two young men studying at Northwestern University are planning a bike trek through South America for charity.

Two rising sophomores are set to embark on a 3,000-mile bike ride across South America.

Jacob Frazer and Alfie Astor leave Tuesday for Arequipa, Peru, where they will begin their ride in hopes of raising $3,000 for the South American charity TECHO.

“This is going to be a total adventure, total journey, and the biggest physical and mental challenge that I’ve ever embarked on,” Frazer said.

Both Frazer and Astor had experience traveling before coming to Northwestern and said they originally planned the trip as a way to have an adventure before other responsibilities prevented them from doing so.

“There’s going to be a lot of pressure to pick up internships in coming years,” Astor said. “We feel like this maybe is one of the last summers we can do something like this, pretty ridiculous, pretty crazy. ”

Frazer and Astor are also using this trip as a way to raise money and awareness for TECHO, an organization with representation in 19 different Latin American countries. TECHO works to eradicate extreme poverty in Latin American slums by implementing construction projects and other social programs, such as schools and job training.

“What TECHO does is connect with these rural slums that are overlooked by the government, and they raise awareness about their situation and foster community development,” Frazer said. “They don’t just throw money at a situation, they focus on infrastructure.”

Astor and Frazer will be collecting donations through their fundraising page on goennounce.com. They also plan on updating the page throughout their trip to raise awareness about the communities they encounter.

The two originally found TECHO with help from NU Alumni Services. They ultimately chose to support its cause for several reasons, including TECHO’S model for how it serves communities.

“The great thing about it is it’s a very localized charity,” Astor said. “It doesn’t fly people in, it raises local awareness by developing a connection between people who are able to help and people who need help in the same area.”