It was a sight that presented such a stark contrast to his own fortune; a young boy standing at the entrance to a slum in Phuket, Thailand, as Hiroki Watanabe passed by in a luxury bus on his way to a yacht race.
Watanabe, now 37, remembers the encounter, which occurred in 2001, as a turning point in his life, and the trigger that has led him to helping children deprived of opportunities to develop their potential.
Today, Watanabe — now based in Bangladesh — is preparing for the opening of his third educational institution near Dhaka, with the aim of offering learning opportunities to underprivileged children in the developing country. He chose Bangladesh knowing how frequent natural disasters impact the country's economy and communities, and force children onto the streets.