Albert Podell

Albert Podell is a former magazine editor, advertising executive, trial attorney, and documentary film producer and director who has had a decades-long relationship with CARE. He recalls first hearing about CARE from his parents as a young child and has memories of his time away at summer camp when his mother would send him "care packages," taken from the concept of the packages CARE sent to Europe.

Podell began travelling abroad at the age of 26. He quickly became passionate about travel and made it his goal to visit each of the 196 countries in the world. In 2012, he accomplished this goal, and his adventures are chronicle in his book, Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth .

Podell's relationship with CARE flourished because of his travels. As he journeyed from country to country, he witnessed enormous wealth disparity time and time again. He also noticed that CARE almost always had a presence in the countries he visited where people were living in the most extreme poverty. He admired this, along with the observation that those who ran CARE programs were predominantly people from the country rather than outsiders. In Podell's mind, this is one of the most important qualities that sets CARE apart from other organizations working in the humanitarian sector. From what he has seen, organizations who bring in Americans and other cultural "outsiders" often have a negative impact on the economies of the countries they work in.

Podell has now set a new goal of travelling to each of the unrecognized countries in the world and is already well on his way. He also continues to maintain a close relationship with CARE through his generous donations and has included CARE in his estate plans.