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Machenbaum has been a Cub Scout leader, Scout Group leader, trainer of Cub Scout leaders and founder of Scout groups of street children (boys and girls) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He participated in the 1995, 1999 and 2007 World Jamborees, among other international events.


Machenbaum is a Swiss citizen, a graduate in Law with a Master's degree in Humanitarian Action from the University of Geneva. He started his career in 1994 as Street Educator with the non-governmental organization Casa Alianza in Honduras, an international NGO dedicated to the defense and rehabilitation of street children in Central America and Mexico. In 1995, he became Assistant to the Executive Director for Latin America and in 1998, he founded Casa Alianza in Nicaragua and became its Program Director. He was subsequently in charge of research on the topic of child soldiers at the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 2000 he became Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for Terre des hommes Lausanne, Switzerland's largest independent child-focused NGO. In 2004 Machenbaum and a friend founded WISE , a philanthropy advisor company, which facilitates links between wealthy individuals and social entrepreneurs. He is currently its executive director.