The African Soul, American Heart humanitarian project, supporting Sudanese Lost Boy and war orphan Joseph Akol Makeer, will build a orphanage / orphan center in Duk Payuel, southern Sudan, to provide food, shelter, school supplies, and other basic life needs for the 2,000+ orphans of that village. A really successful fundraising campaign will allow us to build other orphanages / orphan centers for the 16,000+ orphans in Duk County, southern Sudan. The project team has 30 hours of video footage; we are working towards a 30-50 minute documentary about Joseph's life and his goal of building an orphanage in his home village. The documentary will be complete by fall 2008; a fundraising goal of $100,000 has been set for fall 2009, the orphanage / orphan center will be operational by fall 2010, although some aid can be delivered as funds are raised.

This project is about delivering educative and informative SMS messages to farmers and consumers that would enable them connect directly and do business.It is intended to seek funds  and expertise that will enable us fulfill  the wishes of the rural populations within some isolated English speaking communities in Cameroon.

The rural community here in question are the farmers and consumers within the localities of Limbe and Buea. They need information and education on pesticides necessary for the health of their crops and the soil, and information about available markets and consumers demanding their products.

 This approach would  enable them improve their economic situation, fight poverty and promote responsible farming practices in areas not readily accessible by agricultural field workers.

We have chosen to exploit this idea because since this very approach has been  used in the banking and transport sectors with  success,  we believe it shall be productive to replicate this simple idea. Basing it on existing infrastructures of mobile communication, these simple tools of Information and Communication Technologies would positively affect farmers and consumers as well.

This proposal is hinged on the premise that the lack of access to immediate information is the reason why farmers and consumers alike fall short of satisfying their quests. African farmers on the one hand strive to increase the continent’s food production and make economic gains for themselves through farming in the expectation that consumers would just “stumble” upon their products “with pockets full of money”. Unfortunately this has not been the case, as farmers work hard and end up either destroying their ecosystem through uninformed farming practices thereby unwittingly destroying their dreams to prosperity on the one hand, and on the other hand depriving consumers “with pockets full of money” the opportunity to avail themselves of these products, stay clear of famine and contribute towards fulfilling the farmers’ quest to economic posterity.

 The advent of the internet, websites and satellite technologies though very effective as tools of modern communications  fall out of the range of these actors for two reasons: either farmers and consumers don’t know how to exploit them, or that they cannot afford the cost of getting connected and finding the information they need. The proliferation of websites that document information about farm products and consumers therefore does little or nothing to remedy this situation. Therefore, this proposal reposes entirely on SMS messaging to all actors involved because it is more instantaneous than other applications in use.

Agri Mashup is a strategic tool to increase data utilization for creating new economic opportunities and will have a considerable impact on facilitating access to information and knowledge for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) segment.

This project also present opportunity for visionary companies looking for new markets to increase competitive advantage while helping BoP communities meet their basic needs but also accelerate economic growth, reduce inequality and poverty.

There will be less poverty, because poor people in developing countries will be empowered to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves.

Biz-o-mat helps people in developing countries to establish and expand small businesses. It provides free information and links to information on all business-related topics, in most languages.

A YouTube video that uses this photo to explain some of the social and technology issues involved in this project. What do you see in this picture?

The information is managed by the franchisees: niche experts who make money using Biz-o-mat’s hosted software.

This mashup project will enable those franchisees to have many tools with which to share their expertise, and help small businesses in developing countries. The target beneficiaries are people in places where the physical and and institutional infrastructures are relatively weak.

The result of this mashup challenge will be that Biz-o-mat.com will be better able to help more people.

The WTS (Wireless Trading System) aims to assist in alleviating financial exclusion and help poverty reduction using text message on the mobile phone to access stock market facilities and other financial services.Access to financial services has been recognised as a key factor for economic growth and development especially in developing countries and emerging markets.In these locations, financial services are only used by a section of the population with access being a prohibiting factor for people in rural regions.The system leverages on the global success of money transfer remittances engaging migrant communities, internationally to purchase stocks and other financial products on behalf of the recipient in the developing country. The stocks are managed by the recipient in the developing country, through the use of the mobile phone receiving news alerts, information, stockbroker advice, services and making enquiries via text messaging.Sending funds through remittance assists the recipient with immediate financial challenges, this solution not only aids the recipient financially, also enables the recipient to be educated about the benefits of investment for long term financial sustainability.

This innovative concept takes remittances to the next level and has the following key advantages and benefits.

It is designed as a promising solution to help increase access to financial services using low-cost mobile technology, convenience and accessibility to serve customers in remote locations worldwide.

It provides financial institutions with a platform to introduce new products, cost effectively to the financially excluded which in turn lowers the access cost, which has hitherto served as a deterrent for the disadvantaged groups.

Through mobile technology it assists with poverty reduction through the empowerment of the local community with financial services from banking to insurance and financial investments.

It educates the local community on the use of financial products through text message, helps bridge the digital divide through the use of mobile technology and aims to provide self sufficiency. The challenges and opportunities of this project are indeed vast.

 The project is led by a team of three professionals with over ten years of experience in financial services and mobile telecommunications..

We envision a twofold change. The developing world [DW] will be lifted onto the first step of the ladder out of poverty and towards development they control; and N.Americans will recapture meaning through connection to something beyond themselves and something that will change the world.

Because DonorTrust (DT) will set a new bar for Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) doing project work, we won't leave these NPOs without a solution. DT is OpenSource-any NPOs can use it and be empowered to live up to the NPO promise-to take care of the funds donors entrust to us, and then to PROVE IT!

DT builds community by:
- DT is a technology that empowers community-to-community (C-2-C) philanthropy. Classrooms, families, departments in corporations can create an online community to change the world by giving to communities in the [DW]. We are creating a tighter link between these communities.
- DT facilitates more personal communication between the individuals within communities - empowering people to reach out, ask questions, share thoughts, and become one community.
- Community in N.America will be enhanced by sharing in a common goal: participating in lifting villages out of poverty
- We will connect classrooms in N.America with those in the [DW] through DT, empowering students around the globe to work together on projects, learning from one another and together.
- DT is about empowering everyday people to do something about a cause they are passionate about. The technology will decouple the typical components in an Int'l development NPO:
a) advocacy
b) project implementation
c) back-office / admin.
By decoupling these components we can empower a person passionate about a particular cause or region (e.g. water, or Kenya) to advocate for those specific projects and we take care of the rest-crowd-sourcing advocacy, and allowing people to build their own communities in N.America.
-Macro: we want to build the community of the generation that ends extreme poverty. We provide the tools for people to join to change the world. Much like generations that came before us that were part of the peace movement, ending apartheid, ending slavery, or ending communism - DT will provide the ability for THIS generation to stand up and make a difference.