Bitcoin, Charity and Remittance in Kenya

Paypal and other payment global payment systems are blocked in Kenya and banks charge a high fee for transferring money into the country. As a result, money gets sucked up into institutions before it reaches the people who need it most.

I aim to explore the issues surrounding Aid and Remittance in more detail, and report back to the bitcoin community on my findings.

Generally, we in the Bitcoin community believe that Bitcoin can address the issue of unfair remittance and help balance the global economy leading to a fairer distribution of wealth around the wd.

However, there are criticisms about using Bitcoin in Africa and it’s still unclear whether bitcoin is entirely fit for purpose.

What I aim to do is introduce Bitcoin to four charities in Masailand, Mombasa, Nairobi and the Rift Valley, with the aid of Bitcoin Tablet.

I’ll go and live with and work with the charities for 6 weeks to introduce them to the potential of bitcoin and how to use it and implement it into their lives and work. In addition I will assess the following criteria and report back.

a) If they have the basic infrastructure to receive bitcoin payments, like computers, mobile phones, internet connections etc.

b) If they have the infrastructure to process them (i.e.exchange bitcoins for Kenyan Schillings and/or M-Pesa)

c) Whether there's a willingness there to interact with the Bitcoin Economy at large and whether they're ready for bitcoin in general.

d) How the local monopoly on digital payments and domestic remittance, Safaricom, is reacting to Bitcoin and related businesses,

e) What the Kenyan Central Bank's position is on Bitcoin?f) Which other problems Bitcoin can help solve in developing and rural

economies?

I'll be working in conjunction with Alex Howard Breadman and Matel Michalko at the BitcoinTablet Project, www.bitcointablet.org.uk who've offered to supply 4BTC to buy tablet computers and equip the charities I visit, I'll be looking at two charities who have had no prior exposure to bitcoin or it's potential impact also and delivering between two and four tablets to them if conditions warrant.

These two charities are www.maccopkenya.org and www.grandsonsofabraham.org.

In conjunction with Mo Levine and Tomer Kantor at www.iamsatoshi.com we've started a meetup group in Nairobi called 'Bitcoin Kenya' in order to help build the community there and help. spread education about bitcoin.

Jay Larson at www.tunapanda.org a charity that specialises in tech education particularly in Kibera is helping to organise classes using material from the Bitcoin Education Project and the Khan Academy. We're currently speaking to Charles Hoskinson at BEP about getting a Swahili translation done.

Jay is heading up the classroom project in Kibera, and Elizabeth Rossiello at BitPesa has pledged to help by offering free exchange on all bitcoins donated, plus to give continuing support and sponsorship for the Nairobi meetup.

My aim is to introduce Elizabeth and Jay to Doctor Michael Meegan at www.icrossinternational.org . Doctor Meegan has been working in the Rift Valley in Kenya for three decades and suggested that Bitcoin could be a game changer for his charity.

We've set up a blogging platform at http://go.ask-satoshi.com/charityto prepare for Dr. Meegan's team to start blogging about their experiences with the tablets, and in addition we'll be running a day course in conjunction with the meetup group to help his team understand bitcoin and how it works.

In March, Tomer Kantor, will fly out to Nairobi and document the work we're doing out there as well as conduct some presentations and lesson on Bitcoin itself to students at ROCK. He aims to conduct interviews with the students, teachers and doctors who we will be working with as well as film the meetup group for his documentary film about Bitcoin titled 'I AM SATOSHI'.

We've also received some kind donations from Hakim Mamoni at www.Dealco.in to promote in-person bitcoin exchange on the ground by sponsoring the micro-blogging platform, to help establish a network of bitcoin dealers amongst the M-Pesa merchant community to help bolster the burgeoning bitcoin economy against over-regulation.

The 4 charities I'll be visiting are as follows: http://www.maccopkenya.org/http://www.grandsonsofabraham.orghttp://www.rockkenya.org/www.icrossinternational.org.

You can donate to a specific charity project below, or to donate to the general project please send bitcoins to: 1JMkfChzELKqpuxWh96Tu9P98mfuBEHnDf

Or you can choose to send funds to Matej at the bitcoin tablet project at:1GxnEqoyZbWZt2vU61nBUN9sL5fPgdwisa

The aim of the Bitcointablet Project is to help introduce Bitcoin into developing economies and get people blogging about their daily lives on the website http://go.ask-satoshi.com/charity www.bitcointablet.org is a registered charity in Slovakia run by Matej Michalko matej@bitcointablet.org.ukThe blogging site and blogging app for the tablets is designed by Alex Howard Breadman at 3dukltd@gmail.com

Funds for the tablets were originally raised in conjunction with Joerg Platzer at www.crypto-charity.org. Tomer Kantor at www.iamsatoshi.com will be filming aspects of the project in early March.

Feb 1st to Feb 14th I’ll be visiting a rural health and education initiative in the Masai Mara called MACCOP http://www.maccopkenya.org/ . Maccop’s goals are: To develop sustainable livelihoods for the Maasai people; to initiate environmental conservation measures for their livestock and wildlife; to provide health care services in a high-risk area for diseases such as Malaria, TB Typhoid, cholera and Asthma, to provide clean water to the community by drilling boreholes and supplying spring water and to help manage the drought relief program by introducing modern agriculture and greenhouses. I will be painting and helping out at an orphanage there, and would like to provide them with £500 of building materials. I’ll be taking photos and writing about my experiences, and conducting informal research on how bitcoin and low-fee remittance can help alleviate suffering by integrating with local Kenyan digital currency M-Pesa. To donate to this project please send bitcoin to:18NwaTpxgjmTBfwFMPAPmDVRrGVTKae1Ss

Feb 15th to March 1st I’ll be in Mombasa at a half-way house for street kids called ‘The Grandsons of Abraham’ www.grandsonsofabraham.org who’ve suffered domestic abuse and drug addiction. I’d like to provide the centre with funds for clothes and basic teaching materials like white-boards, books and writing materials. I also plan to equip one or two of the staff with tablet computers courtesy of the BitcoinTablet Project:To donate to this charity please send your donations to: 14fDz8Eza6C5h3j8wUKYc7xPfAX18Z5cgU

March 2nd to March 6th we’re providing phone tablets to connect public health officials in the Rift Valley who work alongside Doctor Michael Meegan at the charity www.icrossinternational.org. To help us provide financial assistance to this project whilst there, please send bitcoin donations to: 17PpgCkFZEsestkkvcPCJ9pJL1C5Lj9LQW

March 7th to March 14th we be providing an education project in Kibera called ROCK with a classroom of refurbished desktop computers and an internet connection in conjunction with Jay Larson at http://www.tunapanda.org/ and Elizabeth Rossiello

at www.bitpesa.co . “Tunapanda makes it possible for kids who have never touched a computer to become powerful users of digital technology and study STEM/STEAM subjects”We’ll be encouraging teachers and students to blog about their lives and work and provide them with teaching materials about Bitcoin from the Khan Academy and the BItcoin Education Project. To donate to the ROCK Project please donate to: 1AJNfozRKhrGDMTFiGiHn6kSoj1rbMZX3r

To donate via Bank Transfer, please email me at richardwboase@gmail.com and I can give you my details. (You can also send Paypal donations to this email address).

Thank you for your support!Richard Boase