Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

It's time to take action!

Have you got an idea on how to help these underprivillaged people?

Well here's your chance!

Mondialogo Engineering Award
An initiative by Daimler and UNESCO, this competition tries to address the UN's Millennium Developement Goals (MDG). The great thing about this competition is that it requires at least two teams to collaborate on a project; each one must be from a developing and a developed country. Read about our entry below.

IEEE Presidents' Change the World Competition
Want to win US$10000 and be named the IEEE Student Humanitarian Supreme while changing the world? This is for you!

Google's Project 10^100
May Those Who Help The Most Win. Got an idea, but think it's too costly to work? Well Google has lots of money...

Microsoft's Imagine Cup
Does any of the following fits you?; programmer / game developer / roboticist / IT person / photographer / film maker / designer. This is another competition to address the UN's MDG, with lots of categories to choose from.

LiveEdge
Not really into humanitarian efforts? More into environmental and energy saving? Not to worry. This one is for you (as long as you can design electronic systems, though).

5 competitions, $1000s of prize money, one goal;
make the world a better place.

A team of students from The University of Adelaide, South Australia, is participating in the Mondialogo Engineering Award. The project will be an ICT driven poverty eradication model which at the same time will empower businesses. We currently have working models in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi. Here's our project page on the Mondialogo site.

The entry into this competition is one part of a continuous project we are doing. This blog was actually set up for a previous project. Look around and read about some of the things that we have done.

If you are interested in our project and want to change the world too, leave a comment or two. We would love to hear your ideas and suggestions.

And don't forget to visit other blogs talking about poverty too!

One Minute Project to Reach Mandela

A Sustainable Poverty Eradication model that needs Mandela's help.

The Noble Failure

Professor Muhammed Yunus has helped millions of people break out of poverty, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in the process. Yet he considers himself a failure. Today there are 2.2 billion people earning less than two dollars a day, and Yunus is desperate to help them.

We have a solution, and we need your help.

Imagine the millions of impoverished people learning a skill so powerful and valuable that they can improve their living conditions; create an income, and ultimately break out of poverty – with or without charity. The world today is powered by microchips, and businesses are hungry for people with these skills. Our model uses technology to empower the underprivileged with these skills, creating interest from businesses.

This niche skill or talent will be useful for businesses to grow profits so that businesses have a reason to want to put some of these profits back into helping poor.

A working model in Kyrgystan is showing great success. We have microcredit. We have the hungry businesses. We have the technology. All we need is your help.

URGENCY

Why are we desperate? We are desperate because we want to tell Mr Mandela we have evidence in Kyrgyzstan of a sustainable method to fight against poverty. However we may be running out of time to reach him because he is now 90! To our horror we saw on television Mr Mandela required help to stand up to speak when he celebrated his 90th year birthday in a fund raising concert with his rock star friends in London a few weeks ago.

Everybody knows he has great and loyal friends who can help to raise funds to fight against poverty.

We want to tell Mr Mandela about the Kyrgyzstan project ASAP so that he can tell his friends to verify the Kyrgyzstan project and raise money to expand the project to help the hundreds of millions of poor people.

As we all now know this great opportunity may be lost if Mr Mandela passed on without alerting his great and loyal friends in the world about the solution to help the underprivileged people!

Please contact me at arixrobotics at gmail dot com with your ideas to reach Mr Mandela!

Updates, Updates, Updates

I apologize for not posting any updates about the team's progress since their trip to WCIT2008 any earlier.

1. WCIT2008 Outcomes
The trip had been a very good one, as they've met with various people from all sorts of organizations. This includes K-Perak, MIMOS, Petrosains, and the Ministry of Women, Family & Community Development. These organizations have agreed to play their part in ensuring the success of this noble and unique project.

2. Looking for a representative from IIUM
Currently, we are working on a few sub-projects within Australia, Malaysia and a few other places aroud the world. One of them is to connect to the Noble Peace Prize winner Prof Yunus, famous for his Grameen Bank microfinancing.

As such, we are looking for a representative from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). If you are or know someone who is studying in IIUM, and is interested to join the fight against poverty, please contact me at arixrobotics at gmail dot com. This person will be our lead to Prof Yunus.

3. Smart Chip Energy Saving Show Case Project
eLabtronics, the company behind the revolutionary software CoreChart, will be holding a Smart Chip Energy Saving Show Case Project during the Australian National Science Week in August. The activity will involve primary and secondary school children, their teachers, as well as university students and retired engineers in a hands-on 4 day project to design and build working prototype models that best articulate how smart microchips are used to save electricity in homes.

This is your chance to see for yourself the power of CoreChart in practice. Or, if you are interested to become a participant yourself (or your child), you can contact Miro at miro at elabtronics dot com to see whether they have any more room left.

The project will be held on the 2nd (Sat) to 5th (Tue) of August 2008 at The Pacific Cultures Gallery of the South Australian Museum (SAM). If you care about the environment and have an interest in science and electronics, this is the project for you!

4. Blog Visitors, Comments Please!
Although I have not been updating this blog for some time, I noticed that there seem to be new people visiting this site all the time. This really surprises me.

Wheater you are new or coming back, I would love to know what's in your mind. So please leave a comment. I really appreciate that. Thank you.

The Team is in Malaysia!

The eLabtronics team are in Malaysia from 13th to 22nd May 2008. Adilet, one of the Kyrgyzstani programmer, are joining them there.

They've just completed a workshop on using microchips at Petrosains, KLCC. They've gained lots of interest since the past few days there, espacially with Adilet around.

Adilet spoke about his amazing experience and touched many people. He is drawing high level of interests to the CoreChart poverty relief model.

The team will be meeting a few more key people there, before going off to the World Congress on IT (WCIT). If you happen to be there, stop by and say hi!

A very big THANK YOU to everyone that has made this trip possible. Espacially to Dr YKK for hosting the whole team!

Let us hope for their best to make poverty history!

This is a must watch!

Aha! Look what I found! Told you it can be done!



The World Bank is doing a project very similar to what we are going to do.
They are getting women from rural areas of Bangladesh to sell battery-powered street lights.
Now they are looking at using solar.
This project has definitely changed the lives of those women.

Imagine if now they could make microchip embedded products instead!

Keep the comments coming!

I would love to hear what you think of this project. Please add any comment / suggestion / critics / opinions / etc here.
Don't forget to donate and tell your friends about this project.
Please also bookmark this page and come back often for updates!

Thank you.

The Malaysian Side of the Story

Over the past few months, a few of my friends and I have been working on copying the Kyrgyzstan story in Malaysia. Our aim was to eradicate poverty in Malaysia by getting CoreChart to the Malaysian poor villagers. Some of you might be aware of this effort.

We wanted to train these villagers so that they gain a valuable skill that is very much sought after. So that they can start making their own creative inventions. So that they can start a new breed of knowledge-driven society. So that they can become valuable human capital and realize our Vision 2020.


I have also worked on this project over the recent summer holidays (Jan-Feb 2008), together with a team from Astana Digital Sdn. Bhd., the sole distributor of CoreChart in Malaysia. We met with various key people from both the government and private sectors. We focused on initiating a mentoring program where university students are trained in CoreChart, and then they will go to high schools to teach basic Robotics to the Malaysian students. The program will be very similar to the widely-acclaimed Robotics Peer Mentoring Program we have in South Australia.

Unfortunately, although they agreed that this is good for Malaysia, they seemed to be more interested in something that we have never thought of. Something like "who's going to pay if the mentors got into an accident while on his way to the schools?". Or even "what if the uni mentors start flirting with the high school girls?". Seriously. These are some of the 'killer' questions they gave us. Questions that form the barrier to Malaysia's progress.

Such questions are sure stoppers!

Obviously, telling them the benefits are just not enough to drive these people to take the project seriously. We needed something more. Something stronger and more powerful. Something that would make them set aside their own personal agenda.

Now imagine if the Kyrgyzstan people did get their chance (with your help) to present their story in WCIT08. The media will then do their job and start telling the whole world about this project. The Malaysian WCIT will then be one of the most successful events ever that changed the world.

But then, wouldn’t it be a shame if Malaysia herself is not doing anything to her people? We are the host country, but we are doing nothing to help our own people. We are talking about world poverty relief, but our own people are still suffering? It would be totally foolish if the government doesn’t do anything about it.

Once the word spreads out, it would definitely ring a bell inside the minds of those people in Malaysia whom we have met and introduced CoreChart to before (remember those 'killer' questions?). This bell would be so loud that the word 'CoreChart' will be in their head all the time. It will keep on ringing every time they see a microchip embedded product. That is, until they finally contact my friends at Astana Digital to get back on the project. To help our own people.

So there you go. That's the reason why I need your help.

From my experience, I am absolutely convinced that the Kyrgyzstan villagers' presentation at WCIT will promote Malaysia as the host that has a long term vision for poverty eradication.

Make this effort a fight for Malaysia's future, if you will.

Donate now and make your mark!



PS: Please also see The Australian Side of the Story. By signing the petition linked on that page, you are sending the similar message to Malaysians so that this project could be implemented in Malaysia too. Remember, Australia could be starting the race, but Malaysia could finish it first!

Go to Home

Go to The Amazing Villagers

Go to The Enabling Technology

Go to The Next Step

Go to The Australian Side of the Story

Go to The Malaysian Side of the Story

The Australian Side of the Story

During his election campaign last year, Kevin Rudd, the current PM of Australia, has promised an Education Revolution to the country. Part of this revolution is to provide 1 million students to have access to 1 million computers.

Now that sounds great, right? But imagine the first thing that those kids will do once they get their hands on the computers; chatting, play games, look up their favourite celebrities, or maybe some even worse things on the internet. That wouldn't be good, would it? What was supposed to be making a revolution in education turned out to be a new problem throughout Australia. Parents will then be angry, instead of having more respect, towards Mr Rudd.

So now, there is a suggestion to include CoreChart into each of the computers. This is the same software that the Kyrgyzstan villagers are using to develop their microchip products. Retired electronics engineers have developed a proposal for the Australian PM to match his visionary one million free computers project with one million CoreChart licences in order to develop a world class knowledge based industry to fill in the void left by the departing or departed businesses like Electrolux, Mitsubishi, Motorola etc.


Imagine if 1 million Australian kids get their free computers with CoreChart pre-installed. They would then have a 10-year head start into a very sought after skill. Just look at how much CoreChart has changed the lives of those Kyrgyzstan villagers. These kids will then be able to fast track the development of world class ICT knowledge workers.

Andy Leong, a student of The University of Adelaide, South Australia, has set up a petition so that we all can support the suggestion. This petition is one of the channels that we are using to get the attention of the Australian government. Click on the title below to go to the petition:

Match PM Rudd’s One Million Free Computers with One Million Free CoreChart Licences

In particular, note comment number 97 & 98 on the petition. These are from Colin Pridham, the Co-ordinator of the Kyrgyzstan project.

Now imagine if (with your help) the Kyrgyzstan people did get their chance to present their story in WCIT, and then the Australian government did agree to the proposal. That would definitely lift Australia’s image as a world champion in poverty eradication. It will be a very strong win-win situation, both for Australians and the poor people all over the world.

That is why we need to make sure both projects are a success. The synergy of this success will definitely change the world for the better.

So wait no more and sign the petition now!

And donate now to make the effect even bigger! (click the ChipIn! button on the top left side panel to donate)

Match PM Rudd’s One Million Free Computers with One Million Free CoreChart Licences

Go to Home

Go to The Amazing Villagers

Go to The Enabling Technology

Go to The Next Step

Go to The Australian Side of the Story

Go to The Malaysian Side of the Story

The Next Step

The plan now is to present this model at the World Congress in IT (WCIT) 2008 from 18-22 May 2008 in Malaysia.

Approximately 2500 delegates and 100 reporters will congregate to seek solutions for Poverty Eradication using IT technologies. The delegates include iconic Social Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Prof Yunus, Prof CK Pralahad, CEOs, Heads of governments etc. WCIT is often billed as the 'Olympics of IT'.

If the villagers are able to showcase their story, this Malaysian WCIT will be remembered as the best of them all. It will be recorded in the history books as the starting point where poverty eradication is tackled with a proven sustainable and scalable model.

We need your help to raise funds to pay for flight, accommodation and WCIT2008 registration fee for three TalasTronics villagers to present their Poverty Relief projects in Malaysia. The total sum anticipated is A$10,000.

This is your chance to join our journey in this world-transforming effort.

If you feel that this effort is genuine and are willing to contribute, please donate.

Your $20 (or even $10) could actually change the life of half of the world population. We appreciate any amount that you could offer. I would also suggest that you get your friends and donate as a group, as then the processing fee is lower.

You can either donate to me in cash (if you are in Adelaide), or just click the ‘ChipIn!’ button on the top left side panel. It will bring you to a PayPal page, where you can choose to use PayPal, major credit cards or even some bank accounts.

We all hope that the Kyrgyzstan Villagers will prove once and for all there is hope and help for the 3 billion under privileged people!

Go to Home

Go to The Amazing Villagers

Go to The Enabling Technology

Go to The Next Step

Go to The Australian Side of the Story

Go to The Malaysian Side of the Story

The Enabling Technology

Watch the video below to find out how powerful microchips are and how can we use it to eradicate poverty.

So as you can see, microchips have a HUGE impact on our lives. That's why the world demand for microchip programmers is soaring. However, the extremely steep learning curve makes it a very exclusive skill.

So how did these villagers do it?

The key enabling technology here is CoreChart, a revolutionary software which makes programming microchips a child's play. Seriously. I have met with 9- and 10-year old kids who can program microchips. Impressive, isn't it?

In other words, CoreChart is to microchips as what Microsoft Windows is to computers. Without Windows, computers would still be an odd thing to many of us. Similarly, with CoreChart, now everyone can program microchips, even the poor people without formal higher education.

Instead of text-based as in the traditional way of programming microchips, CoreChart uses graphical flowcharts which are much easier to understand and implement.

However, unlike other graphical programming softwares, each flowchart icon in CoreChart translates directly into one assembly language instruction. This results in a powerful, high efficient programming, while being so easy to use.

CoreChart is developed by eLabtronics, a South Australian based company.

Go to Home

Go to The Amazing Villagers

Go to The Enabling Technology

Go to The Next Step

Go to The Australian Side of the Story

Go to The Malaysian Side of the Story

The Amazing Villagers

Breaking news:
Kyrgyzstan Villagers Program Microchips

TALAS, Kyrgyzstan - A team of local villagers are becoming masters of an otherwise elite skill - microchip programming. With the help of STLI and Peace Corps volunteers, they have learned to program microchips to develop niche microchip embedded products to improve the quality of life.

Currently, they are working on 5 projects using the PIC16F819 microcontroller from Microchip Technology Inc:

1. Milk pasteurisation (monitoring milk boiling to help prevent Brucellosis),



2. Candle making temperature control (making good quality candles),



3. Pump temperature monitoring (keeping it above freezing in sub-zero temperatures),



4. Anemometer wind speed measurement (power generation possibility),



5. Soil control (monitoring green house conditions)
   

Registered under the name TalasTronics (NGO), this amazing team are offering control solutions to local businesses to dramatically improve efficiency. While the businesses are gaining more profit, these villagers are in reality helping themselves to break their cycle of poverty.

*****

Isn't it just amazing?

Villagers who are less educated than us can actually program microchips and make money out of it. These Kyrgyzstan people have proven to us that there is a way to harness the power of microchips to eradicate poverty. That’s what we are trying to do here. And you too, can be part of this.


Yes, but still, how can this eradicate poverty?

The volunteers from STLI and Peace Corp have trained these Kyrgyzstan villagers to program microchips with the hope of turning them into micro businesses and customers of businesses. They have formed TalasTronics (NGO) to develop low cost niche microchip embedded products to improve the quality of life of the villagers.

This process will create competition for businesses to supply finance and materials to these niche micro businesses. We believe TalasTronics is a sustainable and scalable Poverty Eradication model. That means, the same model could be copied all over the world to achieve the aim of breaking the poverty cycle.

In other words, we are not giving them a fish. We are also not teaching them to fish, because the number of fishes might be limited. Instead, we are teaching them to breed their own fish. So that they can eat whenever they want, and as much as they want.

If you want to know more about what these people have achieved, go here.

To understand more of TalasTronics' business model, click the image below to enlarge it:

Go to Home

Go to The Amazing Villagers

Go to The Enabling Technology

Go to The Next Step

Go to The Australian Side of the Story

Go to The Malaysian Side of the Story

Comments please!

I would love to hear what you think of this project. Please add any comment / suggestion / critics / opinions / etc here.
Don't forget to spread the word.
Thanks.