I had resigned myself that I had to go home. Even if it was for a short trip – I had to go back now. But, as fate would have it, that was not to be the case…. at least for today. At midnight I had showed up for my flight at Dhaka Airport. Only to find that I couldn’t go because Hong Kong had completely shut down due to Typhoon Nuri. Maybe it’s a sign? 
It was only when I started to think and prepare for heading home that I realized how much I’ve had to sacrifice to do this project. In helping the poor, I’ve sort of become a pauper myself. As I packed my suitcase I noticed that none of my clothes fit me anymore – I had lost so much weight. But, instead of buying new clothes, I had decided to save what little money I had for this project. In fact, as I looked at my toiletries, I realized that I wasn’t even able to buy a tube of toothpaste without borrowing from family.
So, while it may have been a broken harddrive that was the straw that broke the camel’s back – this was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s only now that I’m kind of laughing at some of the meaner YouTube comments I get – the ones that accuse me of doing this for fame or for money. Whether it’s the belt I borrowed from an uncle to hold up my now oversized pants or giving up the chance to buy an Xbox 360 and using the money to help the poor instead – I certainly am not doing this project for the sake of my (nonexistent) bank balance.
And, if everyone who is helping the poor got the attention in the media they deserved, than Dr. Kathy Ward would have her own feature length movie and TV miniseries documenting her amazingly innovative work here in Bangladesh. The fact is that, while there is always some feel-good “making a difference” story you might hear about from the media, there are tens of thousands of people out there making a difference that you don’t hear about. As I said before, I’m not doing this to become famous. Heck, if I wanted to be famous, I would have done something like this instead:
While I don’t have the goal of becoming rich or famous – I do want this project to be sustainable. Sustainable enough to be able to buy clothes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and have a backup equipment so that everything doesn’t stop at the slightest hiccup. I’d also like to do it in a way that doesn’t involve touching people’s donation money. I don’t believe in cyberbegging and – despite many people writing to say that their donations can be used for my living expenses – I have yet to touch a penny for such purposes.
So, in going home – visiting my family and giving the LaCie corporation a piece of my mind. While there, I’m going to be double my efforts to find a way to make this project more sustainable. The kind of support I’ve got from companies like Vestergaard-Frandsen has been invaluable. But, to date, I’ve asked Vestergaard-Frandsen to not give me a dime because I didn’t want people to think I was endorsing them for pay. And, while I’ve tried to approach socially responsible companies for support or sponsorship – Amazon.com, Apple, etc – most don’t even bother to reply saying no.
I guess if you want corporate sponsorship and/or enough money through YouTube revenue sharing, you gotta make videos that are more like Fred and less like Save the Children.
Hey dude. Nice entry! Safe travels, man, and WELL DONE. I’m sure you’ll get your recognition soon enough.
We think alike, man. That Fred business is soooo annoying…
I’m excited to meet you one day.
Ugh, that whole “fred” character is annoying.
I’m sure you’ll come up with something. If I think of any ideas I’ll be sure to pass them along. Can’t vouch for them being good or not.
Be safe.
Bro shawn,
i applaud u on one hand for being the modest , caring, sharing type of person but i have to be honest..something given to u in donation is for u.. u work hard and hundreds of people am sure agree with me.. we wouldnt want u skinny and weak or sick with no tooth paste etc..u deserve them much more than we do.
As of funding.. think of it this way..all those major companies with millions of profit per year, do u really think they would miss a few hundred dollars a month ?? i dnt.. i believe a dollar to help the poor is better than a dollar used in excessive greed.
Accept the funding bro..uve used all ur own personnal money to back this project up and its about time some major companies around the world do their bit for society… im tired of seeing greedy selfish individuals who live in bubbles of ignorance and rudeness.. im sure if they were poor they would be banging on front door to have their merc and big homes back.
Bravo on loosing weight.. many people would love to have lost weight in a years span, u did it in a positive and beautifull manner which not many others in this world could forfill.
Thumbs up bro and jazakilahu khair ameen
Mrs Martin-Barami, has a good point, you may want to only use the donations you get for directly fighting poverty. But if you’re tripping over your own pants, getting sick from a tooth ache from no toothpaste, it’ll be awfully hard to give those donations away and make videos bringing the problem of extreme poverty to light won’t it.
How about this as a compromise? Keep two pools of money. The one you currently have, then one for the maintenance of the project. Non-profits do this all the time, we get donations from people which they want to go directly to fund a project (in your case use as a hand up to those who need it) and then others donate to the organization for us to use to keep doing what we’re doing any left over gets invested or used on the projects…
If you were to calculate how much you’d need for the basics, you could probably get people to also directly fund that… or you could use that to approach foundations/fund/companies so it’s not coming from individuals.
Of course something else that will help you with companies, and foundations is getting you a Non-profit status. I’m sure the tax man here in the states would have a heart attack if they heard of whats going on. And Foundations and Corporations (at least in the US) need a paper trail of where all their money goes, so things like Non-profit status really matters.
Hey Hyrcan,
Not being a charity or non-profit has definitely been a huge disadvantage for me getting corporate sponsorship and support.
But, I’m kind of hesitant to cross that bridge. I mean, my philosophy has always been that there are enough charities in the world – just not enough charitable people (or, in particular, charitable politicians willing to fully support ending poverty).
I also like being just an individual. Less paperwork. For example, if I was a non-profit I’d have to make a distinction as to what property belongs to the non-profit and what doesn’t. Whether its my my old grad school MacBook or the camcorder which was a birthday present to me – this distinction can get complicated.
It’s a shame that when I approach companies I think might be interested in sponsoring this project, I get pigeon-holed as a charity or non-profit (and my non-profit and lack of 501c status automatically disqualify me). Ironically, YouTube channels like Fred find it easy to get sponsorship. Fred has a contract with some IM service/manufacturer….
It’s good to have independence as long as in the end you’re aware of all the people that you’re actually accountable to – donors, recipients, and all the people indirectly affected by your work as well. You’re honest, hard-working (very!), aware of the issues and you have your feet very firmly on the ground, but all the same perhaps you’d find even a very informal “expert advisory board” of some sort helpful as a source of support and discreet guidance.