UP | uncultured project

Just got this via Facebook this evening…

Hey Shawn, I saw your Davos video (of course) and the one blaring thing I noticed is that you did not mention what is UNIQUE about YOU. Lots of people work on ending poverty. You even listed websites who are doing it too.. but you didn’t say.. what is special about YOU.

You’ve gotta start using that as your leverage. Thats why I gave YOU money instead of them. That’s why we follow you. You’ve got a unique audience because of the unique way you work – which is also important.

Mention it in your next davos, and in any of the other videos you make that describe what you do. The thing about not using guilt, about showing your viewers where the money goes.. use that. use the unique viewers you have.. we are not middle aged charity people.

We’re nerdfighters and youtubers and we are powerful – use it!

Since Shawn and his friend Paul are armed only with their cellphones while in the field, this blog post is brought to you by flawedartist.

After close to a week and a half of searching for a way to bring aid to those displaced by Cyclone Aila, Shawn’s only a few short hours away from delivering over 45 non-food family disaster relief kits to families in need.

What makes this trip unique is the fact that Shawn has been able to share Mobile vlogs, Cameraphone images, along with updating Twitter to give everyone real time coverage of this weekend journey. It’s amazing to think that within 72 hours of donating, I will be able to see the smiling faces of those I’m helping.

Words cannot describe how amazing that feeling is.

While Shawn has already uploaded several mobile vlogs to YouTube, you can watch his latest mobile vlog here:

… and this is only the beginning. Please be sure to check back, as I’ll be updating you guys again once he makes it to the main relief site.

If you are interested in buying a kit that Shawn will be giving to those in need, you may do so here. These kits include:

• 1 Family-sized mosquito net (7 x 5 ft)
• 1 blanket (7 x 5 ft)
• 1 tarpaulin (plastic sheet you can use as a roof 30 x 5 ft)
• 1 bucket
• 1 pitcher
• 1 mug
• 1 bar of soap

I would like to thank everyone who has donated so far, specifically two of my good friends Andrei and Russ.

This is a bottle of Evian water:

You can buy yours for about $2.25 at a convenience store for about a 1.5 L bottle.

Here’s what you guys spent your money on instead:

Pond Sand Filter Water Samples (click for larger size)

This is water samples from the near-finished Pond Sand Filter. Paid for by donations from you and voted democratically upon in Challenge Poverty. This will serve over 50 families in rural Bangladesh and has the potential (if maintained inexpensively by the local community) for approximately ten years.

Just some of the 50+ Families to Benefit from This

Thanks to Save the Children for tirelessly working on this to make sure this small rural community gets to drink water as clear as if it came from the French Alps.

For this year’s Project for Awesome, I decided to pull out all the stops and show you guys a lot of the stuff I’ve been doing but haven’t had the time to put into individual episodes or videos. I keep saying that this project is less about me and more about the community behind it – hopefully this latest video helps convey that.

And, yeah, this video does use copyrighted music by Coldplay (part of EMI Records). I did enough research into YouTube’s agreement with EMI Records and am fairly certain this video won’t be taken down. But, of course, I also had to forfeit any chance of earning any ad revenue and (as I later found out) any reasonable chance of having this video being featured or promoted. EMI can also reserve the right to take down this video, region lock it, or place ads on it where they can earn all the ad revenue from it (just like the Counting Crows & Universal Music have region locked my Cyclone Sidr video and take all the ad revenue from it).

But that’s cool. This was a kind of video I wanted to make for ages. I just never could find the right match of visuals and music until I heard “Life in Technicolor ii” by Coldplay.

During these Christmas Holidays, there is one person in particular who will never be too far from my thoughts and prayers. His name is Adam and he’s one of the many people from within the YouTube community that have been supporting this little project that I’m doing.

Here’s the video where he talked about and votes for a Pond Sand Filter in Challenge Poverty:

Unfortunately and tragically, recent events in Adam’s life have shown me he is a far stronger person than I will ever be. This holiday season has brought a lot of bad news to Adam and his family. During the Thanksgiving Holidays, he learned his parents were getting a divorce. This sad event was compounded by the tragic and sudden loss of his mother who recently died in a car crash.

I can’t even type this without getting a knot in the pit of my stomach. I can’t imagine what Adam and his family is going through right now. Some people think I’m pretty strong to have endured the kinds of challenges and sacrifices this project has demanded. But quite honestly? I don’t think I would have had the strength or composure that Adam is clearly demonstrating during this trying time.

If you’d like to convey your condolences to Adam and his family, you can see his YouTube channel (where many in the YouTube community are leaving their condolences and prayers).

Save the Children does amazing work – that’s why I love using this project to highlight the good work that they do. One of the reasons for this is because they are very much on the same wavelength as me on a lot of issues.

If you’ve been following this project for a while, you know I want to change the conversation about global poverty. Coming back home I’ve found charity-related commercials full of sad images, sad music, and guilt-inducing please for donations.

What I admire about Save the Children is they haven’t resorted to those kinds of tactics. I’ve seen a lot of commercials and promo materials from Save the Children and I have yet to find a single one that is a guilt-trip or portrays the poor as objects of pity.

Save the Children is also willing to try new things when it comes to interacting with people over the internet. I’m really thrilled that when I came up with Challenge Poverty – Save the Children jumped on board and even made a video response:

This project is less about me and more about the online community that is supporting this journey every step of the way. Here’s a new video from a friend of mine by the name of Matt. He votes for the pond sand filter part of Challenge Poverty in a really creative and passionate way. I have to admit I never thought of the issue like that until I saw Matt’s video.