UP | uncultured project

Inspired by this video by Tom (one of the World Vision Vloggers), I made this video response making my pitch why World Vision could benefit (and has the technical capacity) to be more like Charity: Water:

I conclude the video by pointing out that it’s not my intention at all to be a hater. I think that needs emphasizing because it’s far too easy for a charity to mistake well-meaning advice from a supporter to be cynicism & criticism from a skeptic.

It also must be said that when giving advice to a charity like World Vision, you gotta do it with a bit of humility. World Vision has been saving lives and helping people since before I even existed. But that’s part of the point.

My parents were born and brought up in a country where World Vision doesn’t come to raise donations – but rather to comes spend them. World Vision has had a presence in my mother’s rural Bangladesh village – a village where some people are too poor to even be buried – since the 1970s.

I mention this because, as someone whose extended family (but not my most immediate aunts & uncles) still live in that village and many of whom are beneficiaries of World Vision to this very day, extreme poverty is far more complex than can be expressed in any YouTube video.

If our goal is just to sponsor more children – than World Vision Vloggers is a perfect success. But, if our goal is to end extreme poverty within our lifetime, than I hope that initiatives like World Vision Vloggers are just the first step.

The tl;dr version: World Vision is the first charity to genuinely engage with the YouTube community. We need to support this – but we also need to make it clear we have more to offer than just vlogs.

I’ve also said the same thing in more detail (and with examples) in this video:

During my time away from Bangladesh, I’ve been talking to a lot of charities. I’ve consulted with UNICEF, presented at Save the Children HQ, entered talks with the Red Cross, and have been giving input to World Vision.

World Vision is the first charity that’s heard me out and created a plan of action to engage the YouTube community. I was glad to have some input on this. And World Vision has done it in a way that experts like Beth Kanter would be proud: they are letting outsiders come in and aren’t worrying about perfection on the first try.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I’ve been advising charities to stop relying solely on Hollywood celebrities. Sending regular folks like Alex, Shawna, and Tom to Zambia have already generated over 300,000 views for World Vision on YouTube. See charities? I told you so.

The big challenge is the next step. My hope is that World Vision will use this success to do more ambitious things with the YouTube community. My fear is that, impressed by the amount of views they are getting, they won’t be challenged to try and engage this community in a deeper way.

If the support I’ve been getting is any indication, the YouTube community wants input on the charity work being on the ground. We want to see where the money goes, we want to see a project executed from start to finish, and we want to get to know the specific people our money has helped.

The technology to do this is here and it’s something I’ve been doing for a while now. But, after spending over 2 years to repair a school, what incentive does a charity have to do something like this again when I can only generate less than 40,000 views? Alex packing for his trip already got World Vision over 200,000 views.

This is an important moment for the YouTube community. We need to praise World Vision for engaging the YouTube community – but we also need to let them know we want more than just them replicating their celebrity-style visits with high profile YouTubers.

One way you can do this is let World Vision know. They are listening. On the World Vision Vloggers website, they have a place where you can leave a note (see the photo below for where the link is). Feel free to drop them a line. You can also tweet something using the #wvv hashtag and they will see it.

World Vision wants your feedback either through leaving a note (see link that I highlighted in the photo) or by tweeting #wvv as a hashtag.

Next week, I have a meeting with a charity. Although it is too soon to say, there might be the chance I can team up with them. Unfortunately, it will probably be outside of Bangladesh.

I know that I started this project with the idea that I want to make a difference on the issue of global poverty – but something keeps pulling my heart specifically to Bangladesh.

It’s hard to explain but, when I’m in Bangladesh, I feel that I’m more than the donations that I’m able to bring to a village. Or that I’m more than the technology and gear that I use to connect with you guys.

When I’m in Bangladesh, I’m able to connect with the people in these villages in a way that’s hard to describe. In a way, I’m not helping some foreign or alien group of people. I feel… like… I’m helping my own people.

As Bangladeshis point out, my spoken Bengali is rubbish. But, the same is not true for my ears. There have been many times when I’m talking to someone and I’m able to pickup a subtle tremble in their voice and read between the lines.

It was a subtle tremble in a young mother’s voice that led me to discover that she was hiding the fact she was living essentially as an indentured servant – working as a housemaid without getting paid.

A young mother working as an unpaid servant (working only for scraps of food) smiles while talking to me.

It was a subtle tremble in Shaeda’s voice which led me to discover that sometimes helping someone can cause jealously within a village – putting pressure on her to share the aid she received.

It was also a subtle tremble I heard from a young boy waiting in line for emergency relief (after losing his home to a cyclone) that I felt it was the right time to say a joke only Bengalis would get. Never in my life did I expect an entire village – having lost their homes and waiting in line for aid – to burst into laughter.

I'd tell you the joke I said that caused the crowd to burst into laughter… but you'd misinterpret it. It's was a joke for Bengalis-only.

Since it is so hard to find charities to team up with, I feel like I shouldn’t be picky. But, my fear is that, if I’m in some foreign country where I don’t understand the culture, I don’t speak the language, and I’m seen as a foreigner whenever I step into a village – I won’t be able to connect with those I help.

Because I won’t be able to pickup the subtle trembles.

Jason Sadler

Inspired by some recent comments on this blog and tweets, I’d like to talk about the direction I feel this project needs to be going. And it starts with the story of Jason Sadler.

Jason Sadler is an entrepreneur who has successfully used social media to generate fame, attention, and wealth for himself through his business called I Wear Your Shirt. Hoping to use his momentum on social media, Jason decided to form his own non-profit organization.

Jason’s non-profit was about providing free clothes to people in Africa. He called his organization “1 Million Shirts” with the goal of getting people to donate 1 million used shirts which he would then ship to needy families in Africa.

A lot of us donate our gently-used clothing to local good-will. And, when I’m overseas, I often find myself parting with some of my favorite shirts because I find people who could benefit from them more than I could. But, on the scale Jason was aiming to do, this could do more harm than good.

Click the jump to read more…

Continue reading ‘This Takes Time’

What would you say if I gave your donations to someone whom (until recently) I never met, who used it on a country I’ve never been, and helped people I’ve never seen?

What you would get is this video:

First, it must be said that this is far less sketchy than it seems. Rohan was a friend of mine long before I sent him a dime. I trusted him enough as a friend before I entrusted him with part of this project. That, of course, does limit how often I can do things like this.

Second, there is a specific reason I wanted to try something like this. Quite frankly, there is a vacuum out there when it comes to supporting people like me right now.

There are so many foundations touting themselves as supporting “social innovators”, “social entrepreneurs”, and “social change”. But, you know what? It’s nonsense.

From experience, almost all of these foundations tend to overlook people like me. Maybe because we get mistaken as a mere “film project”, or because we can’t speak their jargon, or because we operate outside of the structure they’ve built for themselves.

Which leaves people like me – whether it’s someone like Rohan doing a short trip or someone like Mark whose devoted his life to this kind of work – to go it alone. If we don’t help each other, who will?

And, by teaming up with a friend, I now have a fellow YouTuber who understands the frustrations of trying to do work like this. And how, it’s impossible to produce videos on a regular basis like most major YouTubers:

At the risk of sounding grandiose, the fact is I have a vision of how donors, supporters, and people on-the-ground should be engaging and interacting with each other. It’s a vision I’ve been putting into practice for over three years – and I have so much more I want to do.

Yet, despite you guys liking it and people on-the-ground loving it, foundations will overlook it and charities (that are fortresses) will resist it. C’est la vie. My only regret is I wish Rohan & I had the chance to do more than just help 40 families with blankets.

The future of this project really does rest with the support it gets from the YouTube community. And whether it’s people like Rohan on the ground or you guys supporting this every step of the way online – I couldn’t ask for a better support network.

Hank & John Start VidCon Early in the Morning (thus the rare shot of empty seats)

VidCon. In a word? WOW. As one friend put it, “it’s like the internet exploded into real life”. It was surreal, amazing, & awesome to meet people that I’ve only been able to see through my computer screen.

Even though there wasn’t nearly enough time, I’m in awe at how seamlessly online friends turned into “real life” friends. In most cases it’s like you’ve known someone for ages and are just hanging out.

This photo makes me look more epic than I ever have the right to be.

Hank & Me on Stage

It was also a real honor to be able to speak in front of 1,700+ people at VidCon. I can’t thank Hank & John Green enough for this opportunity.

In all honesty, if they were picking speakers solely based on number of YouTube subscribers & views, than I would never have been picked. But, that’s part of the reason I’m so grateful I had this chance.

I believe that YouTube is an unprecedented force for good in this world. Forget the haters – we as a community can do amazing things. But, I believe the power of this community remains largely untapped.

With the exception of YouTube featuring stuff, the conversation about global poverty is but a small teeny tiny fraction of the conversation going on YouTube. That’s something I’d like to change.

I’m trying my best – but I can’t do it alone. It’s hard because I can’t do what normal YouTubers do to climb the charts and become a success.

For example, I can be informal & casual but – given the subject matter – I can’t be too silly. Although I want to, I also can’t make videos on a regular & frequent schedule. I’m forced to balance doing a good job on-the-ground with spending time making videos.

In some cases, the projects I do take years to complete. They require planning, networking, budgets, on-the-ground trust building, and also need to account for natural disasters & political unrest which push back schedules.

The video I showed at VidCon is a perfect example. It took 1,000 days to bring this story to an audience. It’s hard to do something like that on a weekly basis. It’s for that reason I need the YouTube community to help me share & spread videos like this one:

So speaking at VidCon was very important because, not only is what I do funded by the YouTube community, the future success of this project is entirely dependent on how much support this work gets on YouTube.

This trip to VidCon wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Hank Green (VidCon event organizer and vlogbrother) who sponsored my flight to VidCon and Patrick Clinger at ProBoards who sponsored my room, board, and stay in Los Angeles.

There’s a difference between doing charity to make a difference and doing charity to feel good about yourself. One requires far less effort – and may actually do harm in the long run.

The reason I’ve been inspired to write about this is because I’m a huge fan of this blog post critical of “hug-an-orphan” trips and charities.

If you’ve ever traveled to the developing world, you know what I’m talking about: you hear of some school for poor children (and/or an orphanage) that lets you volunteer for however much time you can spare. You can also photograph and film until your heart’s content – without restrictions.

And, especially nowadays, you can even book a trip just to go abroad to help people. It’s called voluntourism. And, unfortunately, it’s nothing like the long-term work required in the Peace Corps or VSO.

While I’ve had a hard time teaming up with big charities, I’ve had plenty of unrestricted offers by smaller charities, schools, and orphanages in Bangladesh to come over, film, photograph, and help the kids there.

And, you know what? That raises a huge red flag for me.

An open-door, unrestricted, policy on filming, photography, and volunteering to anyone who shows up is often not in the best interest of children and is more about making the volunteer feel good about themselves.

As the blog post critical of such establishments points out:

Generally volunteers will only stay at the orphanage [or school] for a few days, weeks, or at best months. While at the orphanage most volunteers seek to build emotional bonds with the children so they can feel they made a difference. Unfortunately, although well intended, this leads to a never ending round of abandonment for the orphans.

As much as it delays things, it’s actually a good sign when there’ s at least a bit of a struggle to film & photograph. I love it when I get treated with skepticism, prodding questions, and subjected to background checks.

Students studying by candlelight at the Dharmarajika Orphanage. This orphanage gave me a tough time to get access. Which is exactly why I wanted to help them.

You know why? It shows they actually give a damn about those they help. These hoops also filter out those who want to help just to feel good about themselves – and those who want to actually make a difference.