UP | uncultured project

Are you ready for the 17th of December?

I have a confession to make: when someone leaves a really flattering comment on one of my videos – I squirm. Nothing makes me feel more uncomfortable than being called a “hero”. And I guess there isn’t a better time to talk about this than on a day when we honor the real heroes of the world.

For most of Canada and the USA, Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day) just ended. Let me spare you the gushy speech and cut to the point. The men and women we honor on this day have a hell of a lot more guts than most of us – and I definitely include myself in the “not enough guts” category.

I’ll admit: if I was put on the beaches of Normandy, in some trench in the middle of World War I, or even on deployment (like some of my friends have been and some still are) in Afghanistan or Iraq – I’d probably soil myself and cry until I got home.

For me, the reason I started this project is because I wanted to show that you don’t have to be a hero to make a difference in the world. The term hero gets thrown about way too easily and I think today, out of any other day in the year, we should recognize who the real heroes are.

Lest we forget.

One month and a day ago, I was standing by myself by the road outside of an unfamiliar airport in an unfamiliar town. I had just come to San Francisco for the first time in my life. The goal? To sustain this project.

At first glance, it looks like this trip was a bust. I’ve spent much of the past month hearing various foundations say the phrase “we love what you’re doing – but we’re not going to help or support you”.

You can call me a changemaker – but I’m not the right kind of changemaker for changemaker-centric foundations. You can say I’m using social media – but I’m not using it in the right way to get support from charitable social media-centric foundations. I just don’t fit into their funding/support box.

But I wouldn’t call this trip a loss.

In Bangladesh, I would often get tweets, emails, and YouTube comments from people telling me how I’ve touched their lives from so far away. But it was only by coming to the States and to San Francisco I was finally able to see this first hand.

From the moment I arrived in San Francisco, I was surrounded by friends. Many invited me into their homes and gave me a place to stay by lending their couches, air mattresses, or sofa beds. Everyone I met had opened their hearts – even though all were seeing me in person for the first time.

It’s taken a while for me to digest just how far some of my friends in San Francisco have gone to help me find a way to sustain this project. One friend even designed, printed, and paid for business cards for me to use for networking purposes.

The extreme kindness I’ve encountered here has almost bordered on being pampered. Knowing that it’s gonna be tough for me to pay for much of anything – friends have got together to provide me with a free bus pass, free internet, free places to stay, and more free meals (and great cooking) than I can count.

In fact, the only reason you’re able to see this blog post is because one of my friends – upon hearing that uncultured.com was down because I couldn’t afford to pay for hosting – grabbed a laptop, pulled out his credit card, and paid for hosting right then and there!

Left: A friend (and employee at YouTube) grabs a laptop and pays for a year of uncultured.com web hosting after the site was taken down because I couldn't pay the bill. Right: Paul (who just heard about my project 30 minutes prior) decides to chip in as well.

If the videos, tweets, and blog post I can make in Bangladesh can cause such gigantic acts of kindness in people halfway around the world (whom I had never met until just now) – than I’m convinced it’s only a question of when (not if) this journey can keep on going.

When it happens, it will be because of friends like the ones I’ve met here in San Francisco.

Thank you.

I Give a Talk to YouTube & Google Staff in San Bruno, California

“Years from now, I’m going to be looking back at this point in my life and laugh,” I told my friend whom I’m staying with in San Francisco. “I’m doing something successful enough that people are inviting me to meet them and give talks… yet unsuccessful enough that I can’t afford to buy myself some new clothes,” I said with a wry laugh.

Right now I’m in San Francisco – home of Silicon Valley. It’s home to where all this technology that has made this project possible exists. There’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and so much more. Heck, I got to meet one of the guys that designed the MacBook Pro I’m typing this blog post on! As awesome as this place is… I’d rather be back in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, I’m the guy that helps others. I’m the guy that comes out of nowhere and - if I’m lucky – make a difference in someone’s life. In San Francisco, I’m the guy looking for help. In a city with such a disproportionate amount of well connected and successful people, I’m hoping someone comes out of nowhere and – if I’m lucky – makes a difference in my life by helping me sustain my work.

I’m taking it one day at a time.

One of the biggest days for me happened not to long ago. I was invited to speak at YouTube Headquarters. People have told me that the talk I gave was really well received and that the turn-out for this talk (which went for an hour) was much higher than expected. But, in all honestly, I don’t remember much because I was nervous as could be.

The question of why I'm doing this is easy. How to sustain this? Not so much.

The one thing I do remember is that I stressed at the talk is the fact that my work would not be possible without YouTube. Whether it was John Green & the Nerdfighters convincing me to accept donations, teachers at the American International School in Dhaka helping with room, board, and contacts with charities, or people around the world reaching out to me – none of this would be possible if it was not for YouTube & it’s community.

Although in a completely different way, the same is also true for Twitter. When I think about how I’ve been able to use Twitter, it’s only now sinking in how much of what I’ve done have been Twitter “firsts”. I was, for example, the first person to use Twitter as a means of providing real-time donation receipts. People donated to Cyclone Aila relief – and many got a tweet with a photo of the exact person they helped in real-time from the disaster area.

One thing that people who are seeing me in real life often comment is how excited I get when I talk about my work. I love what I do – and I don’t want to stop. As much as I love the sights, sounds, and food of this place – the only reason I’m here is because I want to find a way to get back to Bangladesh and to keep doing this project.

Wish me luck. One day at a time.

This is maybe my final week in Bangladesh.

Since I landed, I’ve been trying to complete projects related to Challenge Poverty. As you know, I’ve been working on building that Pond Sand Filter and repairing that school. It’s been nearly 6 months and I want to wrap everything up in the next 72 hours. Yeah…. that maybe a bit ambitious. Fingers crossed.

The good news is that the water quality of that Pond Sand Filter is now clear, clean, and deemed safe to drink by official tests conducted by the Department of Public Health here in Bangladesh. Here’s a photo. One is a glass of water from the Pond Sand Filter and the other is a glass of store bought mineral water. Can you tell which is which?

Mineral Water (Left), Pond Sand Filter Water (Right) has been tested by the Department of Public Health thanks to Save the Children

Getting to this point has been long. Since landing there was the BDR mutiny which stopped things, Cyclone Aila which stopped things, and normal bureaucracy and office meetings which come with trying to do something like this. Save the Children has been helping me navigate most of this as best they can and now we’re pulling out all the stops to get this done before I fly home.

The question is – am I going back for a break or for good? Back in January, I wrote that if I can’t sustain this project I’m gonna have to pack up in 12 months time. By “sustain” I want to do this in a way that doesn’t impoverish my parents. My savings are long gone – and I do this by borrowing from my parents. We’re not Rockefellers unfortunately – just regular Suburban Middle Class Canadians (basically like Americans… but we get free health care).

I also don’t want to start taking a cut from people’s donations. That still just doesn’t sit right with me.

I’ve decided to spend the next few months trying to figure ways to sustain this work. During this project, I’ve learned a lot about the world of charity work. One things that surprised me is that this field is a hell of a lot more competitive than I ever imagined. Many orgs prefer to copy & compete instead of collaborate & create. These orgs and charities like my approach – but want to replicate it internally instead of teaming up

Save the Children has really been the exception by being supportive, open, and collaborative (instead of competitive). Going forward, I’m hoping there are other exceptions out there…

P.S.

What’s going to happen with your donations? Don’t worry I’m not gonna run away with them! In my attempt to network with more charities and organizations that I’d like to team up with, it’s easier to propose to do certain projects and/or team up when you can assure them you already have the funds. So please, feel free to keep donating to either the project fund or the operating and equipment fund.

A few friends have been messaging me on facebook about this new video that just got released by TED:

My first reaction was “gee, that looks familiar”. In fact, 8 months prior to this TED talk I had done the exact same thing – but in a far less controlled situation in rural Kenya:

A ton of friends have been pushing me to apply for TED but I always told them no because I didn’t think I had anything “TED worthy”. If I knew something I already did 12 months ago would be the centerpiece of a TED global talk, I would have applied ages ago!

As someone who done this first hand, here’s what I wish Michael Pritchard could have done and/or created to set his product apart:

• Why not add salt? During a cyclone or flood, salt often mixes into drinking water. However, the LifeSaver does not filter salt.
• Why not add chemicals? Sometimes water gets contaminated from industrial run-off, but the LifeSaver doesn’t filter chemicals.
• Why not show a working family version? A large black jerry can was held up but, according to the official website, the LifeSaver doesn’t come in a family scale version.
• [see update below for more]
  

If it sounds like I’m bashing the LifeSaver in favor of the LifeStraw Family – please keep in mind that I have never been paid to endorse the LifeStraw Family. But it’s a moot point because, the LifeStraw Family has the exact same limitations as the LifeSaver. Both use nano-technology and both have the same limitations of a nanopore-based filter. The only difference is price.

The LifeStraw Family costs $35 and filters 18,000 litres of water. The LifeSaver costs well over $100 and only filters 6,000 litres of water. While it might be possible that one day in the future the LifeSaver could come down in cost, the LifeStraw Family is already at this price point and is already saving lives (also note the photos Michael Pritchard displayed are stock photos – none showed his product in action in the field).

For someone whose TED talk is (to a large extent) a replay of an old YouTube video of mine, this product brings nothing new to the table except a price tag 100 times more than existing (and technologically identical) solutions.

[UPDATE: I forgot to add this to the list, but the LifeSaver also doesn't show how it can handle highly turbid water. Turbid water basically means how much junk and how "liquidly" the water is. As you can see in "Cow Sh*t to Clean Water", I stressed tested the LifeStraw Family by using so much cow feces the water was more like a thick slop (i.e. extremely turbid water). But the LifeStraw Family handled it because it has a nano-tech hydrophobic surface that flushes the dirt away. The LifeSaver product, from what I can tell, uses a carbon pre-filter. Basically, technobabble aside, it seems like the LifeSaver can clog whereas the LifeStraw Family doesn't. You can replace the carbon pre-filter if it gets clogged - but the replacement filter alone costs about 1/3rd of what a brand new LifeStraw Family costs.]

Yesterday, I talked about a comment someone had written called “The Uncultured Project is totally useless!”. If you haven’t read it – check it out. Just to be clear – this wasn’t a hater comment. The points raised by the author are actually common points raised in the discussion about global poverty.

That’s why I want to talk about this.

And I want to bring someone else into this discussion – his name is Sharief:

Meet Sharief

I’ll keep the guilt-trip to a minimum – you can read more after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Teach a Man to Fish?’