July 14, 2021, Kigali: Thousands of children in Rwanda will soon receive help from Save the Children, but from an unusual source, a cryptocurrency.
Traditionally reserved for the tech elite, Save the Children in Rwanda has embarked on a new project that aims to ensure that the benefits associated with blockchain reach the world's most vulnerable children.
The project, set up in partnership with the Cardano Foundation, is the latest venture by the aid agency as it seeks new cryptocurrencies to help increase donations.
Save the Children in Rwanda can now raise funds in the Cardano cryptocurrency, ADA, having installed a Managed Account Service that allows ADA donations to reach the project directly without intermediaries.
These funds are invested in Africa-based social enterprises with a proven impact on children, families or youth. More than 22,000 ADAs, worth nearly $30,000, were donated through the system within hours of its launch.
Save the Children in Rwanda recently launched Kumwe Hub to bring together innovation and impact investing across Africa, with blockchain central to both. Projects such as transcripts for children crossing borders, digital identity documents for refugees, and loan mechanisms for the financially excluded are being piloted through the project.
One of its first initiatives, "MicroWorks," has succeeded in enabling unemployed young refugees to earn a living by collecting AI data with their cell phones for payment. It is the first of many planned pilot projects that use both technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest challenges facing today's children and youth.
The project is the latest digital currency initiative from Save the Children, which was the first global NGO to accept cryptocurrencies. The organization has been accepting Bitcoin donations since 2013, in response to Typhoon Haiyan that hit Southeast Asia and devastated the Philippines, and can now accept multiple cryptocurrencies as donations from its cryptocurrency wallet widget.
Maggie Korde, Save the Children's Country Director in Rwanda, said this was a new way forward for children in Rwanda:
"Through Cardano, Save the Children in Rwanda now has an initial pot of ADA cryptocurrency that we can put towards projects for children. But there are also countless possibilities through blockchain to, firstly, directly impact the lives of children through initiatives such as digital school records and, secondly, to increase our efficiency and transparency as an organization."
Ettore Rossetti, senior advisor at Save the Children, said this was an exciting new path for the organization:
"Beyond cryptocurrency contributions, what if blockchain technology could be used to make supply chains more efficient, transactions more transparent and end global poverty through a decentralized universal basic income as a form of unconditional cash vouchers? That would be a dream worth holding on to. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, Save the Children has reached more than a billion children. Maybe the next Bitcoin billionaire can help us reach the next billion children."
Eva Oberholzer, Chief Growth Officer at the Cardano Foundation, said this was just the beginning of an exciting new partnership:
"People are often confused by cryptocurrencies and baffled by blockchain. Through this pilot with the Kumwe Hub, we aim to demonstrate the power of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the global community when applied to support projects outside the world of financial services and token trading."
In March 2021, the Cardano Foundation announced that more than $500 million had been delegated to mission-driven, community-driven stake pools in Cardano to help fund more than 100 charities around the world. Since then, more than $270 million has been allocated to these pools, and charities such as Save the Children will become the primary beneficiaries of this initiative.
To learn more about the partnership between the Cardano Foundation and Save the Children, click here to watch a video explaining the partnership. Those wishing to support Save the Children's work in Rwanda with a donation from ADA, please follow this link: www.kumwehub.com/donate
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