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.

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.

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.]

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.

Sharief is ten years old and he’s a fishermen. Taking the old phrase “feed a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for life”, Sharief learned how to become a fishermen at a very early age. Every night he, using the same equipment and putting in the same hours as adults, fishes in his village. His income? 30 cents (on a good day).

Teach a Man to Fish? Cliches Oversimplify the Problem.

So, with the knowledge of fishing not being enough to survive, Sharief decided to put his entrepreneurial and hardworking spirit to even further use by investing in a rickshaw. Most days he rides the rickshaw himself and earns a fare from passengers. On other days, he rents out the rickshaw and earns money from rental fees. With these two jobs, do you know how much he earns? About 50 cents (or 60 cents on a really good day).

He's Ten Years Old & Holds Two Jobs & Earns about 50 cents a Day

It’s stories like this – and a reality that breaks all our tired old cliches – which is why I  to work on this project.

To be clear: I don’t do this project for a sense of self-satisfaction. Indeed, I was more self-satisfied sponsoring children from afar when I didn’t have to be confronted in the immense reality on the ground. Nor is it to fill some void in my life – as more skeptical people have claimed. Indeed, if I wanted to fill a void, should I really have removed myself from my friends, my family, and all the hobbies and interests that I had?

The reason I do this project is because there is a reality on the ground most of us cannot fully comprehend until we see it with our own eyes. There is a discussion about global poverty that needs to change before we can end it. Even if you spend your whole life reading every academic piece there is on this issue (as I have spent much of my life doing), there are still stories and viewpoints left untold and unshared.

What this project has taught me is that those that who say “unless you do _______ what you are doing is totally useless” are always wrong. It doesn’t matter if that person is in favor of direct aid, spurring entrepreneurship, or is an extremist advocating some sort of Che Guevara-style world revolution. There is no one path to ending extreme poverty. Anyone who says otherwise is simply trying to marginalize perspectives they disagree with.

More importantly, reducing the fight against global poverty to a cliche is insulting not just those trying to help, but its also insulting to those in need. The people I have met in Bangladesh are some of the most industrious, hardworking, and intelligent people I’ve ever met. They don’t need to be taught how to fish – instead, they need an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

A mosquito net may only protect a family for as long as it lasts (and if it’s a PermaNet that means a min of 5 years). But everyday they sleep under that net, they have the opportunity of living a life free from malaria. Everyday a villager drinks from a Pond Sand Filter, is a day with the opportunity of not having to take a loan (or waste their meager savings) buying medication to get rid of the newest water-borne illness they could have otherwise contracted.

What some see as “hand outs” or “totally useless things” I see as opportunities. Opportunities people can then use to further improve their circumstances on their own.

For example,when I gave the son of a young rickshaw driver the books needed for him to stay in school and enter the ninth grade, I helped him ensure he gets the literacy skills needed to command a high paying job. Even if he drops out the very next year, he’d be more educated than 60-70% of the entire country. But, by buying him brand spanking new textbooks, I put him in a position where he could resell those books after grade nine and use the proceeds to buy used textbooks (by himself) in grade ten.

My job, a charity’s job, or any concerned citizen’s job isn’t to provide a top-to-bottom solution for the poor. We aren’t suppose to hold their hands and build their life for those we help. Hell – I think we’d be resented by all if we even tried! Our obligation is to do enough to break them out of the cycle of poverty. We do that by creating opportunities. This includes the opportunity to live free from malaria, free from water borne illnesses, and in a position for them to better their own lives… by themselves.

Just to be clear – he isn’t being a troll or a hater. This is his sincere and honest assessment of the Uncultured Project and it’s been a great launching point of debate over at IPower. I’m posting this here because I’m sure this might strike a chord with at least a few:

So I was watching this Shawn doing all these awesome things and I admire him for that but then I realized … what he is doing is totally useless. It isn’t going to change a thing!

I read this under the Uncultured section:

“With no formal plan, training, experience, or real budget, Shawn has been helping combat malaria through bed net distributions, providing disaster relief after Cyclone Sidr and monsoon flooded, and has helped rural families and children through scholarships, school supplies, and even materials for home reconstruction.”

So he is giving them all kinds of things. “Things” being the key word, what when (not if) they brake, when the water is drunk, nets become torn and notepads for children are left with no more blank pages? Is he going to supply them with more for his whole life? What he is doing is conditioning them that they’re at mercy of others, other wealthy nations. That’s plain wrong. And quite frankly I was disgusted when he rolled out the US flag. It’s a symbol of suppression [sic] all over the world. But that aside, while I’m sure he doesn’t realize that and has only good intentions at heart, it’s very brave and awesome what he decided to do but useless nonetheless. This is what he and others inspired by him should realize and try to offer real solutions instead.

As the saying goes, give man a fish you feed him for a day, learn him how to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime. What these people need to do is to start their own “businesses”, to grow their own food, to take back their natural resources, to get rid of the greedy foreign corporations and their corrupt governments. These people are not lazy, they’re not stupid, they can perfectly take care of themselves you just need to show them HOW. It’s not that these people can not develop, they’re not ALLOWED to develop. That’s the key, you achieve absolutely nothing by giving them “aid”. There are how many millions of them? How many mosquito nets he gave them? I mean … just think about it.

These are valid thoughts. Come back tomorrow for my response. Or, head over the IPower and find my response already in the forums

People, organizations, and charities are starting to realize you can’t guilt your way into getting people to support your cause. Many charities are also starting to use the internet in a way that’s just more than uploading their TV spots.

I’ve talked about a lot of charities that are taking the lead in this. But today I’d like to talk about an unlikely source in helping to change this conversation – CollegeHumor.com.

CollegeHumor is one of my favorite sites. They’ve helped create amazingly funny videos like the Powerthirst 2 commercial, Where the Hell is Matt spoof (NSFW.. kinda), Jack Bauer in 1994, and much more.

Their recent spoof is a stab at what I consider the most annoying, guilt-inducing, charity commercial in the history of the world. First, take a look at the original (the charity has disabled YouTube embedding so that their video cannot be used in blog posts like this):

[Please Click this Link to See the Original Video]

It’s got all the hallmarks of what I hate about charity commercials. CollegeHumor’s spoof takes this on – almost phrase by phrase. They also make fun of grad students which – as a former grad student – I can especially appreciate the humor.

Sometimes criticizing something doesn’t work as well as spoofing it. Hopefully, the only time we’ll be seeing Mr. White Beard of Guilt from now on is when he’s trying to help grad students.

What you might not see in this video – because I did have to edit it a bit to make it understandable – is the struggle he was going through to find the right words to express himself in English. He desperately wanted to share his story – and I desperately wanted to make sure I got what he was saying correct. In hindsight, a half day’s worth of work seems like a bargain for that.

This also serves to highlight one of the common things I’ve learned about how Bangladeshi rich fail to understand, empathize, or even acknowledge poverty within Bangladesh. Many of the well-to-do Bangladeshis didn’t have a clue what was being said but instead offered their guesses (such as “he’s talking about river or coastal embankments” or even better “he’s talking about returning a book”).

As this experience highlights, when it comes to well-to-do Bangladeshi elites and their understanding of the plight of the poor in this country. Both literally and figuratively, the rich are often not even speaking the same language as the poor.

What many non-Bangla speakers sometimes don’t realize, is that there are many variations of Bangla. There is city Bangla, Bangla used by those who emigrated away from Bangladesh, and rural village Bangla. Each one comes with different accents, meanings, and translations.

This can be a lot of trouble when trying to translate words I’ve heard for the first time in rural villages. This was exactly what happened when a local villager tried to explain to Paul that Cyclone Aila had destroyed many “bhitas”:

In many ways, I relate to this villager a lot. I often throw English words into my Bangla when I don’t know what the Bangla equivalent is. And this villager, while explaining the damage caused by Cyclone Aila, had to throw in “bhita” because he didn’t know the English equivalent.

The problem is that there is no direct English translation for “bhita”. And thus began my 14 hour struggle to find a translation.

The first people I turned to were those from the American-Bangladeshi community. This consists of Americans who originally were born and raised in Bangladesh. To my surprise, many of them told me their Bangla was too poor to properly help with any translation. This includes people who still do business in Bangladesh! I was shocked and surprised.

Those in the American-Bangladeshi community that did try and take a stab at translating each came up with different words. One suggested it means “embankment”, another suggested it meant “landscape” or “property”, someone else suggested it meant “home”, finally one of them suggested it meant “mud hut”. How could one word mean so many different things?

Well it turns out they were all wrong… and right at the same time. Click the jump to find out what the word “bhita” means.

A woman stands on top of a clay & mud platform or "bhita" as part of Canadian funded Post-Cyclone Sidr relief efforts

“Bhita” is the name of the artificially landscaped ground used to raise a home above the surrounding ground. It serves to keep low-level flood waters out of the home. In many respects it’s kind of like a “household embankment” even though that’s technically not the correct use of the word “embankment”. It also kind of means “home” or “property” because this platform serves as part of the house. This platform is usually made out of mud and clay – similar to what many mud huts are made out of.

The problem with Cyclone Aila is that the flood waters were so high, these household platforms were not high enough to keep the flood waters out. Not only that, but the force of Cyclone Aila’s flood waters ripped to shreds many of these household platforms. You can see the damage in some of Paul’s photos:

The ground underneath this home used to be several feet higher. What was underground is now exposed.

"Bhitas" can also be considered to be a foundation of sorts. Without a bhita, as seen here, many homes start to collapse.

As you can see, many of these homes still stand despite losing the very ground underneath them. In the second photo seen above, much of what you see used to be buried under the ground inside the “bhita”. This also connects to why poverty, global warming, and disasters are all connected. If they were wealthy enough to afford a higher platform made of concrete – their homes could have very well survived intact.

A Young Villager Talks to Paul About His Experiences with Cyclones Sidr & Aila

When my friend Paul stepped off that plane at Zia International Airport in Dhaka, he thought he was going to get away from it all. For the past several months, Paul has been living in Nepal. He’s seen regular riots, curfews, day-long power outages, and frequent water shortages. Bangladesh, by comparison, was a place he assumed he could get away from that for a bit.

Being the great friend that I am, his experience was more like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Instead of taking Paul to Cox’s Bazar for a break at a seaside resort, to the Sundabans in the hopes of glimpsing a Bengal Tiger, or even the beautiful tea gardens – I took him to a cyclone disaster area to see what we could do to make a difference. In what was no doubt an act of sainthood, Paul endured stomach aches, blistering sun, peeling skin, and a two day journey to reach a remote village affected by Cyclone Aila.

In addition to my mobile vlogs, I have regular footage and photos of the event. But in the meantime, Paul has a great first blog post about his experiences complete with some amazing photos. Paul also was generous enough to let me repost a select few of these photos on uncultured flickr account and license them under the Creative Commons (which I will be doing in the near future).

Although Paul never got to see Bangladesh’s fancy resorts or tourist spots, by the time his trip was over, he could unequivocally say he’s stood in places that no “bideshi” (foreigner) has ever stood before. Which, knowing Paul, probably made this whole crazy trip worth it.