Please describe your proposed solution.

This is a joint proposal from Littlefish Foundation (LFF), Sustainable ADA, Littercoin, and Pike’s Litter Crew.

Pike and his group are passionate young individuals of about 60 in Malawi dedicated to fighting plastics from towns, rivers, schools, markets and other contaminated passages.

See here for more on the crew’s work.

Pike Sums up the Challenges They Face:

• No working and protective equipment only group A has them but fading off

• Logistics to ferry the plastics to last destination or collection centre of recycling

• Visibility for example t-shirts, reflectors ; media etc

• Training equipment for campaigns and awareness on plastic pollution and it's dangers on life.

• The young volunteers are all youths and are jobless so sometimes when we have work, they need to have little something let's say for soap to clean their cloths or just a refreshment .

• Stigmatised… Most of the people passing us during plastic picking exercises; trigger words of stigma on us to say we are hopeless; we are faeces removals; we are dirty people calling many many names…

• Big challenge is also our government to recognise our efforts in plastic pickup sector. And also government to.completely ban the production of thin plastics.

We can’t help with all of these problems, but a good start is getting Pike and his crew funding. Here, we stumble into a general problem.

The Problem:

Inhabitants living in disadvantaged parts of the world suffer from great barriers to entry into the Cardano ecosystem. There are many challenges to overcome:

• Language barrier: Most information is available only in English. Not everyone knows English.
• Low awareness: Most individuals don’t know much about blockchains. Core concepts like wallets and exchanges are not understood.
• No blockchain adoption by businesses: Very few businesses have adopted blockchain to be used as currency. Exchange to local currency is a requirement.
• Exchange to local currency: Exchanging cryptocurrencies into local currencies is a challenge. Local services are lacking, language barrier prevents some services from being used.

The Solution:

We want to provide Pike and his crew with the ability to transact confidently in ADA, and be able to convert it to their local currency without issue, allowing them to pursue their environmental activism with global funding.

In onboarding these environmental warriors to Cardano, we will get them the funding they need.

Easy to liquidate, easy to integrate.

The plan to get them there is:

1 - Prepare a packet of existing documentation on blockchain fundamentals

• Blockchain basics. What is it? How do we use it?
• Creating an account on Binance, verifying your ID, etc
• Creating an ADA wallet
• Sending and receiving ADA
• Exchanging ADA to USD
• Getting USD from exchanges to a bank

2 - Pike and crew implement the docs

• English speaking members of Pike’s crew go through docs, try each step
• They ask questions on things that are not clear
• Collect feedback on how the well the documentation worked
• Pike and crew record videos of them working on implementing the information in docs

3 - Iterate docs

• Answer additional questions
• Update docs with clarifications and simplifications
• Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all is clear for Pike and crew

4 - Translate docs to Malawi

• Translate docs to Malawi
• Validate the usefulness of the docs with videos from Pike’s crew

5 - Create a template and guideline for others

Once we solve the issue for Pike, we can generalize our solution. We will:

• Produce a template for others facing the same problem and challenges
• Produce a report for others iteratively developing educational resources
• Produce a over view video report highlighting the key pain points in this process and how the locals in Walawi overcome any hurdles in the process.

Who will benefit?

Pike and his crew will be the primary beneficiaries, having been initiated into the Cardano ecosystem, and able to get funding from a global network to continue the good fight against climate change. Others who use our templates and guidelines to solve similar problems will benefit as well.

Outcomes:

The initial outcome is a blockchain-enabled crew of environmental activists. With ripple effects it is a blockchain aware and using Malawi and Africa.

Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

• Our proposal will help create a big impact and get more people in Africa educated on how to create a wallet and an account on an exchange to have it transferred into their own currency. This will also help with wide-scale adoption because it will prepare and set up the participants in Malawi ‘Pikes Litter Crew’

• (45+ members) with a tool set to create a wallet and transact through the Cardano blockchain. Ultimately helping with the wide-scale adoption of Cardano and educating these participants for the future.

• This proposal will act as a use-case that can be repurposed and reused by anyone since it will be open source. We will highlight the steps and process taken to create the materials and reach our overall goal. Including next steps for the project and how we or another Cardano community member could copy our material and have it translated into another language, helping further grow the adoption in 2022 and beyond.

From the Grow Africa, Grow Cardano Challenge Brief:

Key Metrics to measure

• Number of proposals addressing the fundamental issues preventing Cardano adoption in Africa
• Number of proposals offering solutions to infrastructure and education concerns
• Number of new Africa-based users onboarded onto Cardano (wallets, platform sign-ups)
• Number of new Africa-based Catalyst members (proposers, voters, CAs)
• Number of new African projects seeded in 2022
• Number of African developers onboarded in 2022
• Local impact (measurable through user activity and reach)
• Local partnerships formed (size of institution + influence)

This proposal addresses all of these!

Why is it important?

This is so important because this step into the blockchain space can act as a barrier to enter Cardano and the entire crypto space as a whole. Because the fundamentals of creating a wallet, and finding an exchange to turn crypto into your own currency are lacking. Which a majority because of minimal education, or access to proper tools/guides. Our solution will help us overcome this hurdle. This will allow communities in Africa like ‘Pikes Litter Crew’ better use the blockchain and even turn donations into their own currency. From this first ripple, the users will be able to spread these messages to friends and other communities around them to create a greater ripple effect and we can assist them with the proper resources for greater success.

What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Language, Technical, and Literacy barriers:

Only a small portion of Pike’s crew know English, those that do are faintly familiar with blockchains, and some aren’t literate.

We are aware of the problems. Our plan is to overcome them step by step, through working with English speaking members of Pike’s crew, understanding the challenges, then translating resources to Malawi for the rest of the crew.

Desire and Motivation to use ADA:

The success of the proposal depends on the effectiveness of our work in onboarding Pike’s crew to Cardano and Catalyst. This is a big unknown for them, there will be an inherent motivation to stay using what is familiar.

We’re in contact with several other groups like (eg. Climate Neutral Cardano, Wada, Waya Collective) who are working on solving similar problems. We’ll collaborate with them to address such issues as they arise.

Availability of enabling technologies:

Pike’s crew will be asked to record their progress using cameras. These equipment might not be widely available. To mitigate this risk we set aside an equipment budget .

Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

1 month priori + 3 months

We plan to onboard Pike and crew to Cardano in four phases. Phases 1,2, and 3 consists of these tasks:

1. Prepare a packet of existing documentation on blockchain fundamentals
2. Pike and crew implement the docs
3. Iterate docs
4. Translate to Malawi

In phase 4 we merge all the work into a complete template and guideline for others to replicate the project.

Phase 1: Week 1 - 4

• Blockchain basics. What is it? How do we use it? Blockchain literacy.

Phase 2: Week 4 - 8

• Transacting on Binance. Get money in and out of Binance. Trading literacy.

Phase 3: Week 8 - 12

• Transacting ADA. Wallets, sending, receiving ADA. Private key best practices.

Phase 4: Week 12 - 16

• Create template and guideline.

Starting with phase 1, we’ll validate the learning for individual members of Pike’s crew by transferring part of the funds to members who have learned the topics. We’ll make sure they can transfer the funding, first to Binance, and then to their bank accounts, where they can cash out. We’ll validate their learning through going through this process for each member of Pike’s crew.

Long term vision:

A blueprint for onboarding individuals from underdeveloped parts of the world onto the Cardano ecosystem.

Managing workload:

This Fund 9 will be the first time our Littlefish Foundation, Sustainable ADA and Open LitterMap/Litter Coin teams will collaboratively propose in Catalyst. Our teams will have multiple proposals submitted this Fund, across categories.

As we have a globally decentralized, experienced, multi skilled and diverse team, working across timezones, and connected to various networks and communities, we can tap into our multiple connections and resources, to ensure we have a sustainable approach to managing our workload if we are to receive funding from Catalyst.

Here is a link explaining how Sustainable ADA, who are actively working on previously funded proposals and supporting this proposal, shall manage their workload:

Cole:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AmJQVWt04By_7f3Qhf-0OEKuBgmoAmQkW-SzoKggtTE/edit?usp=sharing

Razali:

<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SdUYlUODbPxgipIHgZ5uQDO3MoksnIqdONU1MGm5Uvw/edit?usp=sharing>

Workload Management at the Littlefish Foundation:

<https://publish.obsidian.md/littlefish-foundation/B.+Project+Catalyst/Fund+9/Workload+Management+at+LFF>

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

As LFF, Sustainable ADA, and Littercoin, we demand no funding to deliver on our parts of the proposal. The budget is designed to get Pike and his crew funding for their environmental activism, so a large percentage goes to them for their work.

• Project Management - $0
• Documentation in English - $0
• Translation of documents to Malawi - $3000
• Educating the crew: $2000
• Individual incentives to onboard 100 USD per crew member - $7000
• Equipment: Resources for filming - $1000
• Video Editing - $500
• Open source report (replicable blueprint, findings etc) - $0

Total Budget: $13500

The total pot is 500,000 USD so we are asking for 2.7% of the pot, with a ROI that can have a far larger positive multiplier effect.

Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Pike Ng'oma - from Malawi Africa, am an environmental activist who is very passionate about nature and it's creation.

We are a group of young individuals of about 60 in Malawi dedicated to fight plastics from towns , rivers, schools, markets and other contaminated passages.

Our work is to pick all thin plastics and bottles from the mentioned sites to save and serve our collapsing planet. We understand plastics fuels climate crisis.

So far we have collected tonnes and tonnes of plastics as a group which started in 2020. We are operating from lilongwe as a capital city of Malawi and the team is divided into 5 groups of 65.

Cem Karaca - 20+ years experience of Software Development, hardware and network infrastructure. Fintech Data Center owner, Cyber Security startup founder. Electrical & Electrınics Engineer Ms.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/ckaraca/>

<https://github.com/ckaraca>

ChaKhan - 3+ years experience as a Backend Developer. Python, REST, Postgres, data modeling. Electrical and Electronics Engineering Major. Working on an MBA Thesis on the Littlefish Foundation. Learning within the Catalyst/Cardano ecosystem for 7+ months. Focusing on organization building, governance, token engineering with long term interest in economics, game theory, behavioral psychology, and political science.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/%C3%A7a%C4%9Fkan-acarbay-b2210b136/>

<https://github.com/cagkanacarbay/>

Cole Bartlett - Is a recent UNITE 2030 Youth Delegate, a recent graduate in Economics & Sustainability, Founder of Sustainable ADA, Contributor for Positive Blockchains, Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher, & Social Entrepreneur, Ecoquest Education Foundation - Sustainability Research, B Impact Clinic part of UNH's Changemaker Collaborative - Kikori, Sustainability Splash Program Organizer, Bronze UNH Sustainability Award Winner

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-bartlett>

https://twitter.com/cole_vt

Razali Samsudin:

14 years of experience as an interdisciplinary Educator from early years settings to postgraduate level, with a background in social sciences, humanities, and sustainability. Freelance Writer, Editor, Digital Economy, Blockchain, Sustainability and Impact Measurements Researcher (#Blockchain4Good, #Cardano4Good, #NFT4Good), Social Entrepreneur, Catalyst Proposal Mentor.

Wada UN SDG and Education Coordinator, Co-Founder of Sustainable ADA, Contributor at Cardano AIM, PositiveBlockchain, Cardano4Climate, Catalyst School and Adatruth.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin>

<https://twitter.com/SustainableADA>

<https://twitter.com/Razlosophy>

Seán Lynch: Founder, CEO, CTO, CFO Open Litter Map

Spent 15 years working on the development of openlittermap since the pre-iPhone era, did x2 masters to develop an open source academic approach, got first funding from catalyst, pioneering Littercoin, many more plans for citizen science if the funding for OpenLitterMap is successful.

https://linkedin.com/in/seanlynchgis

Newman: is an independent, interdisciplinary thinker and facilitator with a varied background in sustainable agriculture, design, humanities, and leadership. He brings an enthusiasm for decentralization, communication, and collaboration to this project. His focus is on documentation and knowledge management.

LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/newman5/>

Telegram: https://t.me/newman5

If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

This proposal is a pilot project aiming to create a replicable template that may be used to onboard participants from Africa to blockchain and the Cardano ecosystem.

A future proposal may be given to scale the project to more people, by us or others, to maximize the impact of our work.

Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

The indicator of our progress is the number of participants from Pike’s crew who:

• Have an ADA address
• Have a verified Binance account
• Has made a transaction using ADA
• Has converted ADA from their wallet to their local currency

Pike and his crew will self report on these topics. We’ll prepare reports and publish this information on LFF and Sustainable ADA communication channels.

At the end of the proposal, we’ll prepare the closing video where we summarize the

experience and steps it took to complete this proposal and the process in developing the materials. We also will be including a deep overview of the pain points in this process for the locals in Malawi and focus on how they over came any hurdles during the process. This will be a key part of the projects success. Showcasing the impact it has on the communities in Malawi and will be an important resource allowing anyone to replicate the process.

What does success for this project look like?

According to the Challenge Brief, success looks like:

“Practical innovations offered on tackling the unique challenges faced by the continent. A clear roadmap that points to increased adoption.”

In line with this vision, we are taking an approach of working collaboratively in the Cardano community and with field teams who understand the issues intimately, in communities that are currently external to Cardano, and with the support of Catalyst and the Cardano community are equipped, enabled and empowered to solve the problems they face, in Malawi. This positive ripple effect can move outwards, and inwardly, having a multiplier effect across the continent and beyond.

Specific to the proposal, this translates into a blockchain enabled group of environmental warriors operating from Malawi, able to continue their great work with additional funding from Catalyst, and a shining example of how Cardano can facilitate environmental activism on a global scale.

What does success look like?

We will reach success by creating a practical innovation with our educational tools and final pain point /success video to help Pikes Litter Crew tackle this unique challenge that is a big one and faced by a good portion of the continent.

We will be creating a clear roadmap that points to how with our model we can increase adoption and create long lasting ripple effects from this one proposal.

Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is an entirely new proposal but it is related to the LFF, originating from this funded proposal: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/404668

At LFF, our origins are in building technologies to enable funding the Actions of on the ground activists like Pike. This is a pilot project to start work in creating a LFF colony that solves problems such on-the-ground activists face.