Cardano Blockchain Lab in Kenya

The Backstory

Working with a long running and successful NGO in Kenya, we have formed a small team of young Kenyan professionals who are focused on the Cardano ecosystem. They are engaged in Swahili translation of Cardano onboarding content, and blockchain development work for lidonation.com.

The Dev team is being mentored by Darlington in a paid mentorship program. They will soon be helping to write smart contracts for our imminent community token launch (lidonation.com/phuffycoin), in addition to contributing classical programming for the site.

The translation and content team is being led by Stephanie; their work was made possible by funding we received in Project Catalyst Fund 6. They are translating dozens of existing LidoNation.com articles that cover Cardano basics into Swahili and creating audio recordings. This will make simple Cardano content accessible to a huge swath of African newcomers. In addition, they will be writing original content in Swahili (with English translations) about Cardano. We are extremely excited about new Cardano content being written by and for an African audience, in Swahili.

The success of the Kenya team and their access to reliable internet connection has been to the credit of our NGO partner, Ngong Road Children's Foundation, which has provided a library for students in the program to study and do contract work.

The Big Idea

We propose to establish the Ngong Road Cardano Lab in Nairobi, Kenya. This proposal would support adding onto an existing education hub to secure dedicated workstations, a Cardano blockchain developer mentorship program, and Community Outreach officers.

The Lab

We envision a lab with 5 computers, used exclusively for running Cardano infrastructure and facilitating developer work and training. LIDO Nation is already mentoring two recent college graduates, and is providing them with 2 computers. With this funded proposal we can buy three more, and extend our mentorship program to bring in 3 more young developers. Future cohorts of mentees will be led and trained by these first, "veteran" cohorts. During the mentorship program, trainees learn the ropes of developing on the Cardano network. They will learn to work with the Cardano architecture to solve a wide range of business problems.

Architecture pieces covered :

• Dbsync
• Relay node
• GraphQL
• Hasura
• Ogmios
• Wallet backend
• Plutus Application Backend
• PostgreSQL
• Prometheus

The Meetups

In addition to the mentorship program, we will equip members of our team to lead monthly community meetups and events. The Kenyan team that is currently translating Cardano educational content into Swahili will be primed to do this! They are learning and engaging deeply with the content as they translate, and can become local experts, sharing what they are learning with others. This proposal would fund two part-time community outreach officers. Beyond the monthly meetups, community outreach staff will host office hours, and participate/establish Swahili Cardano channels on social media platforms. Lab mates from the Developer Mentorship team will be encouraged to participate in these efforts as well.

The Location

Elimu Hub is an exciting new project spearheaded by Ngong Road Children's Foundation (NRCF). NRCF provides educational opportunities to Kenyan youth who would not otherwise have them. Elimu means "Education" in Swahili. With the Elimu Hub project, they are building a new safe space with modern technology tools. Here, young professionals who have graduated from school, and from the NRCF program, can make the most of their education with continuing training and work opportunities. We are partnering with them to make Cardano blockchain education and opportunities available to these young graduates and their community. https://ngongroad.org/latest-news/elimu-hub/

The Vision

This funded proposal would launch and sustain the Ngong Road Cardano Lab in Nairobi, Kenya for 9 months. Part of the Big Idea is that the lab will become self-sustaining, by finding ways to tap into the greater Cardano ecosystem and the opportunities that exist here. Alumni donation, a hiring agency project management model as well as running a stake pool are all being explored as sources of revenue.

The Milestones

• 3 Month Milestones: The Ngong Road Cardano Lab has 5 dedicated workstations, 2 developer interns, and 2 community outreach officers. They have hosted their first Community Event and are set up to continue with monthly events going forward.
• 6 Month Milestones: The first cohort of developers interns has graduated from the program, and the second cohort is getting started. Community Events are happening each month, and are reporting to the Catalyst community with updates on attendance and feedback from the events.
• 9 Month Milestones: Veteran Mentees are preparing to lead ongoing developer mentorship programs. The lab is engaged with the Catalyst community and other parts of the Cardano ecosystem. New partnerships and opportunities fund ongoing maintenance and growth of the Lab.

The Metrics

These are the Key Metrics for this Catalyst Challenge - how does this proposal stack up? -->

Launch new Hubs in the next 6 months: CHECK. The Ngong Road Cardano Lab will be the first community hub of its kind in Kenya.

Bring new developers into the Cardano ecosystem: CHECK. We would directly mentor 5 new Cardano Developers in Kenya during the launch of the lab. We would equip them to lead ongoing mentorship and take over running the lab. They can shape what happens there in the future, based on their own local expertise, relationships and context.

Onboard new Cardano users: CHECK. Community events and curating Swahili social channels will open the door to a huge and important part of the world. Swahili is the language of daily interactions in this part of Africa, and native-language resources are the key to accessibility by all kinds of people. The lab space becomes a great place for non-developer meetups - setting up wallets, participating in meetings, learning about ways to participate in the community.

External organizations brought into the Cardano ecosystem: CHECK:

• Friends of Ngong Road (FONR) is a U.S. based nonprofit, which does fundraising for NRCF. This project would pave the way for Cardano exposure to their large donor base.
• Ngong Road Children's Foundation is a Kenya based NGO that provides quality education to children affected by HIV/AIDS who live in the Dangoretti slums of Nairobi Kenya. The schooling and support offered by NRCF allows children in the program to break the cycle of poverty, and access new opportunities. Our Developer mentees and translators are college graduates, thanks to this program. Partnering with NRCF allows us to hit the ground running, avoid bureaucratic delays, and let them help us network and vet new recruits among their talented graduating students.
• Karibu Techmates is a new program, sponsored by NRCF, to help recent college graduates with tech skills to access training and employment opportunities. The new Elimu Hub study center offers a safe space with modern technology resources so that the "Techmates" can take advantage of learning and job opportunities in the online gig economy. We hope to become a strategic partner in this enterprise, making Cardano development and community outreach a key part of the mix at the Hub.

The Budget

We are asking for a total of $38,255 to pay for Technology and Staff for the Cardano Developer Mentorship program, Staff and Supplies for the Community Events Outreach program, and to cover a portion of Utilities (High Speed Internet and Electricity) for the facility for a 9 month launch period. 

Cardano Developer Mentorship Program

• Developer Mentees - $4,500 Interns in the developer mentorship program are paid $250/month for a committment of 30 hours/week 
• Computer Stations - $11,000 3 New Developer Workstations with capacity to run all of the the cardano architectural pieces: db-sync, a node, graphQL server, ogmios, hasura, a wallet backend and the plutus application backend.
• Website for the Lab - $360 This would cover the cost to create a new website for the Ngong Road Cardano Lab in Nairobi Kenya, and to host the site for 1 year
• Mentorship Director - $6,000 Darlington runs the mentorship program and spends 5 hours per week coaching the mentees in the program, including a 3hr pair programming session. Darlington is already mentoring 2 recent grads. He have also successfully mentored 3 students into full time software engineering positions at Yelp, electricbikereview.com and the Colorado Department of Game and Fishing (they are all still employed at the respective organizations).

Community Events and Outreach

• Community Outreach - $6,000 Pays for 2 Community Outreach officers in Kenya, plus Coordinator support from the Lido Nation Team. We will plan and host monthly meetups, office hours with community members who are interested in Cardano, and participate in Social Platforms to help create and grow Kenyan/Swahili content channels for Cardano.
• Office Supplies, Space Rental, Marketing Enablement, Event Hosting - $2750 Pays for Zoom and MailChimp Subscriptions, Office Furniture and Supplies, and refreshments for monthly events.

Utilities and Admin

• Cardano HUB Coordinator and Administration - $3,200 Pays for Lido Nation and Elimu Hub staff to hire staff, coordinate objectives, plan for future revenue streams to sustain the lab beyond the 9 month launch.
• Internet - $4033.00 This amount covers 60% of the cost of internet for the facility for 9 months. Getting good internet in Kenya is challenging and expensive; being able to help NRCF with this is key to reaching this region with blockchain tools!
• Electricity - $412.00 This amount would cover 50% of the electricity bill for the facility for 9 months. The new Elimu Hub is being built to run on solar power!

The [lidonation.com] Team

We are two Cardano enthusiasts. With our community of contributors, we provide hype-free, educational news and insight about the Cardano network that is accessible to everyone. We are building a network of contributors who break down complicated technical ideas for everyday people, and provide relevant news in quick bites. We are working on a community token to facilitate blockchain based transparent and auditable charitable giving (lidonation.com/phuffycoin).

@LidoNation is known in Twitter Spaces and in the Cardano Community as a vocal champion of Project Catalyst. This project will help make Catalyst introduction and resources available to Swahili speakers. We have articles explaining Project Catalyst, and how to participate!

Our website is a resource for anyone who wants to learn what Cardano is, why they should care, and how they can participate. We want to make these resources accessible to as many people as possible.

Darlington is an engineer by day and at all times a dancer, humanitarian, idealist and entrepreneur.

Stephanie is a teacher and technologist with a passion for helping non-profits navigate and capitalize on technology.

Linked In Pages:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phuffyking/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/lido-nation