[OLPC-Philippines] OLPC PH Stimulus Plan

[Charles Chen]

Hello everybody,

I am sorry for being silent the last few months as I had been busy on other important matters. I hope despite the current economic situation, we continue to have a job or a source of income and continue our efforts to develop a viable model for using OLPC in the Philippines. 

In a similar way where governments across the world are implementing various stimulus programs to jump start their economies, I would like to start the same for our group in the Philippines to help me establish the OLPC Philippines Foundation. 

We will initially aim to raise P1.0 Million pesos which is the capital requirement for a non-profit, non-stock foundation to be registered in the Philippines. I will start the ball rolling with an initial donation of P5,000. I have asked my niece, Ellay Ricalde who is a branch manager at PSBank in Makati to help us in opening the required bank account and hold it in trust until we are able to reach the P1.0 million amount. While the money is in the account held in trust it cannot be withdrawn (only deposits can be made) by anybody (including her) until the company is registered and its articles of incorporation and by-laws are presented. After such time, the foundation will manage the funds raised.

I would like to solicit help from the rest of the group in the following manner:

1. Nomination of at 4 other people who aside from myself to be the initial 5 trustees (I will be the fifth person) of the foundation. They shall be the people also who will assist in drafting the articles of incorporation and by-laws of the foundation.

2. Nomination of at least 3 members to compose the finance committee. We need to develop a program to raise the money we need not only to register the foundation but also our day-to-day activities. I know in the light of the current economic situation asking for donations will be difficult so we need to plan how to do this effectively and efficiently. One idea is soliciting the help of our local Congressman or other publicly elected official to make a donation to the foundation to start a OLPC pilot in his congressional district.

3. Nomination of at least 3 members to compose the pilot committe. I previously have mentioned a plan to do a school pilot with Don Bosco Mandaluyong. I have put this pilot on hold until a viable model has been identified on how to do this. Reading all the previous discussions which at some point became passionate if not heated, I decided we need first work out what will be the deployment model appropriate for us. Once that is finalised I can go back to Don Bosco to work with them to test this. For those involved in this committee we can now secure a minimum of 100 XO laptops for US$ 259 each for the pilot. I have enclosed the following links provided below by OLPC Australia for your reference. 

http://www.olpcfriends.org/2009/02/olpc-deployments-a-global-approach/

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Australia%27s_first_deployment

http://laptop.org/en/participate/change-the-world.shtml

Caroline, you may want to be involved here.

The establishment of the foundation will help us have the needed legal entity to futher promote our activities. Once we are able to register ourselves as a tax exempt institution we can be an attractive receipient for tax deductable donations from private companies and individuals. And finally, with the financial resources available, we will be able to afford to cover some if not all the cost of our activities. Even if we all volunteer our time and effort (the example of Bernie Innocenti) we still need to have the needed funds to cover the out-of-pocket expenses involved. 

Bernie I will keep in mind once the right opportunity comes up for us to do this.

Thanks.

Charles Chen









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