Some of my fellow Regional Directrors and INETA Speakers have stepped up to the plate to provide aide to victims of the recent tsunamis in Aceh, Sumatra, by offering up their services to an auction on eBay.
<From the eBay Auction>
Thirty of the top consultants and trainers in the worldwide .NET community have come together to help raise money for an organization that is doing amazing and heroic disaster relief in Aceh Province, Sumatra, the hardest hit area of the Dec 26th Tsunamis.
The organization is Aceh Aid at IDEP, headquartered in Bali. Because the organization is located in Indonesia, ALL of the money is able to go to help the victims. Below you will find an explanation about this project. You can also go to www.AcehAid.org to learn more. For a closer look at what they are accomplishing, visit the weblog of Susi Johnston, who is the Acting Emergency Director of Operations and Communications for Aceh Aid at IDEP.
The consultants in this auction are Michelle Leroux Bustamante, Kimberly L. Tripp, Jonathan Goodyear, Andrew Brust, Richard Campbell, Adam Cogan, Malek Kemmou, Jackie Goldstein, Ted Neward, Kathleen Dollard, Hector M Obregon, Patrick Hynds, Fernando Guerrero, Kate Gregory, Joel Semeniuk, Scott Hanselman, Barry Gervin, Clemens Vasters, Jorge Oblitas, Stephen Forte, Jeffrey Richter, John Robbins, Jeff Prosise, Deborah Kurata, Goksin Bakir, Edgar Sánchez, Thomas Lee, J. Michael Palermo IV, Vishwas Lele, and John Lam.
Buyers will bid to win one hour of consulting time from one of these 30 gurus. Starting bid is $100 with no reserve. There will be 30 winners. Winners can pick the brain of a .NET Expert for an hour. Highest bidders will be first in the “draft” for the consultant assigned to them. Winners can call, email or IM the consultant and use the hour to answer that nagging question, do a code review, or just get some general .NET advice. The winners and consultant are free to make other arrangements if they like.
There will be 30 winning bids. eBay rules require that all 30 winners pay the lowest bid price. Though you are only required to pay the lowest bid amount, remember the cause -- we hope that you will donate to Aceh Aid at IDEP the amount of your winning bid.
Payments are made directly to the Aceh Aid at IDEP PayPal account held by Tides Foundation which is a U.S. based 501c3 non-profit. Once the auction is closed, you will be contacted and asked to make this donation via PayPal to AcehAid@tides.org. This can be done from the eBay website, the PayPal site or even directly from the Aceh Aid at IDEP (hyperlink) website. When they have received the payments, the consultants will be assigned to the winners in order of the size of the donations (which we hope will be equal to your winning bid). You will receive an invoice from us, the sellers. All selling fees will be paid by the sellers as a contribution to making this charity event a success.
ALL eBay fees will be paid by thinktecture (http://www.thinktecture.com/) an European consulting firm.
Our consultants include many MSDN Regional Directors, INETA Speakers and even some Wintellectuals from six continents and twelve countries!
The Charity
WHAT IS IDEP?
IDEP is a small, Indonesian NGO, based in Ubud, Bali. Completed projects over the years have included community based development, sustainable living initiatives, permaculture training, waste management, organic gardens, recycling, etc. The focus is on helping people to help themselves. IDEP's founding director, Petra Schneider is a US-born, Indonesian citizen. The demonstrated and reproducible success of IDEP's small projects in local communities has earned the team an excellent reputation.
IDEP AND DISASTER RESPONSE/RELIEF/RECOVERY
At the time of the Bali bomb, about two years ago, IDEP was an important element of the network of local NGOs and other supporters that quickly responded to the tragedy, in various ways, not only immediately after the bomb, but during the recovery process for the various communities involved. Following shortly thereafter, IDEP received funding from USAid to create a comprehensive set of disaster management materials for Indonesian communities, aimed at children, families, and local leaders (official and unofficial). The materials are in the Indonesian language and suitable for use in rural and urban settings. These materials, including a booklet for children about Tsunami preparedness, were finished just weeks ago, but had not yet been disseminated to communities. Then the tsunami struck.
WHAT IS ACEH AID AT IDEP
Only hours after the news of the tsunami reached Bali, the same network of NGOs and individuals in Bali who had been involved in the relief efforts for the Bali bomb, reanimated and went into action. We started something called the "Aceh Aid Bucket Brigade" (see website), creating and deploying one-family-one-bucket multi-material aid packages from the hands of donors in Bali to the field in Sumatra. We began sending highly skilled volunteers, well-matched to the task within two days of the tsunami (Sam Schultz, Lee Downey, Oded Carmi and others). Our relief, and later, recovery programs in response to the Tsunami are now focused on two fronts. One is direct aid from Medan by road to areas around Banda Aceh. The other is this remarkable joint effort (nothing short of heroic), to the islands off the west coast of Sumatra, which as of yet, have not been receiving aid from any other channels that we know of.