RETURNING SMART PHONES TO THE CHILD M I NERS
Project founded by Afrobeat superstar BM and @Africaninchief Project founded by Afrobeat superstar BM and @Africaninchief
Sky News report into Child miners in The Congo
•There are thousands of unofficial, unregulated, unmonitored mines where men, women and children work in what can only be described as slave conditions. •In one group, we found a circle of children with a four-year-old girl picking out cobalt stones. • Other children younger than her were sitting among the mineral or playing nearby. A pregnant woman already carrying a toddler on her back was also in the group. • None of them wore gloves or masks, yet the World Health Organisation says exposure to cobalt and breathing in its dust fumes can cause long-term health problems
Send smartphones to the kids • Sending old smart phones to the kids • Raise funding from old phones
Rescuing the kids • Rescuing the kids • Create an alternative live for the kids
Initiate development • E-tourism projects to generate income • Online sale of tourism products • Direct investment in the community
Fair trade • Engage fair trade international suppliers • Allow raw materials trade to benefit the community
THE PROBLEM A New Approach • We are not against mining, we believe its an industry that needs to exist, we are after a better condition for the kids exposed to local abuse related to mining. • Like any raw material from Africa, the demand is what has driven companies to push their supply chain to source the raw materials, regardless the impact. • The plight of the kids in Africa has been well documented and it is clear that the well-being of the African child is being placed on one end of the scale and on the other end is capitalism. • Like the oil sector that is also in the same scenario, everyone knows, no one stands a chance against capitalism. Their parents give them to the scouts to work in the miners. • The aim of our project is to use capitalism to fight capitalism and take the African child out of the equation that fights capitalism. • Its aims to inject capital into the problem by empowering the kids to follow a different live.
#nocongophone Device manufacturers • They are often based outside Africa and too remote from the problem and liability. • The can claim blissful ignorance and the still source the raw materials. • Their buying power put every one downstream at the disadvantage to feed their demand with questions.
Raw material sourcing companies • Africa is cash economy and is very vulnerable to such businesses. • The fact that the operate a cash in hand service makes then attract to Africans seeking such revenue. • The do not employ the kids directly. • African Governments allow them to operate.
African raw materials scouts • These are African men that source raw materials and also source the kids to do the work. • Targeting desperate families with kids available to work. • The families have little alternative.
African child miners • Desperate parents send the kids out to work. • Children as small as a few years old. • The money they make is needed by their families. • They have little alternative means of surviving . “Only International consumers (smartphone owners) have the independence & power to change the cycle”
OUR SOLUTION Smartphone consumers • Send old smartphones to the Congo.
Convert the phone into cash • Convert the phone into cash.
Use the cash to create alternatives for the kids • Rehabilitation | Education | Health |Alternative lives
Create key amenities for the kids • Social amenities | Family support | mental heath
Create an alternative market for the raw materials • Establish fair trade partners for the raw material
Key solution streams Send smartphones to the kids • Send smartphones to the kids. • Raise funding from old phones. Smart phones crate capital that allow us to have an immediate impact on the lives of the kids & take them out of harms way.
Fair trade • Engage fair trade international suppliers. • Allow raw materials trade to benefit the community.
Rescuing the kids • Set up rescue center for the kids. • Create an alternative live for the kids. Rescuing the kids needs to also be supported by social support mechanisms that will sustain the rescue both for their families & the community.
A critical aspect of our plan is to introduce competition into the market allowing the raw materials to be traded fairly & ethically.
Returning old smartphones child miners Returned Smartphones Financial Support
Trade development
Create trade development skills for sustainable development Sale of the old smartphones to generate capital to support the programme
Establishment of a local programme office to intervene and rescue the kids working with their families
Alternative trading practice
Training
Create alternative markets for the raw materials with ethical standards
Alternative training to provide life skills
Healthcare
Schools
Create local Health services for the kids
Create local schools for the kids in partnership International schools
THE FOUNDERS BM • Afrobeat is a powerful tool in bringing change to Africa. It was an essential tool used by President Mandela to bring an end to Apartheid. We intend to use it to right this fundamental wrong in Africa. • I invite you not only to listen to my songs but engage in social activism to change lives in Africa. • Our songs from Africa are end products, the raw materials are the lives and environments where these kids live in and it is only right that we give back to them, a piece of that cake.
Ben Omoakin Oguntala • Music is a development opportunity in Africa and it helped the South Africans during the fight against the Apartheid Government. • As the African in Chief, it is my job to evince how music can be used to break the cycle of poverty in the communities where these kids come from. • Yes we can sing and dance but we can also add to that, robust social change that gives the kids an alternative live to such abuse.
Working in collaboration BM • Raise awareness about the issue internationally • Use music as a means of generating global interest
African Tourism Market • Create e-tourism as a means of inviting the world to see the communities that the kids live in. • Create tourism products from the communities to be made available online
Africa Secretariat • Create raw materials development alternatives for the communities • Allow ethical trading and fair trade
THE KEY PLAYERS BM Foundation
BM Music production
Creating alternatives to child miners
#nocongonophone project
Ben Omoakin Oguntala
Create alternative markets for raw materials
Breaking the cycle of child miners in Congo
Child Miners
Introduce fair trade competition for the raw materials
Music campaign to raise worldwide awareness
Return old smartphones to African child miners to fund their development
Create alternative economies for the communities in Congo
Call to action: what can we do? download theme song www.africasecretariat.com www.africantourismmarket.net
https://twitter.com/nocongonophone
https://www.facebook.com/nocongonophone
Email us with your suggestions on how you would like to support