Protea team up with Merry Merkle
End of Year Festive Cheer
We’ve reached November! Which means: Christmas decorations littered across local grocery store displays; free champagne galore at end of year functions; dusting off unwanted presents from last year to regift to cousins; gran taking her marinade roast recipes off the top shelf; incessant dreams of malva pudding double-helpings and the annual looming of awkward questions from Aunt Dorothy at Christmas lunch: “So what is this magical internet money of blocks thing you do, dear?” Sigh. Silly season is officially upon us.
Jokes aside. While the Festive Season is a joyful period for some for others, it can often be a time in which social depravities are exaggerated: homelessness, gender based violence, the ever widening chasm between equal access to quality education and the economically underprivileged. These are abounding problems irrespective of the time of year and are often obscured by festive cheer. Merry Merkle — an Ethereum community initiative was born from this observation followed by the question (in part, Aunt Dorothy’s question too): How can we use “the magical internet money of blocks thing” to impact the world positively in an immediate and practical way?
Read more on how the Merry Merkle initiative first unfolded here:
The same question has been a focus for Protea this year: an exploration of the intersection of blockchain and real world social impact applicability? Along with the building of Community as means towards finding solutions to societal problems directly related to socio-economic imbalance. What better way to pay our respects to 2019 and look forward to 2020 with new eyes than by joining forces with an initiative designed around the same ethos.
Majora Carter wrote: “When I think of community: it’s an Activity. It literally is. It’s an action that you participate in. When you build it carefully in a space, that’s when you start to see the benefits of it…”
Bearing all of this in mind. This will be Merry Merkle’s third year running. In 2017, the community raised nearly $201 000 for a children’s shelter in Toronto. In 2018, the community raised R113 000 which covered annual school fees for 48 children while a team of 10 people from all around the world gathered in Cintsa, South Africa to build a classroom. 2019 will see Merry Merkle also teaming up with The Bounties Network in order to partner with three different charities across the globe.
💡ACTION: On the 16 December 2019, three pop up events will occur simultaneously…
1. In New York
An art auction to support Unicef’s Cryptowallet initiative.
2. In Buenos Aires
A fundraiser to support Earn while you Learn — an adult education programme supporting favela communities.
3. In Cape Town
An event bringing together a team of people who will be actively working together on site at a clinic based in Retreat. We will be installing an air-conditioner, painting a mural along with a number of miscellaneous maintenance tasks in support of The Zoe Project — an NPO aimed at empowering, educating and nurturing vulnerable women throughout pregnancy and motherhood.
🌳 How to Help: Donate • Participate • Spread the Word
🌟 1. Donate
Connect your cryptowallet directly to Merry Merkle either through:
- https://merrymerkle.eth/ (With metamask)
- https://merrymerkle.christmas/ (Without metamask)
More details surrounding funds transferal mechanism and transparency available on site.
💃🏾 2. Participate
Join us on the 16th of December in Cape Town and get your hands dirty for a worthy cause. More details here:
🦄 3. Spread the Word
Join the conversation on Twitter:
• https://twitter.com/MerkleMerry
• https://twitter.com/Protea_io
