As all but one of the council chose to abstain from voting to pass this proposal to a community vote - I'm now submitting this through democracy for the community to decide whether this proposal should be voted on by the community.
Some of you might feel this proposal reaches outside of the normal scope the treasury - I would argue that, given this technology's stated aim to be decentralised and unstoppable, this is an existential question the community should decide.
I would ask people to read the proposal and consider the impact voting for it would have for both`Polkadot and the people affected by this disaster.
Proponent: Simon Hipkins (Key Pictures)
Beneficiary: Ihtiyac haritası (NeedsMap.coop) 1haY6iHgLopw2WWmPhcdCy2jwzL2jthbNL515rUyJtnmhUt
Date: 20.03.2023
Requested DOT: 171333.51 (USD $1,081,000.00) Converted to DOT using the EMA7 rate on subscan on date of submission (20/03/2023)
Summary:
On February 6th, 2023, two earthquakes hit Pazarcik and Elbistan in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, leading to over 50,000 deaths and leaving 1.5 million people homeless. This was the deadliest earthquake worldwide since the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
It is also proving to be one of the first major examples of blockchains and their tokens being used to directly offer humanitarian assistance.
So far over $12.5 million in donations have been made from blockchain protocols, treasuries, exchanges and donors.
This proposal provides a tangible and transparent way for the Polkadot community to contribute to a long-term and a UNDP approved best practice project that will help people recover from this terrible disaster.
Ihtiyacharitası (NeedsMap.coop) is one of Turkey's most reliable non-governmental organizations and has been at the forefront of search and rescue efforts in recent weeks. As UNDP co-lead for reconstruction efforts in the region they are now beginning to construct a series of villages built from repurposed shipping containers across the affected region. These villages will provide much needed housing, social and psychological care for those affected by the earthquake. They will also be a best practice model for other UN affiliated organizations and contractors building hundreds of such container villages across the region.
This proposal would allow the Polkadot community to build a neighbourhood in one of these villages. This neighbourhood would consist of around 100 containers (households) and house approximately 400 - 450 people over an area of 6900m2.
As it is usual for such temporary post-earthquake housing to be necessary for at least two years - this proposal also budgets to support the maintenance and social program for this neighbourhood for 24 months.
In effect we will be using DOT to give a two-year lifeline to hundreds of people to rebuild their lives and helping to define a best practice model for post-disaster housing.
Please read the full proposal and budget here.
And you can listen to an interview I made with Esra Arslan, co-founder of the beneficiary organisation NeedsMap and project lead for the container village in Hatay. During the interview I was able to ask her many of the questions raised over the last weeks.
And you can view images of the current construction work here.
Beneficiary Identity
The DOT Account of the Beneficiary, ‘Ihtiyaç haritası’ (NeedsMap) has been approved by ‘MASAK’ (The Turkish Financial Regulator). As part of the Turkish government regulations, NeedsMap (along with all NGOs in Turkey) were mandated to set-up their wallet addresses on Turkish exchanges, Paribu and BTCTurk. The ‘Ihtiyaç haritası’ (NeedsMap) wallet address has been opened on the local Turkish crypto-exchange, Paribu.
As the NeedsMap wallet address is on an exchange it is not possible for them to create an on-chain identity for the beneficiary account. In lieu of this on-chain identity, NeedsMap has publicly tweeted out the beneficiary address in the proposal - available to see here:
https://twitter.com/ihtiyacharitasi/status/1632116990390288391?s=20
This DOT address - can be verified to be the same on Paribu - the Turkish exchange - webpage here:
If this proposal is successful, Paribu will hold NeedsMap’s DOT in account and convert it into Turkish Lira gradually so as not to affect the market value.
In accordance with the Turkish Regulator’s requirements, for every request NeedsMap makes for funds from their account at Paribu - they must supply an invoice - e.g. for the purchase of 100 containers. All these invoices will be made available to the DOT community as part of the reporting process on the project (see milestones) to ensure full transparency that the DOT contributed is being used to pay for the project.
All of NeedsMap’s transactions regarding support they receive are audited on a daily basis by Mazars, an independent audit, tax and accounting company. In addition, every spend from their DOT beneficiary address will be invoiced for, and these invoices will be made available to the Polkadot community in 3 milestone reports over the duration of the project.