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The Uncultured Project
Check out Shawn's Uncultured Project YouTube channel and website.
When it comes to anti-poverty campaigns, the most successful ones are usually the most star-studded (with the likes of Bono, Angelina Jolie, or Matt Damon). But, on YouTube, one soft-spoken non-celeb has created a one-man amateur anti-poverty campaign that dwarfs them all.
“The Uncultured Project” is the tongue-in-cheek name for the informal YouTube-based campaign started by Shawn Ahmed - a 27 year old Canadian and former Notre Dame University graduate student and scholarship recipient. Inspired by a speech by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, author of the book The End of Poverty, Shawn decided to leave grad school, liquidate his life savings, and go to Bangladesh (and most recently Kenya) to help the poorest of the poor.
With no formal plan, training, experience, or real budget, Shawn has been helping combat malaria through bed net distributions, providing disaster relief after Cyclone Sidr and monsoon flooded, and has helped rural families and children through scholarships, school supplies, and even materials for home reconstruction. He chronicles his journey through video blogs on YouTube which, to date, have been seen an unprecedented one million times.
Part of his appeal on YouTube comes from Shawn’s unique approach. Instead of making the typical impersonal guilt-inducing videos designed to get people to donate, Shawn’s amateur videos tend to be positive, upbeat, and personal. Shawn calls his approach “Changing the Conversation about Global Poverty”. It’s an approach that has given even the most well funded and star-studded anti-poverty campaign a run for their money.
For example, the ONE Campaign, the multi-million dollar anti-poverty campaign backed by celebs such as Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Bono, have produced over a hundred videos in the past two years which have been seen 2.2 million times. In half the time, and with a quarter of the videos, Shawn’s “Uncultured Project” has been seen more than half as many times as the ONE Campaign. And, in terms of YouTube subscribers (individuals who have signed up to notified right away when a new video is released), The Uncultured Project is the most popular anti-poverty campaign on YouTube – surpassing even Bono and Matt Damon by more than a thousand subscribers.
The YouTube Community, in addition to providing moral support and advice through the ups and downs of this project, have rallied together to donate tens of thousands of dollars to this project. Money of which Shawn does not use to pay for his living, travel, or equipment expenses, but rather directly spends to support local families, charities, as well as multinational organizations such as Save the Children USA. To date, hundreds of donations have come in from 20 different countries from around the world - from Israel to Iceland and from France to the Faroes Island.
Although currently not a sustainable project, when asked how long Shawn will keep doing this, he replied: "for as long as I am able”.
This is a report from the I Power Crew, a group of activists and founders of the I Power community. We discovered Shawn's YouTube channel on YouTube and were astounded by how this legendary project had not yet been picked up by big mainstream media, so we decided to do a press release and Digg item for it.
For media inquiries, e-mail Shawn at project@uncultured.com.
Comment
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Comment by Kamil Foreński on January 25, 2011 at 5:30am -
Awesome !!
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Comment by Crystal Dearth-lorton on January 5, 2011 at 12:26am -
If only we all were wired like Shawn... I will pass this on to all my friends and family members to enjoy and think about what they can do for their community. I know it has given me hope that I can fulfill my dreams of helping others.
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Comment by lutz gaudenz on December 11, 2010 at 12:30am -
COOL =) love this project!
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Comment by tracher999 on December 3, 2010 at 5:19pm -
nice to see that some people can help other people it not happens to many keep it up
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Comment by HeSaid on January 13, 2010 at 7:37pm -
After seeing Dean s reference, and many of Shawn's videos, I sent a CHALLENGE out to my Alma Mater, the Pennsylvania State University, seeking a leader there to lead all Penn State rs in joining Shawn and showing some Penn State Penache! Penn State has the LARGEST world wide alumni group of any U.S. university.
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Comment by Deunta Blakemore on December 20, 2009 at 11:49pm -
digging
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Comment by Karen Weaver on September 29, 2009 at 9:33pm -
Wow that's amazing, someone people just know how to do the right things!!
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Comment by ross carlson on September 4, 2009 at 8:22pm -
alex, dont set examples by saying u are setting an example,. just cuz someone says they digg doesnt mean they didnt donate, or can
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Comment by ross carlson on September 4, 2009 at 8:21pm
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w2go bro
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Comment by Sarah on July 29, 2009 at 2:28am -
I love this.
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Comment by Stephanie Pick on July 20, 2009 at 1:25am -
This is remarkable. Good work
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Comment by mons10 on July 17, 2009 at 5:49am -
omg so awsome
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Comment by Cato Albertsen on July 12, 2009 at 4:25pm -
Hey shawn! I love your work, as a the nerdfighter i can say you really never forget to be AWESOME!
Everyone should do like you and try to change the world:)
DFTBA man!
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Comment by Jonas Ingstrup on July 8, 2009 at 12:15pm -
Very awesome! You must have a giant heart to be able to pull something off like this!
THUMPS UP!
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Comment by john on July 7, 2009 at 10:47am -
actually that’s probably the end of 2012— and the apocalypse won't happen turns out I have the calander infront of me it’ll be the thirteenth everyone, this may save you from a suicide cult if your so inclined to follow one.
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Comment by john on July 7, 2009 at 10:44am
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Yes that was in a way a joke… if it work’s in getting doomsayers to give their stuff away well it will help the poor… only problem is that they would technically be poor them selves then…………
so I don't actually support it that much but giving away most of your wealth if you have lot’s of money into long term development aid by charities like Plan and Oxfam is a great idea.
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Comment by john on July 7, 2009 at 10:42am
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Me using fear to get people to donate to good causes
for all those who believe 2012 doom says you have less then 2000 day’s left to live.
1263 to be more precice so if the apoalyps will happen I would shouldgest to give all your money to charities look on the uncultured page to find good charities relating to poverty and donate all your money, and other possessions,
before your time is up so you will go to heaven.
well honestly, I don't have a church so I’m not going to trick any non followers into doing that but hey……,
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Comment by Michael Teo on June 24, 2009 at 3:27am -
coooooool
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Comment by Max on June 23, 2009 at 6:50pm -
just awsome!
Great :)
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Comment by Nav Prabhat singh on June 23, 2009 at 4:25pm -
Gr8 work shown....hope u guys wnt stop here......
godblss them all
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