The crypto exchange Binance has created a pilot charity to provide healthy food for students in Uganda. The program will further expand to Ethiopia and Kenya to provide corruption-free nutritious food for children.
The program is developed by the Binance Charity Foundation (BCF) which is the philanthropic wing of the Binance exchange. BCF announced earlier in January at the Singapore Blockchain Week that they planned on deploying the pilot program. For most of the year 2019, the program will provide 2 meals a day for over 200 school children.
#Binance Charity (@BinanceBCF) Launches Blockchain-Powered ‘Lunch for Children’ Program
The launch was held at Jolly Mercy Learning Centre in Kampala, Uganda, providing 2 meals a day for a full year (end of 2019) to more than 200 students & school staff?https://t.co/mPJtYfNEmt pic.twitter.com/V1Cjgut9hT
— Binance (@binance) February 21, 2019
BCF plans on merging the program with a pre-existing plan to help over a million people in the developing world. The primary aims of this project is to address hunger and access to primary education. The target nations will be Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The pilot lunch program, however, will start with Uganda.
The mechanics of the program will utilize a purpose-built blockchain using the Zcoin protocols. Food tokens will be sent out to parents and guardians of the school children so that food can be exchanged from designated retailers. The suppliers of food were carefully selected so that healthy food was a priority.
The Kenyan based non for profit organization Dream Building Service (DBS) partnered with Binance to promote the project. The official launch of the project attracted over 500 attendees.
Further support has come from Chinese volunteers aged 18-25 who monitor the blockchain to ensure the integrity of the transactions. Binance has noticed that many of these young volunteers have technical skills in blockchain that prove invaluable to the project.
Binance has noted that a blockchain is a great application for charity because the immutable nature of the technology prevents corruption. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the charity sector with administration scams. The prospect of a corruption-free charity not only ensures the integrity of the transaction but also may draw in more donations due to such an increase in trust.
The Uganda Minister of State for Primary Education Rosemary Nansubuga Seninde resounds a similar sentiment by stressing that the technology provides protection from third-party corruption.
The use of Zcoin, however, may seem ironic because the blockchain usually specialises in creating anonymous transactions. However, the current project requires that transactions can be traced for reasons of integrity. The purpose-built blockchain by Zcoin allows for the transactions to be verified by the public.
