The .NET Celebrity Auction for Aceh Aid at IDEP
The .NET Celebrity Auction for Aceh Aid at IDEP
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Thirty of the top consultants and trainers in the worldwide .NET community have come together to help raise money for an organization that is doing amazing and heroic disaster relief in Aceh Province, Sumatra, the hardest hit area of the Dec 26th Tsunamis.
The organization is Aceh Aid at IDEP, headquartered in Bali. Because the organization is located in Indonesia, ALL of the money is able to go to help the victims. Below you will find an explanation about this project. You can also go to www.AcehAid.org to learn more. For a closer look at what they are accomplishing, visit the weblog of Susi Johnston, who is the Acting Emergency Director of Operations and Communications for Aceh Aid at IDEP.
The consultants in this auction are Michelle Leroux Bustamante, Kimberly L. Tripp, Jonathan Goodyear, Andrew Brust, Richard Campbell, Adam Cogan, Malek Kemmou, Jackie Goldstein, Ted Neward, Kathleen Dollard, Hector M Obregon, Patrick Hynds, Fernando Guerrero, Kate Gregory, Joel Semeniuk, Scott Hanselman, Barry Gervin, Clemens Vasters, Jorge Oblitas, Stephen Forte, Jeffrey Richter, John Robbins, Jeff Prosise, Deborah Kurata, Goksin Bakir, Edgar Sánchez, Thomas Lee, J. Michael Palermo IV, Vishwas Lele, and John Lam.
Buyers will bid to win one hour of consulting time from one of these 30 gurus. Starting bid is $100 with no reserve. There will be 30 winners. Winners can pick the brain of a .NET Expert for an hour. Highest bidders will be first in the “draft” for the consultant assigned to them. Winners can call, email or IM the consultant and use the hour to answer that nagging question, do a code review, or just get some general .NET advice. The winners and consultant are free to make other arrangements if they like.
There will be 30 winning bids. eBay rules require that
all 30 winners pay the lowest bid price. Though you are
only required to pay the lowest bid amount, remember the
cause -- we hope that you will donate to
Aceh Aid at IDEP
the amount of your winning bid.
Payments are
made directly to the Aceh Aid at IDEP PayPal account held
by
Tides Foundation
which is a U.S. based 501c3 non-profit. Once the auction
is closed, you will be contacted and asked to make this
donation via PayPal to AcehAid@tides.org. This can be done
from the eBay website, the PayPal site or even directly
from the
Aceh Aid at IDEP
(hyperlink) website. When they have received the payments,
the consultants will be assigned to the winners in order
of the size of the donations (which we hope will be equal
to your winning bid). You will receive an invoice from us,
the sellers. All selling fees will be paid by the sellers
as a contribution to making this charity event a
success.
ALL eBay fees will be paid by thinktecture (http://www.thinktecture.com/) an European consulting firm.
Our consultants include many MSDN Regional Directors, INETA Speakers and even some Wintellectuals from six continents and twelve countries!
The Charity
WHAT IS IDEP?
IDEP is a small, Indonesian NGO, based in Ubud,
Bali. Completed projects over the years have included
community based development, sustainable living
initiatives, permaculture training, waste management,
organic gardens, recycling, etc. The focus is on helping
people to help themselves. IDEP's founding director, Petra
Schneider is a US-born, Indonesian citizen. The
demonstrated and reproducible success of IDEP's small
projects in local communities has earned the team an
excellent reputation.
IDEP AND DISASTER RESPONSE/RELIEF/RECOVERY
At the time of the Bali bomb, about two years ago,
IDEP was an important element of the network of local NGOs
and other supporters that quickly responded to the
tragedy, in various ways, not only immediately after the
bomb, but during the recovery process for the various
communities involved. Following shortly thereafter, IDEP
received funding from USAid to create a comprehensive set
of disaster management materials for Indonesian
communities, aimed at children, families, and local
leaders (official and unofficial). The materials are in
the Indonesian language and suitable for use in rural and
urban settings. These materials, including a booklet for
children about Tsunami preparedness, were finished just
weeks ago, but had not yet been disseminated to
communities. Then the tsunami struck.
WHAT IS ACEH AID AT IDEP
Only hours
after the news of the tsunami reached Bali, the same
network of NGOs and individuals in Bali who had been
involved in the relief efforts for the Bali bomb,
reanimated and went into action. We started something
called the "Aceh Aid Bucket Brigade" (see website),
creating and deploying one-family-one-bucket
multi-material aid packages from the hands of donors in
Bali to the field in Sumatra. We began sending highly
skilled volunteers, well-matched to the task within two
days of the tsunami (Sam Schultz, Lee Downey, Oded Carmi
and others). Our relief, and later, recovery programs in
response to the Tsunami are now focused on two fronts. One
is direct aid from Medan by road to areas around Banda
Aceh. The other is this remarkable joint effort (nothing
short of heroic), to the islands off the west coast of
Sumatra, which as of yet, have not been receiving aid from
any other channels that we know of.
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