The Human Rights Foundation announced its round of Bitcoin Development Fund grants. While the grant amount distributed to each awardee was not disclosed, the HRF disclosed that it awarded 1B Satoshi (10BTC) worth over $5990K to 20 projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Asia, and Latin America.
According to the HRF, more emphasis was placed on technical education for individuals living under dictatorships and providing human rights groups with solutions for private financial management. The HRF’s grant to African Bitcoiners would go towards producing educational materials and support infrastructure, operational experiences, tools, and salaries in parts of the continent plagued by economic and political turmoil.
HRF dedicates grants to Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans
We’re incredibly grateful to the @HRF for this generous grant! This support means the world to our mission, helping us onboard Africans to Bitcoin and expand educational efforts.
Huge thanks to @ihate1999, @femilonge, @AnitaPosch, and @440UrPp for their help! https://t.co/6ws60FbnDg
— African Bitcoiners ⚡ (@afribitcoiners) September 17, 2024
African Bitcoiners, one of the latest beneficiaries of the HRF grant, stated that the grant would help onboard Africans to Bitcoin. As per the Human Rights Foundation’s press release, key initiatives for African Bitcoiners also included a course for Bitcoin beginners, fast and free payment routing for merchants, and the ability to purchase data and airtime using Bitcoin.
The Human Rights Foundation also suggested that it would provide shelter for refugees and rent educational spaces in the Democratic Republic of Congo through the Kiveclair community led by Gloire Wanzavalere. Through BTC Shule, the Human Rights Foundation emphasized a bilingual educational platform (French and Kirundi) and a Bitcoin support group for Burundians through Telegram and WhatsApp.
According to the Human Rights Foundation’s statement, the grant to Bitcoin Indonesia would support content creation, operational expenses, and community outreach. HRF disclosed that Bitcoin Indonesia was expanding the local Bitcoin community through an educational platform developed in Bahasa Indonesia’s local language.
In Latin America, the HRF affirmed that the granted funds would primarily cover traveling expenses for Latin American developers from dictatorial nations to attend the Bitcoin++ mints ecash conference in Berlin, Germany. The HRF also mentioned that some funds channeled through the largest South America’s Bitcoin-only conference would support travel expenses for event logistics, speakers, and the hackathon.
The HRF grants expand to global programs outside the focus regions
The HRF claimed that it would help address the challenges faced by political prisoners through the Vienna-based event “Solidarity Summit: Standing with Political Prisoners,” organized by Hager Eissa. According to the Human Rights Foundation, funds from the grant would be used to cover event and venue logistics, speaker costs, program development, and film production for the documentary, highlighting these societal problems.
In Latvia, the HRF said that the grant awarded to the Bitcoin-only conference ‘Baltic Honeybadger’ hosted by Hodl Hodl would cover travel expenses for human rights defenders and activists to the event to expand their knowledge of BTC as a tool for human rights.
The TABConf Bitcoin conference hosted by Michael Tidwell in Atlanta, GA is another avenue that the HRF said it would use to reach application and protocol developers. The Human Rights Foundation confirmed that funds awarded to TABConf would cover conference expenses and traveling costs for financially needy developers. According to the HRF statement, TABConf’s mission was to create a forum for debate and collaboration on Bitcoin.
