Donor’s testimonial from Mathieu Verbeeck: I bridge – do you ?
03.09.2010
Hi everyone – my name is Mathieu and I would like to share my YouBridge experience with you!
As a close friend of the YouBridge team, I was one of the happy few to have followed Jonas, Pieter and Barbara in pursuing their new ‘venture’ from “scratch” to “launch”; therefore I thought I would provide you with a slightly different ‘testimonial’ and give you all a little peak “behind the scenes” – so here’s my version of the making of …
About 6 months ago - Jonas, Pieter
and Barbara were just about to launch their first 'beta' version of
the YouBridge website which was definitely a very exciting moment
for all of us. Having heard about the service at many occasions, it
now became clear these guys were actually really serious about
this. At first, it sounded almost like an impossible task - how
will these guys make this project work? How are they going to
finance this project during a massive recession when everyone is
cutting back on their expenses? How do I explain to my grandmother
that she should sponsor this project and that YouBridge is not a
fashionable card game but instead a new non-profit organization
aiming at supporting students with their personal 'digital' growth
in less-developed countries such as Uganda? How will they get these
laptops to the right people?
Like all challenges - there were hundreds of reasons not to start
a complex project like this - but these guys only needed one good
reason to move ahead with it: close the gap between the developed
and less-developed regions by means of the internet - with a strong
focus on supporting the upcoming talent with a simple formula to
success: "www.youbridge.org". Let me dissect this formula for you
by revealing the secret ingredients
WWW -> donate a laptop &
allow students to instantly access the world wide web …
+
YOU -> make the
project personal & social by sharing information and
interacting with the YouBridge community …
+
BRIDGE -> just a few clicks to overcome the gap by
reducing the digital divide …
+
ORG -> a non-profit
organisation which is 100% transparent and acts quickly on the
field …
Believe me - this is more than just a nice theory - it actually
works! A few months ago - my girlfriend Catherine and myself
decided to donate a laptop for the Youbridge project and we chose
to support Atuhaire Immaculate - a 21 year old hard-working student
who never left her home country. A few weeks ago we received a
YouBridge message from Immaculate (from her new Asus laptop) to
thank us for the gift. Without a doubt this simple & kind
message which really came from the bottom of her heart made it to
the top of our 'Most Rewarding Moments of 2010″ …
Immaculate is now fully 'connected' to the world wide web and
although she hasn't managed to travel the world yet, I'm positive
that she's already planning her future trips on TripAdvisor.com,
sorting out her pictures on Picasa and posting hilarious comments
on her friend's Facebook pages …
Berners-Lee gave the world the web - we gave Immaculate a laptop
so she could also enjoy the basic right to surf the world from
Kampala, Uganda as well …
I bridge - do you ?
Donor Name: Mathieu Verbeeck
