Carlos Miranda Levy's blog

Up all night during Space Apps Challenge in Port-au-Prince, I got bit by plenty of mosquitoes this weekend. Then, after 8 hours in air-conditioned bus, I fell ill with fever and bone pain...

A special aspect of Markets of Hope which has not being discussed/disclosed yet is that our second phase focuses on becoming a Virtual Global Corporation coordinating our participating remote communities and producers into a more complex production chain so that together they can create products of higher added value, generate more revenue and strengths for each participant. For example, to have products designed in Japan, with materials from Uganda, manufactured in Haiti.

Ilwad Elman, from Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in Mogadishu, Somalia shares her late father's vision and ideal:

"Drop the gun, pick up the pen".

"The majority of those involved in armed conflicts were youth on either side so he felt that presenting them with appealing opportunities and providing them with alternative livelihoods and giving them skills that they could use to sustain themselves then in turn they would not contribute to be a part of the violence. And by taking out those that were the majority, then he felt that peace building would be a lot easier and the ones that were left, the warlords, they would be easier to reconciliate".

In April we have been honored with invitations to present our Relief 2.0 model and the Markets of Hope project at two international TEDx conferences across the globe.

TEDxSilkRoad: Borderless Creativity and Commerce brought us to Istanbul, Turkey where we had the privilege of sharing the stage with distinguished speakers from IDEO, CuteCircuit and Universities from around the globe.

We were given the wonderful opportunity of sharing some of our experiences and perspectives on the role of media in disasters at the Media for Social Responsibility course by Ithaca College with live remote participation of students from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Korea, Liberia and USA. I spoke from the Ecole Supériore of Infotronique d'Haïti after riding my bicycle 55km.

As part of our efforts to connect youth and kids around the world and to create awareness among them about the actual issues that affect us at a local and global level, Relief 2.0 is having two video conversations via Skype with 6th grade students at César Chavez Preparatory School (better known as Chavez Prep) in Washington, DC.