EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
HUMANITARIAN PROJECT
HANDS 4 HOPE 4 ALL HUMANITY

BACKGROUND

Over the past four years a team of dedicated individuals have watched over the development of a global platform that can instantly add value to any electronic transaction.  During the course of this development a humanitarian model evolved and when successfully deployed the model holds great promise of a better tomorrow for people living in extreme conditions in every corner of the globe.  The GeN “X-2” platform has been designed as a private stored value engine, similar to the credit and debit card rails that are run by the bank networks.  The network operates in a “third rail” environment and can offer the donor community alternative ways to deliver benefits while providing instant and detailed accountability to each participant of any program model.

Local Heroes International, drawing on 14 years of devoted education and understanding of how electronic transactions impact our society, hopes to soon launch its pilot program in Ghana.  The company is now focused on its initial project in Lake Bosomtwe, near to Ghana and with a successful launch in Africa, could soon deliver the world a “global prototype” and give birth to a sustainable sharing model that could result in dramatic changes to human suffering as we know it today.

MODEL DESCRIPTION

The first program of its kind, Hands 4 Hope 4 All Humanity has developed a sharing model that can immediately deliver a virtual form of currency to any person in any country in the world.  Any person with internet access can instantly load value to a recipient cardholder, enabling the beneficiary the ability to instantly convert the value to purchase the basic necessities that they are lacking.  In cases where currency is required to make a purchase, cardholders are allowed to withdraw money from white label ATM’s that can operate in any country and dispense any form of currency.  

Merchants and vendors that participate in the program receive the associated funds from all transactions by way of a direct deposit which is credited to their bank account, (to the extent that they have one) within 24 hours of the original transaction.  In the absence of a bank account, merchant funds are instantly loaded to their very own personalized debit card that can be used at secure white label ATM’s in close proximity to their location(s) or wherever MasterCard is accepted worldwide, including use at traditional ATM locations. 

Transactions either travel over the rails of traditional credit, debit and ATM banking networks, as in some cases this route may be appropriate. Although a majority of transactions will be completed entirely within a private stored value environment contained in GeN “X-2” Platform.  Card to card transfers are triple encrypted and are processed through a highly secure network with each card having its own Personal Identification Number (PIN).

The latest statistics, unimaginable, account for over 1.8 billion people in our world living in desperate and seemingly hopeless conditions (Scientific American “The Climax of Humanity” September. 2006 pgs 44-48).  They lack basic necessities and live in conditions that rob them of their individual right to human dignity.  So tragic, is that in relative terms the amount of support needed to provide an abundance of proper food, clothing, shelter, medicine, education and infrastructure is far less than most people think.  More and more the donor community is becoming fearful that the donations they are making are not directly and entirely benefitting the original purpose intended. 

In the United States there are approximately 2 million homeless people living in the shadows of communities in most every city.  The cost to eliminate this problem does not equal a month of budgetary spending on the war in Iraq.  What is required is a reordering of priorities and the willingness of people in positions of power, including the media, to stand up and recognize the inequities in our society and start taking decisive and all out action to create change for the greater good of us all.

Our society today, like no other time in history, has created the technological elements necessary to eliminate extreme suffering anywhere in the world.  Leading the way has been advanced satellite communications and supporting infrastructure; in just the last 3 years 98% of our world has been mapped by satellite technology and before too long we will be able to transmit a signal from the most remote locations of our planet.

If appropriate communications network(s) are unavailable in remote areas, cellular communication towers that provide powerful signal, are installed and the land based coordinates are securely loaded into the GSM satellite system.  The Global Packet Receiving Service (GPRS) can then combine with private internet gateways and can deliver transactions from wireless devices that can reach a proprietary host for processing and return to the initiating device in under 4 seconds.  Cards are distributed free of charge and include photo identification for added security. 

Active cards can be loaded using the internet and the transfer of value to the cardholder is received in the mother currency of the country to which it is sent.  Transactions are routed over the GeN “X-2” Platform and do not require processing through any bank network.  Transactions meet all security standards, as cards have smart chips embedded to allow pin-based identification. The transaction packets are sent from devices using a unique protocol known as Selective Advanced Triple Encryption (SATE).   Transaction devices connect to the GPRS network and have been developed to be lighter, portable and significantly more user-friendly, most devices fit in the palm of your hand.  Local Heroes is in the final stages of certification of its “trigger modules” on a portable hand-held wireless device that contains full support of credit and debit applications and can process RFID, barcode, magnetic-stripe and smart chip identity cards. 

DONOR COMMUNITY
 
Many charitable organizations, on a local, national and international scale are becoming less and less effective in attracting capital sources due to antiquated systems and processes for the delivery of benefits.  Overall accountability to their donor base has also come under close scrutiny.  The donor community as a whole has been dwindling at an alarming pace, as donors have become less and less confident of the significance and impact of their contributions.

Local Heroes believes that the philanthropic community could certainly grow in numbers and in demographic profile.  An important segment of this audience is the youth of our society and learning to share at a young age will provide an example of what it feels like to be in the service of others.  The platform will generate detailed transaction reports giving the ability for a young donor to track exactly how a percentage of his or her weekly allowance or special occasion gift could impact a child in a third world country.   They could even go online and conduct a video chat with the youth on the other end and to who received the donation.  Imagine the joy in the face of a young person that is able to make a connection like that.  Imagine that a whole generation of young minds could embrace such a model?

There are many devoted individuals and global organizations that are doing incredible work around the world and Local Heroes hopes in the very near future to align itself and its technologies in support of these existing programs.  It has been estimated that only 20% of worldwide donations are actually received by the person(s) intended, due a number of factors, including extraordinary expenses, internal filters, bureaucracy and corruptness.

With this fact in mind, the GeN “X-2” platform was designed to include a system of checks and balances to account for every penny of value that is transferred over its network, including the full discloser of any fees charged to maintain the processing platform.  Local Heroes guarantees that no less than 95% of every dollar transferred over its network will be sent to the precise cause the original donor intends. 

The model also provides for reoccurring donations that can be withheld from any consumer transaction. Donations are routed within 24 hours to the bank account of pre-assigned beneficiaries that cardholders can designate online and can alternated to support multiple causes.  Donations can also be directed from any existing non profit organizations or from corporations, government agencies, and high net-worth individuals. 

Through a series of web-based interfaces and customized reporting tools, the GeN “X-2” platform, will provide exact details of each and every transaction and will generate email reports to each party to a transaction, based upon a preset frequency regardless of the size of the donation.

All things considered, Local Heroes has strived to develop a sustainable giving model, one that can easily be scaled, one that can be rapidly deployed in any country in the world and one that can also be adapted to instantly respond and provide immediate assistance to communities and individuals affected by natural disasters.  Katrina was a testimony to all of us that we as a nation can do better in taking care of our citizens, especially the ones most in need of support. 

With the grace of God, leaders in all nations of the world will soon begin to soften their hearts, and their minds will become focused on finding pathways of compassion and cooperation. May these leaders begin to open sincere lines of communication with their counterparts, setting an agenda to build better communities in their homeland and to work in consort to deliver a message of justice and equality for all people in all lands, is possible.  May the generation we are living in today bear witness to the end of unnecessary suffering and hopelessness afflicting so many of our fellow brothers and sisters.
 
May God bless our planet and may God Speed be upon those most in need.