After realizing Open-Islands in India, Thailand and Germany, the emerging „makers4humanity“ collective now focuses on the next step to raise the impact of their projects. With the upcoming „Impact-Kiosk“ project in Varanasi, they combine the creative prototyping process of a multifunctional vessel in Varanasi with the collective wisdom and broad open knowledge of a glocal community of likeminded makers to conceptualize a transferable entrepreneurship that creates sustainable jobs for livelihood and supports bottom-up developments for the common good at the same time.

The „Impact-Kiosk“ as a
Social-Sculpture and Entrepreneurship-Accelerator.

 
In September 2015 the United Nations proclaimed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and stated that „everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and people like you.“ (Quote from UN-website)

The makers4humanity (m4h) collective unites makers from all over the planet to assemble and spread their appropriate ideas and open knowledge for positive impact within the 17 SDG‘s. M4h forms an interdisciplinar network of experienced changemakers who are co-working on a collaborative online-platform as well as on location, wherever local partners express their interest and initial own efforts for sustainable development. If suitable, m4h helps with know-how, contacts, manuals and/or volunteers. M4h enables collaborative research of suitable solutions and networks its members and impact partners for sustainable development and the common good in selected areas and topics. To do so, m4h co-develops a multifunctional open-source platform for assembled solutions and to co-work and realizes high-profile hands-on impact actions (or helps partners to do so).

The upcoming „Impact Kiosk“ project in Varanasi/India, 15.-25.1.2017 will be organized by the German NGO „Positive Nett-Works“ and hosted by the local „Learn-for-Life“ school for street children in Varanasi. The ambitious goal of the 10-days maker-camp is twofold:

1. The glocal challenge, online: M4h collects modular social business ideas (for common good and individual profit), that can be adopted by social entrepreneurs and NGOs throughout India and other countries.

2. The MakerCamp in Varanasi: M4h co-creates an artistic, multifunctional vessel, transforming a local rikshaw into a mobile interaction tool, including an inflatable classroom, several low-tech applications for health, food, culture and education and a m4h-online-counter for digital interaction, powered by renewable energy.

The impact kiosk prototype will be built with and for the Learn-for-Life school, Varanasi. This interactive art project was conceptualize as a „social sculpture“ by German artist Joy Lohmann. But the aim of the m4h goes beyond art: While 10 international volunteers and their local partners co-create the symbol and a mobile learning space for sustainable development and livelihood, the m4h uses the process and multimedial outreach to create a local network of stakeholders for a social entrepreneurship in Varanasi.

If Impact-Kiosks provide sustainable jobs in rural and urban environments, they can also spread valuable knowledge and concepts for sustainable communal development.

Through regional Impact-partners, the social entrepreneurs are being trained to manage an individually equipped Impact-Kiosk and earn their living with a selected range of sustainable services and products. On the other hand, they spread appropriate knowledge for communal resilience like urban gardening, DIY-lowtech constructions, digital education, environmental issues and can further serve as grassroots centers for health and sanitation campaigns and social community challenges of all kind. Within this years project development, the makers4humanity invite organizations, companies and passionate people to become Impact partners in India and elswhere.

A decentralized network of self-sustaining impact-hubs together with a global online community of humanitarian makers can become a relevant tool to disseminate existing solutions and raise livelihood and resilience on location.

You can participate as a maker off- or online, as an Impact partner or entrepreneur, as a solution scout or promoter, a networker or through the crowd funding campaign. Or just come back to this site to see, what we will have reached in January 2017.

Ideas/Discussions: www.facebook.com/makers4humanity/
Eventpage Varanasi: www.facebook.com/events/350375115296283/
Crowdfunding Campaign: Projekte.makers4humanity.org
Makers-4-Humanity-Challenge: www.makers4humanity.org
This project is being organized by Positive Nett-Works e.V. and partners.