I think there are good trustworthy places to donate and the person you replied to was a bit too cynical. OP might be a good place to donate! However:

> hot take :/ Would you really have trouble trusting the OP?

Yes? Your first instinct when someone tells you a sob story or an epic western savior spiel is to do your due diligence.

Recent HN account, the website is a year old, they don't list the 501 EIN and searching for "Tanzania Education Project" on https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ yields nothing. OP doesn't list his name on the website (but it is on gofundme).

OP seems genuine, but there are many red flags.

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lukehandcool 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I understand where you're coming from and I think that gut reaction is appropriate.

My name is Luke Bodmer. I graduated in June with a PhD in Computational Science from the University at Buffalo in New York and I am currently working in los angeles as a post-doc in Nuerosurgery at a major hospital doing cancer research. I'm a real person, you can look me up!

Not listing the EIN was an oversight. It is EIN: 87-3919577. I'll add it to the site when I get home tonight from work. If you look it up you might see "Ibumila Fund" which is what it was called before I named it to Tanzania Education Project.

The epic western savior thing is very cringy and I don't know how to avoid it at his point in the project. I try to limit my role as much as possible and have everything done by Tanzanians in Tanzania. Eventually I hope to remove myself from the site and the story and have it be a fully Tanzanian effort. I don't see how I can remove myself at this point.

Ideally I don't want people to look at this effort as "oh look at how good of people we are!". My hope is that people will assess their situation and the situation of the children in the village and feel compelled to give because it is fair and right.

I appreciate your skepticism and I think its totally fair. This post is really the first time I'm going public beyond my inner circle with this effort and any tips on how I can build trust are really appreciated.

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codeforafrica 30 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The epic western savior thing is very cringy and I don't know how to avoid it at his point in the project. I try to limit my role as much as possible

I think an important part is to figure out what is the best way to contribute. While it is good to let Tanzanians do as much as possible by themselves, they can't reach out to your friends. Only you can do that. When I tell my country mates about programmers in Africa, and I get a response like "They can do that?" with a big surprise impression on their face [1], I don't see how any African could do that by themselves. Bridges need to be built from both sides. If you remove yourself then you end up with half a bridge.

[1]: That was just one reaction I got when I told people about my work in Africa. Starkly contrasted by another reaction which was the opposite: "Oh cool, I am hiring devs in Ghana, they are awesome!". It's not all lost, but a lot of people simply still don't know. And that includes African-Americans.

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gcanyon an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Maybe it would help people to understand why you're posting on HN? You don't seem to have a history here, so what is HN to you other than "convenient forum for access to a bunch of tech people who probably have decent money available to donate?" Sorry for casting that in the worst possible light, but I figured it's better to steel man the theoretical opposition to supporting you. It sounds like you're doing good work, so yay, and congrats.

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lukehandcool 35 minutes ago | parent [-]

That's fair too. I have a PhD in Computational science. I read HN every morning. I've been lurking here since around 2018 and just made an account recently.

Honestly I made my first social media account about 4 months ago just to prove I was a real person after I finished my PhD and was applying for the next steps. I've never been one to post on the internet or engage with social media. I don't really know the etiquette of any other social site so I figured I would reach out here first since it felt familiar.

	▲	codeforafrica 11 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Regarding etiquette, this comment makes an interesting point: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982051 keeping that in mind I believe you started at the right place as HN is probably more forgiving, especially when it turns out that the person in question is able to strike the right tone to fit in, which I believe you do. I am in a similar position having created this account once I decided to move to Africa, and I am still trying to figure out how to promote my work. As part of that I try to engage on topics that are related to Africa to slowly develop my standing and share my experience.