HackWeek Fights Hunger – Join the SUSE Documentation Project

You might have heard it. HackWeek 17 started today. Yes yes yes, I know I am repeating myself.

But there is a good reason for the iteration loop: the SUSE documentation team has just started a new project. And we invite you all to join us. This activity can be put in action worldwide. You can hook up with us, or even better, implement a similar activity in your office, wherever you live or work.

The Project

The idea is simple: Almost everyone of us travels, for private reasons, with family, for work. Often to other countries, with different currencies. Of course you usually have to spend money there. And quite often, you don’t succeed in spending your entire foreign currencies. There are “leftovers”, some coin here, a banknote there … Initially, you might think “ Hey, no worries, I will come back soon”. But after a while, you have a “CCC” (Considerable Collection of Coins) somewhere hidden in your drawer. At least this applies to me (and I am sure also to many of you!): Russian Rubles, West Samoan Tala, Cook Island Dollars, Swiss Francs – all of them live together in unity, but somehow “useless”. Let’s change this and turn them into something useful!

In good old HackWeek tradition, already the concept for our project was formed in collaboration. Our colleague Stefan set the ball rolling. He recently returned from a bicycle tour to Hungary, and asked the team if somebody could need his “Forint-leftovers”. Immediately others in the team raised hand with statements like “Btw I have some Yen to spare” or  “I don’t know what to do with my Danish Kroner, do you by chance go to Denmark soon?” etc.  Our team leader Markus finally had the flash of inspiration to collect all those cash remainders and donate them to a charity project. This is how our HackWeek project “Get rid of your foreign currencies – support the war on hunger!” saw the light of day:

https://hackweek.suse.com/17/projects/get-rid-of-your-foreign-currencies-support-the-war-on-hunger

The Charity

The SUSE documentation team decided to donate the collected money to “Welthungerhilfe”  (English: “World Hunger Help”). This is an organization under the patronage of the German president, with the vision of a world in which all people have the opportunity to live a self-determined life in dignity and justice, free from hunger and poverty – see also #ZeroHunger. And they do not just take all foreign currencies  – you can also donate your “old money” that is out of circulation (like the good old Deutsche Mark, the Italian Lira, the Spanish Peseta, the French Franc, the old Polish Zloty – you name them!).

If you want to support us directly, you will find boxes everywhere in the Nuremberg office where you can get rid of coins and notes. Or just send your foreign currency remainders to our office (SUSE Documentation Team, Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nuernberg, Germany).

But it might probably be smarter to start your own collection project in YOUR office and country. There are many charity projects around the world that take foreign currency remainders. UNICEF USA is a really good example. If you want to initiate a project in the UK, have a look at the Leftover Currency web page listing many different charity initiatives you can donate to.

Now it’s your turn: Please engage, you can reach A LOT with LITTE EFFORT. And let us know about it if you want – because we plan to update this article with information about projects and participation.

Disclaimer: The text at hand has not been reviewed by a native speaker. If you find typos or language mistakes, please send them to me (meike.chabowski@suse.com) – or if you like them, just keep them and feed them.