The DirectEd Lions Collection is a collection consisting of 2130 pieces of fantasy world humanoid lions. It has been created to support the fundraising efforts of the DirectEd Development Foundation ( 'DirectEd') - the world’s first charitable organisation founded on Web3 principles of transparency, accountability and decentralisation. Our litepaper focuses on the Lions Collection - the community aspect of DirectEd's work while our more thorough whitepaper focuses on the programme itself. The minting is happening on our donation portal and is cross-chain (Cardano, Solana, Ethereum). Users will even be able to participate using their credit cards.

About DirectEd

DirectEd is a UK-based charitable organisation on a mission to deliver evidence-based, highly scalable and cost-effective coding programmes and access stipends to under-resourced high-potential students between high school and university in Africa, preparing them for remote employment by equipping them with the most sought-after digital and soft skills on the market.

By pioneering the use of blockchain technology and decentralised identifiers to facilitate stipends, we enable meaningful transparency, full traceability and accountability at scale.

About the DirectEd Lions Collection

Why Lions?

The Lion is the national animal of both Kenya and Ethiopia. It symbolises strength, courage, and valour. For our students, the lion represents our belief in the leadership potential of our students.

The lion is also a protector and it is in this way we see our supporters. You are someone who has done well in life. You are someone who is now in a position to give back; to lead, inspire and help the next generation.

A Collection with Four Tiers

The DirectEd Lions Collection is a 2130-piece divided into 4 tiers: Warrior, Hero, Royal and God. Each tier represents different levels of contributions and different perks. Prices can be seen through the donation portal.

• Personalisation: each lion has a first and last name
• Kingdom: each lions belong to a mythical Kingdom
• Perks: as donations grow larger, so does the recognition and perks

Warrior Tier

• Support student access scholarships covering laptop costs, internet and tutorial vouchers
• Access to a student's progress page
• Traits: strength, wisdom, stamina, agility, resistance
• Spells: lightning, fire, light, dark, frost
• 20 warrior classes

Hero Tier

• All previous perks except the traits and spells
• One full access stipend financed through this
• Access to the coding BootCamp course content and guest lecturers
• One for One: a student gets the same NFT!

Royal Tier

• All previous perks except the traits and spells
• Two full access stipends financed through this
• Nameplate recognition in the school
• Invitation to an exclusive donor's dinner in Oxford
• One for two: a student gets the same NFT!

God Tier

(not yet disclosed)

Values & Beliefs

Not for everyone

We are a community united by the belief that a life of purpose and direction comes from contributing to a cause that goes beyond yourself. Those of us who have chosen to volunteer our time and effort into DirectEd all recognise how much education and technology have transformed our lives. Now that we are in a position to give back, we choose to do so by supporting high potential under-resourced students in Africa.

If you are not in a position or ready to help lift someone else, then this community isn't for you.

We believe

• ... in radical transparency and inclusive accountability.
• ... that the right education can help individuals empower themselves and their communities.
• ... that your draw in the lottery of life should not decide your lot in life

The Programme Itself

Problem

1. High potential under-resourced students across Africa do not have access to the resources, both knowledge and infrastructure, to seize the opportunity presented by the shortage of IT professionals in the West.
2. Philanthropic donors seeking to support these under-resourced students don't know how much of it actually reaches the intended beneficiary and how much was lost to corrupt middlemen.
3. It takes a lot to succeed as a remote software engineer - talent, dedication and resources. For some, this opportunity will be transformational, but for most, it won't. Failing to identify those who would make the best use of this support leads to a waste of resources.
4. Even beyond completing their training, students need to be able to prove their learning credentials. In the status quo, the value of credentials diminishes in the eyes of employers due to how easy it would be to fake these certifications.
5. Even if students are successful, charities often fail to be economically sustainable because they are unable to recapture the value they produce for their beneficiaries.

Solution

The Rocketship

We call our 3-part programme "the Rocketship". The ship has a broad base of students, but as we approach space, the base is dropped and only two sections remain. In other words, we give all students a chance, and then gradually invest more of our resources into the strongest students. You can learn more about the details here.

Access Stipends

Our programme is free to attend for students at partner institutions who meet our intake threshold. But not all families have laptops, WiFi or the economic means to pay for tutors. The Access Stipends ensure that all students, regardless of family background, can participate.

Smart Contract

We facilitate these stipends using milestone-based stipends implemented with smart contracts. This enables donors to not only observe where their funds went but also under what conditions. Students get clear incentives and the need to trust an administrative middleman is removed. More details about our smart contract can be found in our open-sourced GitHub repository.

Decentralised Identifiers

Meaningful transparency must be balanced with the right to privacy. By using Decentralised Identifiers as our identity layer, we enable students to share ZK proofs providing only the minimum information needed. In our case, they live in Kenya, are above the age of 18 and have studied in an approved high school. The technology is in a nascent stage but we will be piloting it with our partner schools in Q2-Q3 2023.

School-Specific Stipend Pools

We fundraise for specific partner high schools and form alumni groups with the graduates from those schools. Once the first cohort of students successfully goes through our impact pipeline and finds remote jobs, they will look back at a student who was in their shoes and gain a sense of wanting to recontribute - supporting a student like himself to help them make the same journey. This is what creates economic sustainability.

Learn more

To learn more about the programme motivation, cost breakdown and expected impact, head over to our donation portal, and the whitepaper (an update is in progress). You can find FAQs, monthly newsletters, research reports and much more on our public Notion page. Through our Linktree you will also find a behind-the-scenes vlog series and a link to our Discord community channel, jointly managed by DirectEd and the Web3 User Group.