[Community-Discuss] Answers to Community Questions Regarding - FUNDRAISING TO SUPPORT AFRINIC

[Noah]

Dear Internet Community,

*Af-IX*, in collaboration with our partners, have embarked on a *fundraising
exercise* to help keep AFRINIC’s core functions and services running for
the next three months.

*We invite you to be part of the community of supporters to ensure that
AFRINIC can continue to play its vital role for the sustainable digital
growth in Africa.*

*DONATE TO KEEP AFRINIC UP BY CLICKING THIS LINK;*
*https://www.tespok.co.ke/?page_id=14001
<https://www.tespok.co.ke/?page_id=14001>*



*Answers to Community Questions Regarding FUNDRAISING TO SUPPORT AFRINIC*



*1. Why don’t you let AFNOG do this?  *

The Af-IX is one of the many Af* organisations that bring together ISP
Associations and IXP operators together with a shared interest of keeping
AFRICAN traffic local within the AFRINIC service region. To this end, the
Af-IX and its partners embarked on this voluntary exercise to ensure that
AFRINIC core-functions remain uninterrupted in this time through this
fundraising and donation process. Sister Af* organisations are similarly
free to coordinate the best they can to support AFRINIC in this time so as
to keep AFRINIC up and running.

*2. Can the organisers look at making this like a crowdsourced loan?  *

The Af-IX, its partners and its secretariat TESPOK is currently supporting
the available options of donation from the Internet community only. The
payment options are Bank Transfers, Mobile Money Transfer and Paypal for
Mastercard + VISA. Kindly refer to the fundraising page here
https://www.tespok.co.ke/?page_id=14001

*3. What is the legal position on the Af-IX and its partners undertaking
this fundraising?  *

Legally, AF-IX and it's partners are at liberty to support AFRINIC's
operations. There is nothing to stop Af-IX from fundraising to keep
critical operations running. The ongoing legal proceedings in Mauritius
have minimal impact in terms of risks to both Af-IX and it's partners as
they support AFRINIC since these parties are not established in Mauritius.

*4. Will the funds be deposited into the existing AFRINIC account(s) which
have been frozen?*

The donations from the Af-IX based fundraising campaign that is being
managed by TESPOK will be deposited into the bank account below based in
Nairobi Kenya.

Account name TECHNOLOGY SERVICE PROVIDERS OF KENYA LTD
Bankers: NCBA BANK (k) PLC
Bank Address: P.O BOX 30437 00100 NAIROBI

*6. How much is the target for fundraising?*

The Af-IX and its partners are running a campaign to help raise $300,000
and more during the next 3 months.


*7. Did AFRINIC request Af-IX to collect funds on their behalf?  *
It's very important to note that *AFRINIC HAS NEVER REQUESTED OR
AUTHORIZED* the
Af-IX or any of its partners to run the fundraising or request for donation.

This is an initiative of goodwill on the part of the ISP associations and
the IXP's involved. We take it as our responsibility to ensure that AFRINIC
core functions that the Af-IX members depend on, from WHOIS, RDNS, RPKI
infrastructure hosted in various data centers and the employees that work
hard to make AFRINIC provide its core functions, continue to be taken care
of.

In fact the *Universal Declaration of Human Rights*, has enshrined in *Article
23*;  https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

"*Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity,
and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.*"

AFRINIC staff just like all of us are human and deserve care and as a
community, this is why we have initiated this fundraising as a responsible
community.

*8. How much is the monthly salary, rent and legal expenses for Afrinic?*

Please refer to AFRINIC budget here;
https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/financial-reports/afrinic-budget-2021.pdf


*9. Is fundraising by Af-IX partners in any way contempt of the Mauritius
Court?*
Fundraising and donations activities are a community and social endeavour
of goodwill. The Af-IX and its partners have taken upon themselves to drive
this fundraising as a group of responsible organizations with a common
shared goal of ensuring that AFRINIC the regional Internet registry for
AFRICA remains UP and RUNNING for the best interest of the entire global
Internet community.


*10. What will happen to any donations that turn out to be not required
by Afrinic once their accounts become accessible to it again?*
Once the AFRINIC accounts freeze is lifted, the collection platform shall
be brought down to stop any receiving of funds. In the event that there
shall be donations already collected, these shall cover any pending request
for payments that may have been received at that point in time and
remaining funds submitted to AFRINIC.


*Copies of all transactions incoming and outgoing will be accessible via a
report on the fundraising website.*

*11. Will TESPOK require any of the donated funds for administration of
this campaign?*
TESPOK has already made an initial donation for the cost to set up the
system not considering the man-hours put in to work on the system
integration.  TESPOK Board of Directors has set a maximum limit of its
services and expenses for this campaign to the required in-kind support of
staff hours and the payment gateway. TESPOK expects that the transaction
cost via various finance service providers shall be covered from the
donations (card transaction fees, bank charges and PayPal transaction fees).


*12. Will the funds collected be safe from attacks similar to the one
launched at Afrinic via the Mauritian legal system?*
Kenya is a signatory to the *Geneva Convention* and has established
statutes over the years that recognise and provide appropriate protection
to international and regional entities that are both government in nature
and Non-government organisations.  AFRINIC, though not established in
Kenya, runs critical operations with an impact that goes beyond any
individual country in the African region. *The donation funds being
collected to keep AFRINIC's critical operations running are protected under
these statutes.*


*13. How will the community be informed about the amounts donated and
disbursed?*
TESPOK will publish the total amount donated from both individuals and
corporates and the total amount disbursed on the donation web page every 2
days. https://www.tespok.co.ke/?page_id=14001

The names of individual donors will not be published to align with the *Kenya
Data Protection Act of 2019*.


*We would also like to share with the members and the Internet community
the names of the liaisons from the Af-IX and its partners who are
volunteering to coordinate this fundraising campaign.*

*Af-IX Fundraising Oversight Committees*
----------------------------------------------------------
1. Fiona Asonga - TESPOK Kenya (*The* *Fundraising* *Secretariat*)
2. Nishal Goburdhan - INX South Africa
3. Noah Maina - TISPA
4. Kyle Spencer - Af-IX
5. Frank Habicht - TIX Tanzania
6. Muhammed Rudman - IXPN Nigeria
7. Darwin Da Costa & Silvio Almada - ISPA Angola
8. Nico TSHINTU BAKAJIKA - ISPA DRC

Cheers,
Noah
On Behalf of the  Af-IX Team
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