We were all set for another night with Rudayna Abdo, founder of Thaki. We already planned this meetup in April 2020, but were forced to postpone it due to Covid-19. That is why we were extra happy that we could host our first meetup in The Hague with this wonderful initiative!
This evening we were guests at ANNA&CO, a co-working and co-living space for students, entrepreneurs and newcomers - a perfect setting for a Present Meetup. A slightly smaller, one-and-a-half-meters-distance edition, but nonetheless as energizing and inspiring as usual.
Present Mover and host for the night Roos Meijerkicked off the evening with a short talk about The Present and what we do, and then it was time for Rudayna to take the stage and tell us all about Thaki's mission.
Thaki's mission is to collect redundant laptops, reprogram these with educational software, and send these to educational partners in conflict areas. That way, children living there can continue their (digital) education. After a couple of years the laptops are broken down sustainably.
Although checking pretty much every 'SDG-box' (including Gender Equality, Quality Education, Sustainable Communities & Cities, Climate Action), Thaki is struggling to establish partnerships with Dutch companies. Either they don't respond at all to Thaki's outreach, or they don't feel connected to their mission. The question of the night, therefore, was: 'How can Thaki get Dutch companies involved in the execution of their mission'?
After a couple of questions from the audience, each team got to work! Under the guidance of team captains Karlijn Stoelinga (green), Thea van Unen (blue), Iris Bos (red) and Joukje Boeder (yellow), everybody started the brainstorm and got ready for the pitches.
A Present Meetup is a pressure cooker, so after already 30 minutes each team had to present their best ideas. Ranging from direct links with CSR directors, to different PR strategies, to storytelling ideas, there was enough to choose from. But there can only be one winner...
In the end, team Blue go to take home the prize: official Thaki t-shirts for every member of the team!
But of course, all ideas were happily received by Rudayna and will be put into action together with The Present. If you have any ideas after reading this report that you would like to share with us or Thaki, don't hesitate to get in touch!
We would like to thank ANNA&CO for hosting us, and Ferdows Faghir for his wonderful photography. And Nicol Sanders for creating live stories for our Instagram!
See you soon,
The Present
