Remember those emails from Bill Gates asking you to forward an email and claim a cash prize or some other sort of gift? Yeah that turned out to be a hoax in case you're still waiting for the check. This time, however, the tech billionaire is launching a campaign for real, and all you need to do is register with Gates Notes, read Bill Gates' article, watch a short video, and answer one question. Don't think you will get a paltry reward in exchange, no sir.
It will be a poultry reward.
In a blog post announcing the Coop Dreams initiative, Gates said that raising and selling the birds can be efficient to tackle extreme poverty and also hedge against malnutrition. Gates argues chickens are inexpensive to take care of and one hen could potentially produce 40 chicks in a matter of months. "It's pretty clear to me that just about anyone who's living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens," he says.
The initiative went live on Gates's personal blog this morning. Basically al you need to do is complete three tasks and Bill Gates will donate – on your behalf – a flock of chickens to a family in sub-Saharan Africa. Donations are made through the Heifer International charity. Their goal is to eventually help 30 percent of the rural families in sub-Saharan Africa raise improved breeds of vaccinated chickens, up from just 5 percent now.
As you'd expect Gates lays out the numbers for his plan, saying a new farmer could start off with five hens and a rooster, and breed them to have 12 chickens within three months and 250 within a year. With a sale price of $5 per chicken – which is typical in West Africa – she or he can earn more than $1,000 a year, versus the extreme-poverty line of about $700 a year.
You can read more about the initiative and complete the tasks here.