Help please,

Hello there,
I am Binyam, a college student in Ethiopia.

Growing up in the poorest country in the world I always wanted to change the life of the people in my community. Now that I have access to free internet in the campus I started looking for ways of achieving my dream and on a lucky day I stumbled up on 3D printing and the RepRap community. I wondered why such a liberating technology wasn’t accessible in the place that it was needed the most.

The possibility of seeing local businesses designing and printing materials that could solve the challenges of our communities was very exciting. But when I tried to research about the industry I realized the design of the printers and the business model the companies came up with weren’t in the interest of Africans because we aren’t the customers in the very beginning.

So I sought out to find ways for building a company which is dedicated to developing small African businesses manufacturing ability by developing easy to use, reasonably cheap, and relatively fast 3d printers.

Obviously, the first step is designing a prototype printer and testing it. The problem is that I am a medical student with no engineering background and there, literally, is no one in Ethiopia who is knowledgeable in this technology. But still even if I had the know how I wouldn’t have the money to buy one let alone to experiment on a lot of them to find the right design of the printer.

So I was thinking about crowdsourcing to tackle this desperate lack of technical knowhow. To use the vibrant and technically astute community of RepRap to realize the vision of a better life for the world’s poorest.

So my question is what would you if you were in my shoes? Do you think crowdsourcing is a good idea?

I know I'm asking a lot, but I would really appreciate it if somebody could point me in the right direction.
Many Thanks.

see [diy3dprinting.blogspot.co.nz]

crowdsourcing will probably not work, it only works if those supporting it get something from it.

Think you should start by trying something like "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation".

I'm really not in your shoes and can't even imagine what kind of hardware resources you can access there ? To be more constructive, it would be nice to know a little more about what motors , power supply , electricity source , linear guides ( rods ? aluminium ? ) , roller bearings , etc... you could find around you there ?
I would personnaly study all reprap models and try to find the one that can be the most replicable with stuff i can find around me , even if it's an ugly one or a repstrap.
Then, if i could make one, i could try to start replicate it with friends and start a business around printer replication .

tell us more about that , maybe we can help find the right model ? or way to build one ?

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the Smartrap project

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Your mastery of the english language will help you write a compelling crowdfunding pitch, if you can get your college onboard and try to source a printer for them, it shouldn't be too hard to get perhaps enough to fund a printer & some materials. But from what I've heard about crowdfunding campaigns they require months/years of promotion before launch.