Dear MI4People Community,
Another wondrous year is nearing its end, and we look back at this exciting year with immense gratitude, as this year was filled with lots of achievements and great milestones towards accomplishing our goal of goodness for humanity with the help of AI. These joyous moments would not have been possible without everyone like you who stood with us. Even though nothing could appreciate the tremendous value you have provided throughout this year, we hope you will kindly accept this as our heartfelt thanks-note from every one of us at MI4People.
Firstly, we would like to thank our generous donors. Your trust in our vision has been a source of inspiration. Your support in all means has allowed us to take up crucial projects and challenge our potential. We are all very proud to have received immense help this year pouring in from individuals and private firms to government organizations and other NGOs, who donated not just monetary assets, but their immense resources, dedicated teams and even sponsoring employees.
The most noteworthy mention of all is DSEE (Deustche Stiftung für Engagement and Ehrenamt), without whom our biggest accomplishments would have been impossible. They are the source of funding for many great things at MI4People. A few of the notable donations from them include the fund to support a full-time paid colleague to overlook our entire technical projects as a coordinator, Dr. Denis Dalic, who fast-tracked us to some great accomplishments within just the past few months. In addition, they also funded us to create the much-awaited Podcast, “KI für Menschen” (AI for People) along with the support for a paid working student Diana Jevdokimenko, to not only work behind the administrative desk at MI4People but also behind the recordings of the podcast (already four episodes released and five more being worked on). A huge thanks for the Podcast also go to the Alexander Thamm GmbH [AT] team for the donations, studio, crew members, invaluable time, knowledge, resources, etc. AT has always been one of our greatest supporters and believers in our mission. You can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
Further, a lot of thanks go to Accenture which have been supporting us with an energetic team member, Cara Heydt, to lead our communications and marketing team. She has helped us put together a vibrant team of volunteers to work on our marketing and PR strategy. It is with her guidance that we are creating great contents for you on our LinkedIn channel. Further Social Media Channel and content will follow soon!
Similarly, we were also supported by many more organizations that not only fund us but also strengthen us with tools and resources. Such as, one of the most important tools for our projects, cloud computing; which is offered to us to large extent for free by AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
A few other mentionable partnerships of this year also include working with some reputable names like Mekong Plus, Sparkasse, Bayerischer Blinden und Sehbehinderten Bund, KI Bundesverband, CorrelAid, Œuvre Médicale, Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) and Care-For-Rare foundation, who shared with us resources, tools, knowledge and opportunities. Similarly, we were also presented with platforms to spread our ideas to many others through the DAISC 2023, where we won the pitch award, Data Festival 2023, Paretätischer Wohlfahrtsverband events, Civic Coding events, talks at DSEE conference on AI4Good and AI regulations by Dr. Paul Springer and Dr. Christian Herles. And many more where a few of our ambassadors including Marc Haarmeier, Philipp Schwab were able to reach the message of MI4People to a much larger population. We were also given opportunities to network at the Digital Gipfel 2023, where AI was the major topic. We are also thankful for the coaching provided to us by initiative called Startsocial and our coaches Veronika Meijerhof and Thomas Altenhain who help us to lead our organization in a much organized and structured manner.
All these names are a great sign of recognition for us, and we are so thankful for these opportunities and hope we can create a bigger synergy with them in the upcoming years as well. We believe these organizations and individuals have been a true blessing, because without them we wouldn't be where we are today. We appreciate the shared dedication to making a difference, and it's through these partnerships that we've been able to magnify our impact.
Although all these organizations have played the greatest role in supporting our growth, and providing us with recognition and acceptance, our efforts were brought to fruition through the hard work and support of our volunteers. This year we had around 70 volunteers working on various projects and administrative tasks. Most of them come from diverse backgrounds, our team is truly multinational and multicultural, a vibrant mix of energetic professionals. We have volunteers from 22 nations across 5 continents, even some working remotely with us from around the globe. We are also proud to be one of the very few tech organizations to lead a team in which every 3rd volunteer is a proud woman. And to this team of dedicated volunteers, your selfless contributions of time and expertise have been the heartbeat of our organization. We are genuinely thankful for your commitment to making our mission create a positive impact on the world.
To all the other incredible individuals on our team of ambassadors, coaches, mentors, project guides, and each and every heart that beats for our mission and applauds on our accomplishments; it is your efforts and guidance that have been the most valuable assets. Your trust in us, your immense belief in our mission and your honest passion for our growth is what has made us stride forward with courage. We are more than grateful for this true force that propels us. We thank each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts.
We would also like to thank our generous, committed and kind community of followers, listeners, subscribers and readers for showing your enthusiasm and encouragement. In the year 2023 we had an increase of more than 50% followers and subscribers. This is a great sign of appreciation. To all those who share your feedback, read our posts, listen to our podcasts and reach out to us with criticism, we are happy to listen to you always. We believe your energy is what fuels our motivation and keeps us working on great ideas. Without your cheering voice we could not have gone this far. As we bid farewell to 2023, we do so with immense gratitude to you all, for the support that has brought us to this point. With your continued kindness, we eagerly anticipate the possibilities that the future holds. Together, we will embark on new endeavors, foster new connections, and continue to explore the positive potential of AI.
As a token of appreciation for your support, we would like to present to you with some updates on our gifts for the upcoming year. These gifts are not only ours to giveaway, but the credit goes to all of you too. These are our gifts to the future we would be building together. These are ours for the years to come and generations to come.
We are looking forward to spread knowledge with our project on Data Open for Everyone – DofE – project (available for all on this link), we are also working on rejuvenating our oceans with the mission for marine litter detection (working on improving the accuracy of the predictions). We are also focused on ensuring good health via two projects, one in detecting early on some rare diseases for children with the help of medical data (initiated), and the other on assisting physicians to assess radiographs in situations where radiologists are in shortage (gathering training data and developing a prototype). Similarly, a few of our volunteers are also working on making strip tests accessible to blind and visually impaired (alpha version). Our team is also on a mission to ensure the food supply in developing countries by evaluating soil quality from satellite imagery (training phase on BigEarthNet data set). And finally, we are working to ensure that barriers to education such as funds would be eliminated with the help of a partnership project to find scholarship holders and reduce dropout rates (digital pipelines created).
In fact, this year was a special one, and it's thanks to your unwavering support that we've been able to achieve meaningful milestones in all our projects. Your commitment has made a real difference, and we are sincerely grateful for your part in our shared successes. Even though only a very few were named in this newsletter, every of you will always stay close to our hearts and will always be remembered for her or his great contributions. Wishing you a beautiful holiday season and a new year filled with prosperity, happiness and peace. And do remember there is always a place for new members in our vibrant teams, and you are always welcome to be our great supporters by sharing about us or donating to us. Because every act of care helps us grow and can have a great impact on our mission.
With heartfelt thanks,
MI4People