In January 2015, Google launched an experimental program called Vulnerability Research Grants to complement the long-running Vulnerability Reward Program, with the goal of rewarding security researchers who verify the security of Google products and services, even in the case when no vulnerabilities are found.

As a regular reporter to the VRP, I was rewarded with a $1.337 USD Grant on the 5th of February, which I appreciated a lot.

Google offers the option to donate your grant to an established charity. If you do so, they will double the donation.

I've decided to donate this Grant to the non-profit organization Ingenieure ohne Grenzen (Engineers without borders).

Building a solar power plant

Since the price of diesel is growing constantly and the supply of diesel generators is unreliable, the energy supply for the Baramba Girls Secondary School (northern Tanzania, close to the borders with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi), is no longer guaranteed.

About the baramba girls school

The Berlin regional group of the relief organization Engineers Without Borders wants to provide the school with a solar plant, which is optimal to ensure constant energy supply, considering the local climatic conditions.

The campus of the Baramba Girls Secondary School is home to 200 students, who are between 14 and 17 years old. Currently, the energy supply is provided by an old generator, which runs on diesel. With the energy provided, the dormitories and the teachers’ rooms are lit for an hour as a maximum, and even this is very unreliable. Because the school is located near the Equator, it gets dark at about 6 p.m. The computer classroom with 21 computers is supplied with energy only for several hours a week. The diesel price has been growing constantly during the last year, so that the energy supply of the school has been reduced to a minimum.

In many regions of Tanzania people still can't afford the cost of tuition for the education of their kids. If a family happens to have the possibility to finance the school for one child, they usually prefer to let their sons go to school, so that the can get a better job and be able to support their own family in the future. Furthermore, most of the public schools are boys schools. Therefore, it is particularly important to give the girls an opportunity to benefit from higher education and to prevent the gender discrimination.

Unfortunately, the fundraising for this project is not completed yet, so if you want to support the Baramba Girls School, please donate via Betterplace or directly to Engineers without borders (german).

In the last years I've donated regularly some of the rewards from Google's VRP to different schools in Africa to improve the schooling conditions of the local people.

2012

• $2600 USD for a school in in Welkite (Ethiopia)

2013

• $1.000 USD for a kindergarten in Tomegbé (Togo)
• $1.000 USD for a primary school in Ilketunjo (Ethiopia)

2015

• $2.674 USD for a secondary girls school in Tanzania

The total amount donated is now $7.274 USD. Thank you, Google Security Team, for making this donations possible.