In Ganvié, a lakeside village in southern Benin known as the 'Venice of Africa', residents live year-round in stilt houses on the lake. Children paddle canoes daily through the waterways to Dogodo Primary School. This floating village is very beautiful, but the living environment comes with real challenges: rudimentary transportation, lack of infrastructure, deteriorating natural environment, and scarce educational resources, especially the survival and growth environment for children faces multiple challenges.
On May 28, 2025, the InitVerse team joined hands with the local Lion charity organization in Benin, Africa, to bring the spark of hope from Web3 to this land crisscrossed by waterways, launching a public welfare event named 'From Water Lanes to Classroom: Lighting Up the Future of Benin's Children'. InitVerse firmly believes that the value of technology lies not only in technological breakthroughs but also in serving broader real-world needs globally. After communicating with the responsible teacher at the local Dogodo Primary School, the event brought tangible help and hope to over 120 teachers and students. We hope to demonstrate the commitment of Web3 projects to social responsibility through this concrete action and convey the project concept that 'Web3 serves real needs' to local friends. Below is a genuine recap of the event:
In the morning sunlight shining on the lake, boats carrying backpacks, dictionaries, drawing pads, ballpoint pens, and colored crayons arrive at the school. We understand that in areas where drinking water still needs to be fetched with buckets, educational materials must be practical. We selected water-resistant notebooks to cope with the humid classroom environment during the rainy season; waterproof backpacks to prevent students from getting their stationery wet on the way to school, and eco-friendly brushes to mitigate the risk of water pollution to some extent. The children's eyes revealed genuine joy and curiosity when they received the gifts. When 9-year-old Aïcha tightly held her own colored brush and painted bright patterns on the paper, we captured the sparkle in her eyes, which embodies the most primitive manifestation of the Web3 spirit: empowering each individual with tools to create value.
Painting is one of the important parts of this event. Before we came, we invited two local artists to serve as mentors. The children created works around three major themes: 'My Village', 'Dream School', and 'Future Me'. They depicted their imaginations and hopes for the future with tender yet sincere brushstrokes. A little boy named Kossi painted a colorful classroom floating on the water, saying he hopes to attend class without fear of flooding. Another boy, Django, drew a sci-fi speedboat, expressing his desire to ride this boat to school because it is fast and cool. These 'special paintings' that carry the children's innocent hopes and reflect the local cultural style are about to embark on a digital rebirth through InitVerse's INIChain network.
To preserve the original appearance of these artworks to the greatest extent, photographers followed the event closely and archived each artwork individually. The InitVerse team will later select some pieces to design and create public welfare-themed NFTs, which will be sold on NFT platforms. This is not only an attempt at digital assets but also a real pilot of the charity + NFT model. The proceeds from NFT sales will be transparently disclosed and donated back to the school for classroom repairs or to fund teaching resources, achieving a sustainable cycle of goodwill on-chain. 'We are not just simple philanthropists, but bridges for value discovery,' InitVerse representative Linoel explained to the teachers. 'When Aïcha's artwork is sold as an NFT in the InitVerse NFT market, what she gains is not just charitable funding but also global attention for the Ganvié area.'
During the event, we also organized multiple interactive sessions to help the children gain knowledge and joy through games. In the game sessions, accompanied by local traditional drum beats, the children formed a circle and sang folk songs together, the rhythm was lively, and we were also inspired to dance along with them, which was very fun. InitVerse representative Linoel also explained to the children what 'Web3' is, and how our world and future lives will change for the better because of Web3. We organized interesting challenges that combined some Web3 trivia, mathematics, and language elements, stimulating the children's enthusiasm for participation, with winners receiving snacks and toys as encouragement.
'This is not just charity + NFT, but also the sowing of the Web3 spirit on the water.' The InitVerse CBO emphasized in the project summary, 'When traditional charity is limited by geography and processes, blockchain technology allows the creativity of Benin’s children to directly connect with global supporters, which is the original intention of us building InitVerse.'
At the end of the event, the children held paddles painted with the InitVerse symbol for a group photo, each child's expression differing, fully showcasing their innocence in front of the camera. This charity event is an important step in our exploration of NFT applications. Using artworks as a medium, we merge the real-world educational needs of public welfare and, leveraging NFTs as a native Web3 tool, we give charitable actions traceable, shareable, and renewable on-chain characteristics, paving the way for introducing a 'value-driven + social significance' NFT model in the future.
We hope to improve Ganvié's current living environment through material support while allowing digital assets to develop in a more valuable direction. As the global market gradually expands, we believe that such warm and valuable attempts can encourage more community users to participate in discussions and co-creation. We hope to write this goodwill into the blockchain and spread it globally.