Samsung Africa Introduces ‘What If I Can’ App: Walk To Generate Power

19/03/2015 Sandi

What if you could walk to save a community near you from having noe education due to their lack of access to electricity? Wouldn’t that be great? Well, it is great because there is an app just made to do that from Samsung. It’s called “What If I Can?’

I spoke to Ntutule Tshenye, Director for Public Affairs and Corporate Citizenship at Samsung Electronics Africa about the app.

What is ‘What If I Can’ all about?

‘What If I Can’ is an app that incorporates everyday movement to bring power to the needy by urging people to walk, have their steps counted, and let Samsung equate those steps to an initiative that gives back . For every 400 million steps, a solar generator is donated to a school. In South Africa, where the project was first launched, a solar powered school was given to a community.

The next move will be a donation of a solar generator being given to the next country after 400 million steps have been reached with the ‘What If I Can’ app in Africa. Samsung gets to select the country with the highest number of steps and then work with the local authorities in that country to find out what community needs the generator the most.

How many steps have you captured so far?

As of today we had over 250 million steps in the system. As soon as 400 million steps are reached, then we will reach out to the deserving country with the most and award them with the solar generator for a school that’s chosen.

Why did you pick this specific idea?

It came out of curiosity, that’s why it’s called “What If I Can”. We looked at something that people do everyday but usually goes to waste in terms of what it could do for others. Walking is always done by almost everyone, so we linked it to generating power and came up with the idea. So many people walk, we need to capture their steps as a way of giving back to the markets we’re present in.

Is this a long-term campaign?

After the next country, we will continue to learn from this innovation see what modifications can be made, whether we need to continue with the same campaign or add to it so yes we expect to keep it going and give back more to communities around Africa.

The ‘What If I Can’ app is available from the Google Play store here. It will require your email address to sign up for it, and you can set a password, then it immediately starts counting steps. You will be able to see all the steps you’ve personally made, as well as all the steps being made in Africa.