But despite the financial safeguards in place in Chad, charities remain sceptical that the project can help overcome the extreme poverty facing many of the country's eight million people.
At one extreme, hardliners believe the European project is a historic aberration and believe the U.K.'s best interest lies in the collapse of the euro and Britain's withdrawal from the E.
We hope by now you've seen the video of Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda demoing the latest software to undergo the Project Natal treatment -- Beautiful Katamari and Space Invaders Extreme.
With the growing recognition that major natural events can have abrupt global impacts, this project is a timely opportunity to assess the sensitivity of modern society to extreme natural threats.
The challenge is an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action against extreme poverty.
Although its problems may have been extreme, Ken Reardon of the University of Illinois's East St Louis Action Research Project estimates that about two dozen Illinois cities are in similar straits.