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I'm an immigrant from Venezuela,

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and I've lived in the US for six years.

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If you ask me about my life
as an expatriate,

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I would say that I've been lucky.

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But it hasn't been easy.

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Growing up, I never thought
that I was going to leave my homeland.

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I participated in my first
student protest in 2007,

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when the president shut down
one of the most important news networks.

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I was getting my bachelor's degree
in communications,

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and that was the first time I realized
I couldn't take free speech for granted.

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We knew things were getting bad,
but we never saw what was coming:

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an economic crisis,
infrastructure breaking down,

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citywide electrical blackouts,

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the decline of public health care
and shortage of medicines,

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disease outbreaks and starvation.

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I moved to Canada with my husband in 2013,

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and we always thought we'd move back home
when the crisis improved.

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But we never did.

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Nearly all my childhood friends
have left the country,

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but my parents are still there.

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There have been moments
where I've called my mom,

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and I could hear people screaming
and crying in the background

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as teargas bombs exploded in the streets.

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And my mom, as if I couldn't
hear it, would always tell me,

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(Speaking Spanish)

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"We're fine, don't worry."

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But of course, I worry.

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It's my parents, and I'm 4,000 miles away.

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Today, I'm just one of more than
four million Venezuelans

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who have left their home country.

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A lot of my friends
are Venezuelan immigrants,

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and in the last few years,

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we've begun talking about
how we could make a difference

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when we live so far away.

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That is how Code for Venezuela
was born in 2019.

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It began with a hackathon,
because we are experts in tech,

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and we thought we could use
our tech skills

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to create solutions
for people on the ground.

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But first, we needed to find some experts
actually living inside Venezuela

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to guide us.

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We'd see so many other hackathons

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that came up with wily, ambitious,
incredible technological solutions

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that sounded great in theory
but ultimately failed to work

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in the actual countries
they were intended to help.

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Many of us have been
living abroad for years,

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and we are detached
from the day-to-day problems

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that people are facing in Venezuela.

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So we turned to the experts
actually living inside of the country.

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For example, Julio Castro,

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a doctor and one of the leaders
of Médicos por la Salud.

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When the government stopped publishing
official health care data in 2015,

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Dr. Julio began collecting
information himself,

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using an informal but coordinated system

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of cell phone communications.

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They track available personnel,
medical supplies, mortality data,

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disease outbreaks;

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compile it into a report;

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and then share that on Twitter.

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He became our go-to expert
on health care in Venezuela.

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Luis Carlos Díaz,

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a widely recognized journalist
who reports acts of censorship

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and human rights violations
suffered by the people of Venezuela,

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he helps us make sense
of what is happening there,

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since the news is controlled
by the government.

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We call these people
our heroes on the ground.

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With their expert advice,
we came up with a series of challenges

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for hackathon participants.

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In that first hackathon,
we had 300 participants

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from seven countries

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come up with 16 different
project submissions.

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We picked the projects
with the most potential

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and continued working on them
after the event.

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Today, I'll share two of our most
successful projects

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to give you a taste of the impact
we are having so far.

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They're called MediTweet
and Blackout Tracker.

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MediTweet is an intelligent Twitter bot

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that helps Venezuelans
find the medicine they need.

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Right now in Venezuela,

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if you get sick and you go to a hospital,

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there is a good chance they won't have
the right medical supplies to treat you.

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The situation is so bad

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that patients often get
a "shopping list" from the doctor

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instead of a prescription.

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I live the need for this firsthand.

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My mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2015.

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She needed to have a lumbar puncture

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to get a final diagnosis
and treatment plan.

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But the needle for this procedure
wasn't available.

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I was in Venezuela at that time,

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and I was seeing my mom
getting worse in front of me every day.

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After looking everywhere,
we found the needle in a site

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that is like the eBay of Latin America.

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I met the seller in a local bakery,

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and it was like buying
something on the black market.

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My mom brought the needle to her doctor,
and he did the procedure.

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Without this, she could have died.

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But it's not just medical supplies,

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it's medicines, too.

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When she was first diagnosed,

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we bought her treatment
in a state pharmacy,

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and it was, like, practically free.

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But then the state pharmacy ran out,

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and we still had six months
of treatment ahead.

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Six months of treatment ahead.

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We bought some medicines online
and the rest in Mexico.

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Now she's in her third year of remission,

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and every time that I call,

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she tells me, "I'm fine, don't worry."

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But not everyone can afford
to leave the country,

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and many aren't healthy enough to travel.

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That is why people turn to Twitter,

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buying and selling medicines
using the hashtag #ServicioPublico,

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meaning "public service."

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Our Twitter bot scans Twitter
for the hashtag #ServicioPublico

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and connects users who are asking
for specific medicines

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with those who are selling
their private leftovers.

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We also pool the location data
of those Twitter users

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and use it for a visualization tool.

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It gives local organizations
like Médicos por la Salud

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a sense of where they have a shortage.

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We can also apply
machine learning algorithms

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to detect clusters of disease.

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If they've received humanitarian aid,

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this could help them
to make better decisions

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about the distributions of the supplies.

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Our second project,
is called Blackout Tracker.

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Venezuela is currently going through
an electricity crisis.

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Last year, Venezuela suffered
what some people consider

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the worst power failures
in Venezuelan history.

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I had two long days without
communication with my parents.

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Some cities experienced
blackouts every day.

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But you only know about this
on social media.

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The government won't report
blackouts on the news.

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When the power goes out,

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many Venezuelans, we quickly tweet out
the location with the hashtag #SinLuz,

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meaning "without electricity,"

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before their phones ran out of battery,

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so people around the country
know what is happening.

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Like MediTweet,

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Blackout Tracker scans Twitter
for the hashtag #SinLuz

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and creates a map using
the location data of those users.

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You can quickly see

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where the blackouts are happening today

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and how many blackouts
have happened over time.

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People want to know what is happening,

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and this is our answer.

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But it's also a way of holding
the government accountable.

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It's easy for them to deny
that the problem exists

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or make excuses,

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because there is no official data on it.

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Blackout Tracker shows how bad
the problem really is.

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Now, some people in Silicon Valley
may look at these projects

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and say that there are no major
technological innovations.

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But that is the point.

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These projects are not insanely advanced,

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but it's what the people
of Venezuela need,

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and they can have a tremendous impact.

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Beyond these projects, perhaps
our most significant accomplishment

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is that a movement has been created,

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one where people around the world
are coming together

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to use their professional skills to create
solutions for the people of Venezuela.

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And because we are partnering with locals,

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we are creating the solutions
that people want and need.

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What is so great about this

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is that we are using
our professional skills,

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so it comes easily and naturally.

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It's not that hard for us
to make a difference.

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If someone from San Francisco

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were to hire professionals
to create solutions

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like MediTweet or Blackout Tracker,

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it would cost a small fortune.

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By donating our services,

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we are making a bigger impact
than if we were just to donate money.

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And you can do the same thing --

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not in Venezuela, necessarily,

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but in your own community.

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In a world that is more
connected than ever,

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we still see how specialized communities
can be living isolated or in silos.

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There are so many great ways to help,

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but I believe that you can use
your professional skills

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to connect diverse communities
and create effective solutions

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through those relationships.

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Anyone with knowledge
and professional skills

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has a powerful force
to bring hope to a community.

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For us at Code for Venezuela,

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this is just the beginning.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)