Through GlobalEyes

Appeal for computers

vensign@gmail.com (Veronica Ensign) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:07:00 GMT

Our Kenyan partner organization, Tropical Focus for Rural Development, currently shares one laptop between a four person staff. Tropical Focus uses computers to: catalogue and analyze data collected in the villages we work in and prepare reports based on that data, communicate with GlobalEyes, maintain accounting ledgers and prepare financial reports, and research and develop collaborative programs with GlobalEyes, among many other tasks. It is essential that Tropical Focus has technology to match their great human resource capabilities.

To donate technology to Tropical Focus, please contact Veronica at vensign@throughglobaleyes.org

Dago Thim Latrine update

vensign@gmail.com (Veronica Ensign) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:08:00 GMT

A couple new photos of the completed latrines:

Micro-Goal #3 Report: Dago Thim Latrine Building Project

schacon@gmail.com (Scott Chacon) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:37:00 GMT

As we always do when we finish up a fundraiser, we are publishing our Micro-Goal #3 Report to the donors that contributed to our Dago Thim Latrine Building Project goal.

We successfully raised $860 and were able to construct new latrines at Dago Thim Primary School.

MicroGoal Report #3 - Get more free documents

2007 Board Meeting Recap

schacon@gmail.com (Scott Chacon) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:26:00 GMT

The governing board of GlobalEyes convened on November 25, 2007 in Fremont, CA.

Attached is the Board Meeting Recap document, which lists out the minutes of the meeting as well as our Applied Funds Summary for 2007 and quarterly balance sheets.

Global Eyes Board Recap - Get more free documents

Fundraiser Success!

vensign@gmail.com (Veronica Ensign) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:59:00 GMT

We proudly announce that our February 28th fundraiser to support the outreach feeding program at Dago Thim Primary School was extremely successful! We exceeded our goal by $900 to raise a total of $2400. This $2400 will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Cordes Family Foundation, bringing our grand total to $4800! Many, many thanks to all who attended, and also to those who could not attend but donated. We will keep the pledgie goal open for the next few weeks for those who would still like to make a contribution.

Communication Log on 2008-02-23

vensign@gmail.com (Veronica Ensign) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Urgent Attention

1. Please review budget (emailed), total outstanding bills, and come up with an amount to pay overdue bills and fund operations through March. 2. If you are reserving part of the funds from Margee\'s team\'s visit for the Dago Thim feeding program, please use it for any urgent relief needs. We will have a fundraiser Thursday (2/28) for the Dago Thim feeding program and I am certain that we will raise at least $1500 (~110,000/=).

Updates and General Information

I have some very hopeful news - I met with Ron Cordes the other day, you probably remember him as the gentleman who visited with Margee in October and invested in the electricity for the CRM building. Ron has a family foundation - The Cordes Family Foundation - and he was very impressed by the work you are doing and wants to help more. We talked for a long while about how you make CRM and Tropical Focus work, and some of the things we can do to improve operations and expand capacity. There were three major points that came out of the meeting: o The Cordes Family Foundation will subsidize half of the budgeted operational costs of CRM to provide a cushion for both CRM/TF and GlobalEyes, to work to elevate the living standards at the orphanage and to reallocate some of our funding for sustainable development projects. o I told Ron about the eight additional children that Tropical Focus had identified as in need of housing, and we discussed some of the options for expanding the CRM building. GlobalEyes would like to work with Tropical Focus to develop a plan, including a detailed budget, for the renovation of the small structure on the CRM property into a workable living space to accommodate additional orphans. Is this still a realistic solution? o Finally, Ron is a Rotary Club member, and we decided that GlobalEyes should work with Tropical Focus to connect with the Kisumu Rotary chapter to collaborate on the development of a permanent CRM compound with housing, a school, and agricultural projects. I would love your feedback on these items.

Questions

1. Have you been able to continue to administer emergency relief, and how much of the funds wired earlier this month ($2200) have been used? I don’t know that we will be able to raise 600,000/= for relief, but will continue to appeal for funds. We are hosting a fundraiser for the Dago Thim feeding program next Thursday (2/28) and any funds we raise over the goal amount of $1500 (~110,000/=) will go to relief. 2. I do not have a clear understanding of what happened to the $5000 from Margee’s team. I see that the funds for electrical wiring were spent ($1000). Are you reserving funds for the Dago Thim feeding project? If so, please use those reserved funds for relief, as we will send funds for Dago Thim feeding mentioned above within the next month. 3. What is the status of unpaid bills? I know that there are unpaid balances on several projects, and here is a summary of what I have. • Balance of Dago Thim latrine construction – 12,000/= (~$168) • CRM January 2008 – 16,000/= (~$224) • Tropical Focus operations January and February 2008 – 24,000/= (~$336) • Tropical Focus rent January and February 2008 – 16,000/= (~$224) • Electricity? 4. I have attached a 2008 budget I put together for TF and CRM. The 2008 figures are derived from the monthly financial reports you sent in 2007, and an average of just over $300 was spent on CRM each month that year. That breaks down to about $25 per child. The $500 per month figure for 2008 is based on support for twenty children per month. Would you please tell me if these figures are accurate and match the current need? 5. I would like to send funds immediately to repay all outstanding bills, and also for support for CRM and TF through March, now that we have this extra support from the Cordes Family Foundation. I would also like to work to be sure that moving forward, our funding is timely, consistent, and in line with an agreed upon budget. Please review the budget and the numbers for outstanding bills, and let me know if modifications need to be made. Once we come up with a total through the end of March, I’ll order the wire right away.

Dago Thim Feeding Program

vensign@gmail.com (Veronica Ensign) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 06:04:00 GMT

GlobalEyes recently completed construction of new latrine facilities at Dago Thim Primary School. Our next step is to raise $1500 to initiate a feeding program for student school lunches and outreach feeding of additional meals for other hungry children in the community.

Communication Log on 2008-01-26

tobiasounga@yahoo.com (Tobias Ounga) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Urgent Attention

1. Support to victims of post election conflicts: Details in updates below. 2. Office running costs for January and February: Kshs. 24,000/= 3. Meeting of gaps on Dago Thim latrine arising due to escalation of costs as a result of post election conflicts: Kshs. 12,000/= 4. Office rent for January and February 2008: Kshs. 16,000/=

Updates and General Information

1. Prof. Margee’s team from University of Pacific donated to us $ 5,000 for use in completing electricity installation ($ 1,000) and for CRM food and domestic supplies plus Dago Thim school feeding ($4,000). However, schools operations have not yet been stable, with head teachers calling on pupils to go to school one day and the following day they are asked not to report. Even when calls are made for school days, very few pupils turn up so we felt we should wait some more days for stability before embarking on the school feeding program at Dago Thim. 2. There has been worsening of events for the victims of post election violence. We continued conducting assessments and came to learn that a big group of displaced people are camped at various police stations around Kisumu – sort of the administration have not revealed their details for fear that surrounding community can attack them at the camps. They inform people that all displaced people have been moved out of Kisumu. I sent our staff and they saw with their own eyes the situation at Kondele police station in Kisumu. Today Caren and myself accompanied them and found the situation terrible. There were 53 people in total, comprising of women, men, children and some youth. They were initially hostile and only after we talked to a pastor who has been visiting them that they accepted to talk to us. We found they did not have meal for today and for days to come, no soaps, women begged for sanitary towels, children were worn out and tired old men who just kept themselves in tents. A woman and two old men had 3-day old medical prescriptions from a government hospital. The situation was bad and we could not hold. We said we could use some funds from our account to provide for some urgent needs. Perhaps incase we get some funds later towards support of such victims, then we shall replace. We bought them 3 bags of maize, 27 tins of 250 gm cooking oil, 27 packets of salt, 27 loaves of cabbages, 14 pieces of bar soaps, 53 pieces of tiny toilet soaps, 12 pieces of sanitary towels, 16 quick snack sets (juice and crisps) for kids, some cabbages and the prescribed medicines. One woman pleaded with us to buy for her petroleum jelly. We spent about Kshs. 18,000/=. It was indeed a great relief to them when they saw us come back with the items. We estimated the supplies would take them some 4 days – I’ve attached various photos that we took as we distributed and as we discussed with them. These people will probably need relief support for some 5 more months before they can establish other habitations. After the Kondele case I visited Riat police station, which is some 500 meters from Tropical Focus offices and the police revealed that they are holding one similar victim (Called Nyamweya Ombati). Mr. Ombati’s father is believed to be also hiding in another police station. Their shop, located just on the fence of Bukna Primary School was burnt down. They however do not want surrounding community to be aware due to risk of attack by the same community. Similar groups are in other police stations around Kisumu and other supporting organizations cannot cope. The police station groups of victims increases the needs for support to victims of post election violence hence the budget is higher than what we had communicated before. For this additional group, about Kshs. 700,000/= would be necessary to supplement their survival for the next 5 months. 3. For our other activities, we have yet encountered some challenge with purchases. Prices have escalated compared to budgets we had prepared for most activities. For instance, we bought hard wares and realized we overshot by about Kshs. 12,000/=. Cement which used to cost Kshs. 600/= before the post election conflicts currently costs Kshs 900/=. We are yet to buy bricks and will need to pay Mason and also complete labor payment for pit digging. I do not really k now how we’ll fill the gap. Costs of supplies for Children Rescue Mission have also increased. 4. Following donation as on item 1 above, we still have costs for office running not covered. 5. Electricity wiring at CRM and Tf building is now complete. We paid installation fees to the power company and are awaiting connection – probably in 4 weeks if security situation does not worsen.

Questions

Communication Log on 2008-01-17

tobiasounga@yahoo.com (Tobias Ounga) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Urgent Attention

1. Food and domestic supplies for CRM for January 2008; Kshs. 16,000/= 2. Relief support to Victims of Kenyan post election conflicts; Kshs. 600,000/= 3. Tropical Focus office running costs for January 2008; Kshs. 12,000/= 4. Tropical Focus office rent for January 2008; Kshs. 8,000/=

Updates and General Information

1. We have been visiting households of individuals affected by post election conflicts and found them in real pathetic states, especially those who lost their source of income through burnt places of employment, displaced employers and lost and injured providers of the households. I hope what is raised will provide some relief to them. 2. Dago Thim Primary school latrine construction already began. We visited them on 15th Jan and found about 20 feet of the pit already dug (see some photos attached). The full depth will be 30 feet and we expect this to be done by Monday 21st Jan. Caren also already bought sand and ballast. Bricks and other materials are however not yet bought. Our plan was to buy this next week, hopefully if situation in the country will not be too bad. Schools opened on Monday but pupils were told not to report during the 3 days of demonstrations. 3. We bought materials for wiring of the building housing Tf and CRM on Monday 14th Jan and work started immediately. The technicians will probably be through today since only little work was remaining by yesterday evening. 4. On finances, out of the wire you sent on 10th (Kshs. 94,828/=), we are only left with about Kshs. 40,000/= for the latrine construction, having spent about Kshs. 15,000/= on CRM food and domestic supplies for Dec, about Kshs. 12,000/= on Tf office running for Dec (see attached sheet), about Kshs. 10,000/= on Pamela Atieno’s support and Kshs. 14,000/= on sand, ballast and labor deposit for digging of latrine pit. I’m not sure if Margee sent some cash as she had mentioned but we checked our bank latest on 15th Jan but there was no credit yet. From 16th to 18th Jan we were/will not be able to check due to demonstrations.

Questions

Communication Log on 2008-01-09

tobiasounga@yahoo.com (Tobias Ounga) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Urgent Attention

1. Food and domestic supplies for CRM for January 2008; Kshs. 16,000/= 2. School levies for CRM children for Term I, 2008; Kshs. 3,000/= 3. Tropical Focus office running costs for January 2008; Kshs. 12,000/= 4. Tropical Focus office rent for January 2008; Kshs. 8,000/=

Updates and General Information

1. Security situation now calming down – public transport back although vehicles few and prices are up by over a third, some shops operating. 2. On our activities, the children resumed on Monday, all of them except Frank and Ronald whom we are expecting to come on Friday. George also has not come but he called and said he is coming tomorrow (10th Jan). The good news we have is that we went to our bank on Monday 7th January 2008 and found the cheques (which we got from Margee and her team in November) cleared (on 24th Dec 2007). We withdrew the cash on 7th January 2008 and went ahead to implement budgeted items immediately. 3. We also managed to purchase items for Pamela Atieno on the 7th January and delivered them on 8th January 2008 (yesterday). We bought for her beddings worth Kshs. 5,440/=, domestic utensils worth Kshs. 1,531/=, household consumables worth Kshs. 770/= and gave her cash of Kshs. 1,800/=. We spent Kshs. 500/= on transport. All expenses on Pamela Atieno was Kshs. 10,041/=. We were accompanied by the Areas Government administrator – Assistant chief – when we delivered the items to Pamela. Pamela as well her children got highly excited on seeing the delivered items. Team from Tropical Focus who delivered the items were Tobias, Caren and Caroline (Newly recruited as a Fields Officer). Pictures were taken during the delivery and are attached elsewhere. Pamela told us to convey lots of thanks to all who donated for her help and to Veronica. We will now go ahead with the construction of Dago Thim latrine because we shall replace funds that we temporarily borrowed from the Dago Thim latrine budget which we used on CRM budgets for previous months. So far, we withdrew the funds on 7th January and Caren will organize for commencement of pit digging and procurement of hardware needed for the first stages of construction. 4. We also withdrew cash budgeted for electricity wiring and Tobias (myself) will organize for the materials and technician to do wiring. Unfortunately when we visited Power & Lighting company, they said installation fee is Kshs. 35,000/= and not Kshs. 15,000/= as they previously advertised. We budgeted only Kshs. 15,000/= for the installation fees so Kshs. 20,000/= more shall be required.

Questions