Communication Log on 2008-02-23
Posted by Veronica Ensign on February 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM
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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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? <br /><br />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.<br /><br />I would love your feedback on these items.<br /><br />
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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br />• Balance of Dago Thim latrine construction – 12,000/= (~$168)<br />• CRM January 2008 – 16,000/= (~$224)<br />• Tropical Focus operations January and February 2008 – 24,000/= (~$336)<br />• Tropical Focus rent January and February 2008 – 16,000/= (~$224)<br />• Electricity?<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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. <br /><br />
Dago Thim Feeding Program
Posted by Veronica Ensign on February 17, 2008 at 02:04 PM
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.
