Hi to all-

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to chat with Norasco about his organization and project. As a result of that chat, we agreed that I would assist in setting up his project here at Nabuur. In the process of doing so, I inadvertently deleted the original "village talk" task. I was able to go back and retrieve the responses. They are included below:
____________________________________

yeh yu wen
Re: In our village the most important issue is: HIV/AIDS
Thu, 2010/07/01 - 02:27
Hi,I don't know if the support which is from the aboard is OK?And if I want to send you the meal or the clothing ,where can I deliver ? If you want to contact me? you can directly e-mail to me . My e-mail is
roselulu6@gmail.com
Thanks
ROSE

NORASCO
Re: In our village the most important issue is: HIV/AIDS
Wed, 2010/06/23 - 04:06
What we need you to help with is a fund,can you give us a fund yourself or can you find any where to seek fund on behalf of our village?
Let me know if it could be possible.
Thank you,
NORASCO

Re: In our village the most important issue is: HIV/AIDS
Wed, 2010/06/23 - 03:59
Yes your skill wil be needed,but first we are in need of fund to conduct this project We request you to help us with a fund from youself or from any where you know,
I Hope you will help our village with fund and your skill because your are some one who can change my
village.Let me know if is possible to get a fund,
Thank you.

yeh yu wen
Re: In our village the most important issue is: HIV/AIDS
Tue, 2010/06/22 - 02:28
hi
Could you tell me what can I do for you?
Yeh Yu Wen

Faith
Re: In our village the most important issue is: HIV/AIDS
Mon, 2010/06/21 - 05:53
I would like to get involved with this. Could you give more details of what you might need? I have experience in designing interventions to support healthy behaviours and also of conducting needs assessments in relation to health and psychology. Do let me know if my skills may be of use.
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All the best-

Jennifer

Norasco,

Your posts of 23 June 2010 indicate that your basic need is for funds. It will help your task if you can change the heading to "FUND-RAISING for Home Basic Care Project". Please use uppercase (capital letters) to make it loud enough.

People will generally read the whole content only if the first few words are of interest to them. By keeping "FUND-RAISING" as the first word in the heading, you can ensure more readership of your task by fund-providers.

The existing headline calls for a general discussion, and is not suitable if the purpose of your task is fund-raising.

Vijai

Vijay-

Norasco did not post this. We agreed yesterday that I would assist him in updating his village. After talking and explaining that Nabuur does not provide direct financial support, we discussed that there are likely alternative things that can be done to help them help themselves more at the grassroots level. We agreed that some element of funding is necessary - I provided him with information on different open grant opportunities as well as directed him to the fundraising group for ideas. I have also provided him with information from other organizations doing similar work so that he can gather ideas from them about how they got started. The task you are referring to was fundraising for mosquito nets. Capital letters will get it no more attention than lower case letters. As I stated in other places in this project room, I added tags so that it properly shows up in searches. Also, as someone who has helped with several fundraising efforts for multiple projects on Nabuur - I can assure you that this project has my attention. The "Home Basic Care Project" was actually listed specifically under the general task of "In our village the most important issue is."

I am certain that you have ideas that could really help them by break this project down even further and offering suggestions of things that can be done to further bolster their efforts on the ground. This project is still in the development stages on Nabuur. Norasco has agreed to send me further information such as his strategic plan so that we can continue our discussion and perhaps come up with additional tasks for his village, but for now, these tasks are a reflection our lengthy discussion yesterday.

I am hopeful that Faith can offer her expertise as a health psychologist as well in terms of evaluating their program design, implementation to date and offer suggestions on ways they can make it stronger.

Regards-

Jennifer

Jennifer,

My post above was with specific reference to the comments dated 23 June 2010 where Norasco has mentioned the following:

Quoting Norasco:
"What we need you to help with is a fund,can you give us a fund yourself or can you find any where to seek fund on behalf of our village?"

Again quoting Norasco:
"...but first we are in need of fund to conduct this project We request you to help us with a fund from youself or from any where you know,..."

End of quotes.

In my previous post in this thread, I have tried to draw attention to the fact that many tasks on nabuur which are solely created for the purpose of soliciting funds, are disguised as tasks for discussion, advice, etc. This practice unnecessarily engages neighbours in discussions which are counter-productive and do not meet the needs of funds for the concerned villages. If the prime focus of the village is only on funds, this needs to be highlighted in the task heading, so that only the interested fund-providers interact. If a straight-forward approach to soliciting funds still cannot generate funds for the village, I am certain that disguising the needs and adopting a roundabout route to funds-raising will certainly not help, and will also delay the efforts at fund-raising.

Vijai

Vijay,

There is no disguise here - but there are alternative ways of approaching a project, such as possibly setting up a better yielding garden to support the meals portion of the Home Basic Care Project - perhaps help with animal rearing to support the meals project as well. Any project that desires funding needs to show that it is organized, well thought out and set up properly for long-term sustainability. If it cannot do that, chances of funding are nil. Jumping straight to funding without first understanding the project as a whole will not help any volunteer who may desire to help, for example, with writing a funding proposal to write this effectively.

As I said, he is planning to email me additional information and I will help him to adjust tasks accordingly, one of which may end up being directly related to fundraising, but based on my discussion with Norasco and knowledge of the talents of this volunteer base - I very much believe that they can benefit from gathering ideas from others to improve and strengthen their existing programs.

I appreciate your feedback. I hope you understand my perspective. It is certainly not meant to delay assistance, but having written successful funding proposals before, it is definitely necessary to gather the appropriate information and to generate ideas on long-term sustainability in order to present the best case for funding.

Regards-

Jennifer

Thank you for clarifying your approach to this task, Jennifer. I also hope that the village will directly involve with the discussions on this thread, in addition to your own efforts. This is necessary since the benefits of this task must eventually reach the village, and a capability to manage these benefits effectively must be evident at the village on the ground. So far, the village has expressed their need solely for funds as I have quoted in my post above. You could encourage the village to post directly on this thread instead of private messages to you. This will help neighbours assess for themselves the existing capabilities of the village, and the gaps that need to be plugged, so that they can suitably moderate their advice, if any.

Vijai