Three Year Report Longitude Since 2008, Longitude has continually expanded both
Alex Zolbert
PROFESA - Ghana
great growth in volunteers, it is
Since 2008, PROFESA has become an accredited academy. With the help of Longitude volunteers and donors, PROFESA has been able to grow and improve its classrooms, providing its students with desks,
appropriate to look back at
chairs and computers.
nationally and internationally. The organization has accomplished so much with very little. With the
Longitude’s success as of today. This report provides a basic overview of Longitude and its current partners: ARV and PROFESA.
ARV - India Longitude’s commitment to the Association of Relief Volunteers has provided the necessary resources to expand Ravi’s visions and develop new programs in India. With the CNN coverage of the Time Warner/Turner work Camp in Chevuru, Ravi’s vision is being shared with the world.
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The Faces of Longitude
Table of Contents Introduction................................................1 Table of Contents.......................................2
Shawn Rubin President shawn@golongitude.org
Brittany Nicolaides Director of Management brittany@golongitude.org
Letter from the Director.............................3 Longitude...................................................4 Association of Relief Volunteers..............5
Emma Parfey Director of Volunteer Coordination emma@golongitude.org
PROFESA.................................................6 Fundraising...............................................7 Expenses...................................................8
Emily Haydock Director of Volunteer Coordination emily@golongitude.org
Goals for the Future..................................9 Meschach Bondzie Director of PROFESA Professional Secretarial School of Ghana Ravi Kumar Director of ARV Association of Relief Volunteers
Longitude 21 Crescent St. Providence, RI 02907 U.S. 401.461.3263
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Longitude
Mission Statement Longitude's mission is to connect visionary leaders with the resources they need to affect change in their communities. Working in resource poor countries, Longitude provides volunteers, funding and programmatic support to move each of its partner organizations closer to self-sufficiency.
Longitude has expanded its volunteers beyond JET to help build up schooling. Longitude is still run solely by volunteers with a very dedicated volunteer following. Many volunteers keep coming back or stay on to do other projects. Over the past 3 years, Longitude has been utilizing social media. Longitude launched its website May 2010. This has formed a joint community between ARV, PROFESA and Longitude, and it provides a network of helping between the 3 organizations and their donors. The blog posts are very informative, connecting each branch through stories and pictures. The website allows anyone to create a personal fundraiser through the Longitude website. Longitude’s monthly newsletter keeps their volunteers and donors informed through email. Longitude has also become a member of Facebook and Twitter, both great sources for information and news from Ghana to India. Longitude has expanded its influence within the United States as well as overseas. Shawn Rubin collaborates with Meschach Bondzie for education. Students in Rhode Island can talk to, and teach, Ghanaian students, using Skype. This three year report highlights some of our successes with our partner organizations, our fundraising, and our volunteer trips. Even with all its growth, Longitude has maintained all of its operations on a completely grassroots and volunteer model. Longitude has offered the lowest cost opportunities in international volunteering, operated with minimal administrative cost, and above all, dedicated all proceeds to partner NGOs.
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Vision A society in which hunger, poverty and income disparity are alleviated; in which the poorest, most marginalized communities are empowered to exercise their fundamental rights.
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ARV ARV continues to draw its strength from its grass-root networks and dedicated volunteers. Over 200 international volunteers have worked with ARV to empower impoverished communities of India to date. In the past 3 years, the Association of Relief Volunteers has had great success, with the help of Longitude and its donors. Since 2008, ARV has established 3 full-time employees. Vijaya Kumar is a paid employee and has been working with ARV since 2008. John Ravi is a teacher, who had been volunteering his time since 2007. And Vijaya Sagar has been with ARV since 2006. In the near future, ARV is hoping to hire a full time employee, specifically with experience in fundraising. In the past 3 years, ARV has been very successful in building houses for Dalit villages in need through International Volunteer Work Camps. In 2008, ARV and Longitude volunteers built 84 houses in Gummallapadu, India. And last year, 70 houses were built in Chevuru, India. In October of this year, 17 volunteers from Turner Broadcasting travelled to Chevuru, India to build houses alongside ARV and Longitude.
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Current ARV Projects • KI Village Emergency Medical Fund • ARV KI Housing Campaign • ARV Children’s Feeding Center Campaign
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ARV has been able to provide education and supplies to students in Indian villages (including Gommallapadu, Chevuru, KI, Perikeedi, Kokkirailanka, Prathikollalanka and Chinnamillipadi) through A Child’s Chance Program. ARV hired 6 teachers to tutor over 700 children for 4 hours a day. The teachers also provide books, tuition assistance, and supplies to the students. In recent years, ARV has developed the Child Feeding Centre Program. ARV provides one egg and one cup of milk every day to the children of KI. ARV provides free doctor’s visits, tests and medicine to the people of KI, under the Health Care Initiative Program.
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In 2010, iPartner India became involved with ARV in response to the contaminated water of Kolleru Lake and the 22 surrounding villages. Each of their current programs will be expanded to the Kolleru Lake region and the surrounding villages. Currently, ARV works with local government officials in the Krishna district to provide more work opportunities to India’s poorest communities. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act would secure 100 days of work for anyone with a job card; connecting eligible communities and individuals to those offering work.
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PROFESA PROFESA is still the only non-profit school in Abeka that serves over 40 young adults who would otherwise not be able to afford this type of training. And thanks to Longitude donors, most of the women who attend the Academy receive a full or partial scholarship. During the past three years, PROFESA became nationally recognized and accredited. The PROFESA Academy became more integrated in the community and self-sufficient with volunteers. Since 2007, the school has been redesigned. In January of 2009 the PROFESA Academy had moved from the back of a church, to a new building with classrooms and a computer lab. Because of Longitude donors and the Dining For Women grant, Meschach was able to purchase desks for the main classroom. In June of this year, PROFESA received 4 brand new Acer Desktop computers from the Ghana Association of Rhode Island. PROFESA students are now being trained in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, networking, data entry and web development. Students are also taking courses in accounting, business entrepreneurship and English. The National Vocational Training Institute in Ghana offered their services to help PROFESA students; students are now able to register for exams, view their grades, and view achieved certificates online. In October of this year, Longitude supported the work of two art therapists travelling to Ghana for a 4 week Art Therapy project with PROFESA students.
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Fundraising In 2008, Longitude raised $59,544 in donations; 3% of that amount went directly to Longitude. In 2009, Longitude received 7% of the total donations. And in 2011, 11% is expected to go directly to Longitude. In 2008, 58% of the income was raised by volunteers through personal fundraisers. Longitude’s website allows any volunteer to develop an online fundraiser. This is very beneficial for both Longitude and its partner organizations. Half of Longitude’s 2008 total income was brought in by ARV- and PROFESAspecific projects. The rest came in from donations, grants and awards. 2010 has by far been the most successful fundraising year. Since the start of Longitude, in 2006, $250,000 has been raised for international partner projects.
Donations Year
Fundraised 2008 2009 2010
17,824 53,109 27,601
Unsolicited
Grants/Awards
41,720 10,876 40,863
4,481 5,000 30,500
Total 64,025.00 68,985.00 98,964.00
How to Get Involved
Volunteer with Longitude to either PROFESA or ARV with custom tailored trips for groups or individuals Create your own fundraising initiative in your community by using our website Donate to a campaign at www.golongitude.org 7
Expenses From 2008 to 2009, Longitude experienced a 7% increase in donations. The same percentage was seen between 2009 and 2010 as well. From 2009 to 2010, there was a great increase in the amount of money spent on web development. Between these years, the website and the online newsletter were significantly developed and refined. Each year, ARV continually receives a substantial amount of financial aid from Longitude. This is because has developed new projects and the number of volunteers and staff members has grown. These projects promise to continue to grow and develop towards self-sufficiency. The percentage of Longitude’s financial aid for both ARV and PROFESA is projected to decrease by 2011.
Year ARV PROFESA Longitude Fees 2008 27,023 24,542 11,894 551 2009 49,900 21,527 3,349 330 2010 55,000 30,000 6,111 700 Total 131,923 76,069 21,354 1,581 Web Development
Fees
Longitude
38%
ARV
PROFESA
1%
4% 42%
Web Development Total 15 64,025 99 75,205 5,000 96,811 5,114 236,041
6%
5%
29% 66%
31%
57%
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Towards the Future Longitude has been working with a consulting agency to have more infrastructures and to create a more strategic plan for the future. Longitude is working on implementing a concrete strategy to work with partner grass-root organizations. Longitude is also looking to expand the board and hire an executive director. Longitude hopes to hire their first paid employee by December 2011. About 4 more board members and Longitude will have a solid, diverse Board. Longitude is in the process of developing a program or plan for finding new partner organizations, after ARV and PROFESA are self-sustainable. Longitude’s vision is for these organizations to continue to grow within their communities by 2014, completely free from Longitude.
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