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Director Meeting MinutesMeeting Title:Director MeetingDate:November 3, 2015Time:11am Pacific time, 2pm Toronto time, 3pm AtlanticPlace:Skype, In Person (Kelowna)Chair Person:Arnica RowanInvitee List:Internal:Arnica Rowan, Dacia Douhaibi, Nicole Bellefleur, Pam Carlson, Tawnya Pattie, Flora Meier, Menbere ShiferawExternal:In Attendance:Internal:Arnica Rowan, Flora Meier, Tawnya Pattie, Dacia DouhaibiExternal:Absent:Internal:Menbere Shiferaw, Nicole Bellefleur, Pam CarlsonExternal:Agenda:Project Updates: Love and Hope Centre, Garden Project Progress, Teenage Sex Trade Worker Retraining ProgramFinancial StatusFundraisingMinutes Submitted By:Dacia DouhaibiMinutes Submitted On:November 4, 2015Next Meeting:Date:TBATime:TBAPlace:TBAChair:Arnica Rowan#Discussion ItemsVisit to the ProjectsArnica and Tawnya just returned from site visits to the projects supported by VCS. Three days were devoted to each project during their time in Ethiopia, and Arnica and Tawnya reported that all of the projects are going very well. In addition to the time spent observing progress made in the Love and Hope Centre and with the Teenage Sex Trade Worker Retraining Program, Arnica and Tawnya went on four home visits for families with children that utilize the Love and Hope Centre and were able to speak directly with mothers and grandmothers in the homes about the successes and challenges in the families. Arnica reported that the children that have been supported by VCS at the Love and Hope Centre are flourishing – it is very clear how much the support they have received has meant to their health and development. What a success for VCS, and what a lovely outcome to be able to share with all of our donours! Arnica and Tawnya will be sharing more detailed stories that were collected through the trip and their site visits through email, the VCS website and newsletters in the coming weeks. Love and Hope CenterThe children at the Love and Hope Centre are very happy and healthy, and the staff are doing well. Six children have been able to transition out of the Centre and six new children have moved in. During the site visit, it was very clear who the new children were, particularly when they were observed alongside those children that have benefitted from support for the last year. VCS looks forward to supporting the new children that have arrived, and it will be wonderful to see them make the same progress that children who have been in the Centre for some time have made. During her visit, Arnica requested that the staff at the Love and Hope Centre provide photographs for the VCS social media accounts. These photographs will also be used to keep sponsors supplied with updated imagines of the children. The Centre does not currently not have sufficient equipment (smart phones or cameras) to take the photographs, so a tablet will be purchased by VCS for the Centre and sent with the next Canadian Humanitarian shipment.The staff and beneficiaries of the Love and Hope Centre made a request for a technology related (ICT) training program for older students in the Love and Hope Centre. This would be extremely beneficial for preparing students for the job market. VCS will be giving some consideration to how this programme could be funded and introduced at the Centre.A particular benefit that Arnica noted regarding the children that are supported through the Love and Hope Centre is that they have access to free extended healthcare – any costs accrued through doctor visits or medical needs will be refunded by the Centre if receipts are provided by the children’s caretakers. Garden ProjectHYPERLINK ""The Centre has been transformed by the gardens. They have blossomed into a lush and green environment, and there is a sense of peacefulness around the Love and Hope Centre. Adults and children love to be there – it is an oasis in the middle of an urban suburb space. The guard for the compound is in charge of the gardening club, there are currently six kids in the gardening club, and this provides him a positive sense of accomplishment beyond his other duties. The garden is successfully producing vegetables that are being used in the food made at the Centre. There is also a small seed distribution project-taking place, and some of the guardians of the children have received seeds from the garden.An idea brought up during the meeting is to create a low impact gardening workshop for alternatives traditional land-based gardening. Many people that come to the Centre, including the guardians of the children who attend the Centre, rent housing either may not have access to land for growing food or do not believe they would be allowed to grow gardens by their landlords. There are many ways that people can grow food without land to plant in, and there would be a huge advantage to introducing strategies for alternative gardening, for example container gardening. One of the boys in the gardening club and has already started to grow a small container garden at home because of what he has learned.Teenage Sex Trade Workers Retraining ProgramArnica provided an update about the girls from last year’s cohort: the ten girls completed the program in March, and all ten girls were able to find jobs in the food industry. One of the girls works for a catering company, two are working for a burger restaurant, and three are working for traditional Ethiopians restaurants. Two girls started a business selling injera, but did not have a proper business license and were not able to accept contracts as a result. This was a good lesson for both the girls and the project – there is a business basics gap for any girls that want to start their own business; in the future some of the alumni may want to start their own businesses, perhaps after working in their field and gaining some experience. Students that complete the program are followed up with every week with a phone call and once a month in person for the first few months after they leave the program. It was also clear, by speaking with Johannes, that there is continued effort to keep contact with the girls and determine how they are doing even after the official period of follow-up has passed.In July the new cohort of girls came into the Hope for Children house. This year’s original cohort of ten girls has recently become a group of twenty girls. When Hope for Children looked for a space to house the first ten girls, they found a suitable house with room for twenty girls. A sponsor from the United States came forward to sponsor ten new girls, and there are now twenty in total in the house. Out of the twenty, four are going to hair dressing school on site, one girl is going to design school off site, and the other fifteen are going to cooking school on site. The cooking school has a contract as a for-profit college for training, but Hope for Children has received a license and next year they can act as their own training institution and will provide the cooking school themselves. Once girls have completed the cooking training, they are able to write a certificate exam run by the government, and once they have received that certificate they are very employable. Girls who complete the hairdressing school are also able to write a government certificate exam, but many do not find this necessary because they end up running small independent hair businesses.A housemother oversees the Hope for Children house where the girls live. The housemother model system is working very well; she ends up providing a lot of care, support and counseling to the girls. Arnica noted one significant gap in the support offered through the current programme: inadequate medical and health support. The girls do receive hygiene training, both formally through an official class, and informally through guidance from the housemother. Beyond that, there is nothing formal in place to provide support for or encourage the girls to have their status checked or have medical visits. Many of these women are quite young, but they have had difficult lives before entering the Centre. Of course their privacy should and will not ever be compromised, but it would be a good idea to support and encourage the girls to have regular health visits. Because many of these girls have grown up without mothers, and have had a significant part of their interaction with men come about through work in the sex trade, there are also big gaps in their experience and knowledge of healthy relationships and building healthy habits and healthy self-image. These could also be important considerations for any future programming.Arnica also reported that there has been some withdrawal of donor support for this programme because in the opinion of some donors there is not a clear enough link to HIV education and support for girls with HIV. Attempts will be made to include a clearer link to supporting teen girls in the sex trade with HIV and other medical support in the future. Educational and other supports (HIV and other medical supports) could be provided as a service to teen girls in the next cohort, and those services could also be provided to alumni as well. FundraisingIn anticipation of the Christmas season, there was some discussion around how best to provide opportunities to make donations to VCS as gifts. A three pronged approach was proposed:Providing current donors and potential donors with information on the benefits of donations to VCS. The vast majority of donations goes directly into programmatic activities and directly supports the children in the programs. This campaign will involve sharing information on the allocation of donations to various programs with information on the portion of donations directed towards administrative costs.Offering opportunities to current sponsors to provide a one time donation for the holidays in conjunction with their monthly donation.Offering interesting opportunities for new donors to provide one time lump sum donations as gifts for people in their families: particular increments will result in particular supports. Two specific things will be focused on for this year’s Christmas donation campaign: lunchboxes and healthcare.A particular need that the Love and Hope Centre has right now is reusable metal, stackable, lunch boxes for the children that attend the Centre. It was decided that a Christmas campaign should focus on gathering donations for this particular need. Donation of a particular amount, $10 for example, could purchase one student lunchbox. A total of 70 lunch boxes are needed. During the visit to the Hope for Children Centre, it was clear that there is a gap in healthcare provision for the girls in the Teenage Sex Worker Retraining Program. Accordingly, specific donations collected through the Christmas campaign will support a healthcare support project for young women in the Hope for Children home as well as alumni of the program.It was further decided that providing a downloadable template that people can print and fill out to let people know that they have made donations in their names for Christmas gifts would help with the campaign. Flora described how her company provides donations in the names of employees at Christmas, and the success that they have had doing this. In the upcoming newsletter, the success that Flora has had will be featured and the donation template will be included. ???????Finally, VCS also needs to consider ways to maximize the exposure of the organization and the work we are doing. Current donors are aware of the successes that VCS has had with the projects we support, and could become ambassadors of the organization that solicit donations, encourage friends and family members to become monthly donors, or even fundraise for particular projects. A call for donor ambassadors will be made to encourage donors to promote VCS.Financial ReportThe finances are stable.#DecisionsAction Items#Action ItemOwnerStatusDue DateCommentsSourcing lunchboxes to send to the Love and Hope CentreArnica and DaciaIn progressDecember 1Sending a tablet to the Love and Hope Centre so that photographs can be collected for the Instagram accountArnicaIn progressASAPDeveloping materials to encourage holiday gift donations:newsletter to suggest that current donors become ‘ambassadors’ of VCSLetters written and mailed to donors that offer a one time holiday donation to top up regular monthly donationTwo focused campaigns for the holiday season: lunchboxes and healthcare for young womentemplate of a ‘donation made in your name’ certificate that can be printed and giftedArnicaDecemberEncouraging new monthly donorsAllOngoingConsideration of how to introduce lessons around strategies for alternative gardening, for example container gardeningArnica/AllOngoingConsideration of how to incorporate supports for HIV testing and other medical support for women in and alumni of the Teenage Sex Worker Retraining Program.Arnica/AllOngoing ................
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