Fundraising is a crucial component of all Operation Groundswell programs and is just one way we support our amazing local partner NGOs and charities. Here is our report for 2012
In the eleventh issue of Together, there's the regular features on aspects of health, occupational therapy, benefits, your SAMC, and fundraising, PLUS we also have inspiring features from the world’s oldest person with spina bifida, and inspired coach Carl Eaton, who runs a vibrant football club in Skelmersdale!
Devex takes a look at some of the unusual, adventurous, and awe-inspiring global development jobs we have come across last year — from artisanal chocolate in Côte d'Ivoire, to sea life conservation in South Africa to sustainable tourism in the Andes. Meet some of the global development professionals doing work that will make you say, “I want that job.”
Happy Gift Boxes include charitable activities in travel destinations offered by Happy Gifts local NPO partners. The experiences are either community or conservation activities for travelers to participate for a half or one day.
A diary book in the gift box is for making travelers'memories everlasting while the digital Happy Gift App enables also sharing your experiences with friends.
In the eleventh issue of Together, there's the regular features on aspects of health, occupational therapy, benefits, your SAMC, and fundraising, PLUS we also have inspiring features from the world’s oldest person with spina bifida, and inspired coach Carl Eaton, who runs a vibrant football club in Skelmersdale!
Devex takes a look at some of the unusual, adventurous, and awe-inspiring global development jobs we have come across last year — from artisanal chocolate in Côte d'Ivoire, to sea life conservation in South Africa to sustainable tourism in the Andes. Meet some of the global development professionals doing work that will make you say, “I want that job.”
Happy Gift Boxes include charitable activities in travel destinations offered by Happy Gifts local NPO partners. The experiences are either community or conservation activities for travelers to participate for a half or one day.
A diary book in the gift box is for making travelers'memories everlasting while the digital Happy Gift App enables also sharing your experiences with friends.
On January 30th, 2014, Rainforest Alliance hosted a group of innovative specialists in consumer behavior to brainstorm a new global narrative that taps into the consumer shift towards a broader and more meaningful set of values around mindful living and sustainability.
Compelling information on consumer trends were presented by experts including Tom LaForge of Coca-Cola, Chris Coulter of GlobeScan, Chip Walker of BAV Consulting, Amy du Pon of Havas, Carol Fitzgerald of BuzzBack Market Research, KoAnn Skrzyniarz of Sustainable Brands, Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios, and Thatcher Young of ignition. Raphael Bemporad of BBMG then led a creative ideation session that inspired the findings in this report.
It is with great satisfaction that we release the Global Ecovillage Network Annual Report 2019. Our staff, partners, and members are diverse, creative, and driven by passion and commitment. We strive to ensure our projects and programmes are engaging, impactful, and contextually relevant.
When we reflect back on our accomplishments of 2019, we hope to ignite these qualities in our readers as well. Our annual report provides metrics, as we measure and track our progress and set new targets for the coming year. It also encompasses stories, bringing together perspectives from across the globe woven into our collective narrative.
From participating in the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP25) to engaging 20,000 people with the wisdom of 30 activists in our free online summit, from providing training across continents to hosting innovation labs in the global North and South, GEN continues to engage with a network of dedicated change-makers towards a regenerative world.
Whether you read our 2019 Annual Report cover to cover, dive into one region or focus area, or simply flip through and land on a page, we hope you’ll connect with our vision and feel compelled to join us in our mission.
Global Ecovillage Network - Annual Report 2020Abbie Caldas
We are pleased to share our activities and updates from 2020. Our staff, partners, and members are diverse, creative, and driven by passion and commitment. We strive to ensure our projects and programmes across the globe are engaging, impactful, and contextually relevant.
How can you help IYFS [India Youth For Society]?
1. Introduce us to your Grandchildren, like-minded, officials, businessmen, companies etc
2. Analyze our activities, criticize, suggest and support
3. Attend, Participate, Involve and indulge
2011
Dear Change-Maker,
Countless children in Los Angeles lack the family and community support structures required to be healthy and happy. These kids do not have access to typical educational resources and recreational outlets. Instead, they are surrounded by high crime rates and drug use. They struggle to make it safely through the school day, cope with a tumultuous home life, or get enough to eat – let alone receive the necessary guidance, instruction, and interaction.
An alarming 35% of LA School District high school students dropped out last year. More alarming is that it doesn’t have to be this way. The sooner we can provide children with the tools they need to be effective leaders, and the more often we can connect with them, the bigger the difference we can make! Our interaction benefits not only the child, but also the child’s family, friends, community – and thus, our communities, and yours.
Activating our Natural Leaders transforms our World.
As you may be aware, the KVBL Natural Leaders Program provides empowering, hands-on education to children in the Los Angeles area who are otherwise limited in what they see as possible for themselves and their futures. In the last four years, funds donated to the KVBL have been used to provide:
Teamwork and leadership training and exercises.
Emotional growth coaching, affirmation exercises and personal development support.
Basketball training with the Venice Basketball League’s best players and other celebrities.
Yoga, body alignment, and fitness training from certified fitness professionals.
Surfing instruction from world-renowned experts.
Sustainability, environmental and creative arts education and experiences.
Healthy, organic breakfasts and lunches, along with nutrition education.
Your sponsorship provides children with the resources, mentors, and experiences to activate the Natural Leader within each of them. Upon completion of the program, children return to their families and communities, empowered to lead by example and transform their worlds.
Without your support, we cannot continue providing children with this game-changing opportunity. Enclosed you will find more information on available sponsorship opportunities. To support our Natural Leaders or ask any questions, please contact me at your convenience.
With gratitude,
Community-Driven Fundraising by Noah Barnett #18NTCCauseVox
Learn more about community-driven fundraising at https://www.causevox.com
The world you fundraise in has fundamentally shifted—your supporters are hyper-connected, live inside personal feeds, and are continually ambushed with messages vying for their attention. These shifts have made it challenging to cultivate donor relationships and reach new donors.
However, many organizations are thriving within our new reality by rethinking how they approach fundraising and adopting a new playbook: community-driven fundraising.
In this session, we’ll show you exactly how you can too by highlighting how leaders at arts, animal, and advocacy to cancer, crisis relief, and community-service nonprofits are successfully leveraging peer-to-peer initiatives to strengthen donor relationships and reach new donors.
Learning Objectives:
*Why peer-to-peer is not a tactic but rather an approach you can incorporate into fundraising efforts all year
*Different types of peer-to-peer initiatives and how to effectively plan and coordinate into your fundraising plan
*How to activate and rally your supporters to advocate for your cause, helping you reach new donors
UC Berkeley Digital Marketing Boot Camp
Group 3
Project 1
We created an animal rights nonprofit with detail of its objectives, target audience, and competitors. Built a website to serve as a home base for all business and marketing efforts.
JDXA is an amazingly simple, flexible, non-intrusive, feature-rich, and lightweight ORM (Object Relational Mapping) product for Android.
JDXA dramatically decreases development time of Android apps by presenting a more intuitive object-oriented view of on-device SQLite data, eliminating the need to write and maintain endless lines of complex low-level SQL code.
On January 30th, 2014, Rainforest Alliance hosted a group of innovative specialists in consumer behavior to brainstorm a new global narrative that taps into the consumer shift towards a broader and more meaningful set of values around mindful living and sustainability.
Compelling information on consumer trends were presented by experts including Tom LaForge of Coca-Cola, Chris Coulter of GlobeScan, Chip Walker of BAV Consulting, Amy du Pon of Havas, Carol Fitzgerald of BuzzBack Market Research, KoAnn Skrzyniarz of Sustainable Brands, Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios, and Thatcher Young of ignition. Raphael Bemporad of BBMG then led a creative ideation session that inspired the findings in this report.
It is with great satisfaction that we release the Global Ecovillage Network Annual Report 2019. Our staff, partners, and members are diverse, creative, and driven by passion and commitment. We strive to ensure our projects and programmes are engaging, impactful, and contextually relevant.
When we reflect back on our accomplishments of 2019, we hope to ignite these qualities in our readers as well. Our annual report provides metrics, as we measure and track our progress and set new targets for the coming year. It also encompasses stories, bringing together perspectives from across the globe woven into our collective narrative.
From participating in the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP25) to engaging 20,000 people with the wisdom of 30 activists in our free online summit, from providing training across continents to hosting innovation labs in the global North and South, GEN continues to engage with a network of dedicated change-makers towards a regenerative world.
Whether you read our 2019 Annual Report cover to cover, dive into one region or focus area, or simply flip through and land on a page, we hope you’ll connect with our vision and feel compelled to join us in our mission.
Global Ecovillage Network - Annual Report 2020Abbie Caldas
We are pleased to share our activities and updates from 2020. Our staff, partners, and members are diverse, creative, and driven by passion and commitment. We strive to ensure our projects and programmes across the globe are engaging, impactful, and contextually relevant.
How can you help IYFS [India Youth For Society]?
1. Introduce us to your Grandchildren, like-minded, officials, businessmen, companies etc
2. Analyze our activities, criticize, suggest and support
3. Attend, Participate, Involve and indulge
2011
Dear Change-Maker,
Countless children in Los Angeles lack the family and community support structures required to be healthy and happy. These kids do not have access to typical educational resources and recreational outlets. Instead, they are surrounded by high crime rates and drug use. They struggle to make it safely through the school day, cope with a tumultuous home life, or get enough to eat – let alone receive the necessary guidance, instruction, and interaction.
An alarming 35% of LA School District high school students dropped out last year. More alarming is that it doesn’t have to be this way. The sooner we can provide children with the tools they need to be effective leaders, and the more often we can connect with them, the bigger the difference we can make! Our interaction benefits not only the child, but also the child’s family, friends, community – and thus, our communities, and yours.
Activating our Natural Leaders transforms our World.
As you may be aware, the KVBL Natural Leaders Program provides empowering, hands-on education to children in the Los Angeles area who are otherwise limited in what they see as possible for themselves and their futures. In the last four years, funds donated to the KVBL have been used to provide:
Teamwork and leadership training and exercises.
Emotional growth coaching, affirmation exercises and personal development support.
Basketball training with the Venice Basketball League’s best players and other celebrities.
Yoga, body alignment, and fitness training from certified fitness professionals.
Surfing instruction from world-renowned experts.
Sustainability, environmental and creative arts education and experiences.
Healthy, organic breakfasts and lunches, along with nutrition education.
Your sponsorship provides children with the resources, mentors, and experiences to activate the Natural Leader within each of them. Upon completion of the program, children return to their families and communities, empowered to lead by example and transform their worlds.
Without your support, we cannot continue providing children with this game-changing opportunity. Enclosed you will find more information on available sponsorship opportunities. To support our Natural Leaders or ask any questions, please contact me at your convenience.
With gratitude,
Community-Driven Fundraising by Noah Barnett #18NTCCauseVox
Learn more about community-driven fundraising at https://www.causevox.com
The world you fundraise in has fundamentally shifted—your supporters are hyper-connected, live inside personal feeds, and are continually ambushed with messages vying for their attention. These shifts have made it challenging to cultivate donor relationships and reach new donors.
However, many organizations are thriving within our new reality by rethinking how they approach fundraising and adopting a new playbook: community-driven fundraising.
In this session, we’ll show you exactly how you can too by highlighting how leaders at arts, animal, and advocacy to cancer, crisis relief, and community-service nonprofits are successfully leveraging peer-to-peer initiatives to strengthen donor relationships and reach new donors.
Learning Objectives:
*Why peer-to-peer is not a tactic but rather an approach you can incorporate into fundraising efforts all year
*Different types of peer-to-peer initiatives and how to effectively plan and coordinate into your fundraising plan
*How to activate and rally your supporters to advocate for your cause, helping you reach new donors
UC Berkeley Digital Marketing Boot Camp
Group 3
Project 1
We created an animal rights nonprofit with detail of its objectives, target audience, and competitors. Built a website to serve as a home base for all business and marketing efforts.
JDXA is an amazingly simple, flexible, non-intrusive, feature-rich, and lightweight ORM (Object Relational Mapping) product for Android.
JDXA dramatically decreases development time of Android apps by presenting a more intuitive object-oriented view of on-device SQLite data, eliminating the need to write and maintain endless lines of complex low-level SQL code.
Présentation du système de téléconsultation neurologique et de téléradiologie chez des patients atteints d’accident vasculaire cérébral, mis en place par le réseau interhospitalier TEMPiS (Telemedical Project for Integrative Stroke Care)
Docteur MÜLLER-BARNA, Klinikum Harlaching de Munich - TEMPiS
Repositories and the Open Web: Reflections from the Core-Materials and OER Pi...azami
This presentation was given at the cetis repositories and the open web (cetisrow) meeting on Monday 19th April 2010. It looks at the use of web 2.0 file sharing platforms for the dissemination of open educational resources and the use of their APIs to upload and search across resources.
This presentation was delivered at the startup project meeting of the Open Educational Resources Pilot at the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre on Thursday 14th May 2009.The presentation describes what is meant by "Open" Educational Resources, gives the different creative commons licences and shows methods of dissemination.
Presentation given at the Open Educational Resources International Symposium in the session discovering OERs.
The presentation gives an account of the technical decisions made by the core-materials and open engineering resources pilot projects. Demonstrations of three methods of aggregating OERs is given including Custom Google Search Engine, Yahoo Pipes and searching Jorum Open, Flickr, Scribe, SlideShare, YouTube and Vimeo through their RSS Feeds and APIs.
This presentation about the JournalTOCs project was given at the 2009 EUROCRIS is St Andrews in November 2009. JournalTOCs is a JISC funded rapid innovation project.
Part 1 of Operation Groundswell's Impact Assessment measures our program model and perceived effectiveness from the perspective of past volunteers. The goals of this assessment are to look at what works, what doesn’t, and what volunteers are getting out of their OG experience.
2011-10-21 ASIP Santé Conférence Télémédecine "Présentation du système norvég...ASIP Santé
Présentation du système de téléassistance de séances de dialyse dans des centres à distance de l’unité centrale, réalisé en partenariat avec le Centre Norvégien pour la Télémédecine et les Soins Intégrés (NST)
Randi LAUKLI, représentant le département de télémédecine de l’Hôpital Universitaire de Tromsø, en Norvège
2011-10-21 ASIP Santé Conférence Télémédecine "Présentation de COPD Briefcase"ASIP Santé
Présentation d'un outil de télésurveillance médicale à domicile de patients atteints de broncho-pneumopathie chronique obstructive (COPD Briefcase)
Anne DICHMANN-SORKNAES, Universitaire d’Odense au Danemark - COPD Briefcase
Testing the First Use Case - JournalTOCs Workshopazami
The JISC funded Rapid Innovation project JournalTOCs held a workshop at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh of Friday 20th November 2009. Santy Chumbe, the project manager and developer gives a presentation of a specific example of testing the first use case of the JournalTOCs project, Identifying New Content for Instututional Repositories. Santy presents on behalf of Anne Dixon, who was unable to attend the workshop, who helped test the API with Authors from the British Geological Survey.
The JISC funded Rapid Innovation project JournalTOCs held a workshop at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh of Friday 20th November 2009. Lisa Rogers gives a presentation introducing the journalTOCs project, the API and feedback about the API.
Global Ecovillage Educators for a Sustainable Earth Information Newsletter_Su...Gaia Education
Our communities need new stories in order to thrive in the face of immense adversity. Information about design for sustainability & Ecovillage design education programmes. Breaking the Cycle of Food Insecurity: Gaia Education, CIFAL Scotland &Senegal’s GuedeChantier Municipality Awarded British Government Grant
This is a guidebook about AIESEC's Global Volunteer Program. If you are young person looking to volunteer abroad then this guidebook provides you information on why, how and what of volunteering.
We are delighted to share our Annual Report 2012/13 with our network.
Foreword by SmilingOne Founder:
As a 16-year-old member of the Thug Life gang puts it, “gang life is like a religion to my family. My father and grandfather were in gangs and they have done time in jail – I will probably end up there as well. It is the way of life here; it is where you learn about respect and get status.”
Our year has been one of fine tuning our approach, merging deeper into the resource we are and walking each step true to our hearts. We are all shareholders in the wellbeing of our society – the SmilingOne Team takes this responsibility very seriously and we know how important our puzzle piece is!
What touches me deeply is that 9 million children (48%) are growing up with absent but living fathers! 3.3 million young people are not in education, training or employment. And as of March 2012: 32% of all inmates in SA prisons were under the age of 25. I experience youth in dire need of inspiration and direction!
We have harvested incredible results from our five years pro-active research! It has proven to us that a very effective way to prevent/divert our youth and youngsters from pursuing the path of crime is to shape positive Role Models who meet the youth at risk where they are at and inspire/guide them towards a different path. This is what the SmilingOne Team is deeply passionate about and invest in. We find and educate these potential Change Agents in some of the most challenged SA environments...
MORE IN THE REPORT!
The Global Ecovillage Network is a growing and evolving international network of regenerative communities and initiatives.
This year’s Annual Report presents the activities, impact, vision and mission of GEN and the organisations that make up the key parts of our network - the GEN regions and GEN International.
We first provide an overview of GEN and our core frameworks, key performance indicators, and highlights of the year. We then share the accomplishments from GEN’s five Regions and NextGEN, our youth arm, celebrating the wealth of action and cultural diversity of the journey towards low impact, regenerative lifestyles around the planet.
We hope you will enjoy the journey through
2021 with us!
To the entire GEN family,
While at GEN we celebrate our leadership and organisational transformations, and our continued political stand practising regenerative styles of living, the world leaders continue to be lethargic in the face of the threat of the Climate Emergency.
We celebrate Carlos Rojas and Jennifer Viloria, the new co-chairs of the Board of Trustees. We celebrate the GEN International team and the new group of Trustees together advancing in a global strategy to guarantee the transition towards a viable sustainability model for GEN. We celebrate the expansing of the GEN General Assembly into the Network Steward Circle, which has an imperative role as a think tank to activate the communities of practice necessary to articulate actions at all levels of the network.
However, we cannot neglect the context in which we are. The Climate Emergency has intensified, with ecocides threatening life in the territories where many of us live. War reaches out of local contexts, to escalate to a global threat. Famines reoccur, caused by the systemic failures of large-scale agriculture based on a monopoly of agricultural supplies dependent on fossil fuels. Those are not new, but are a strong call to stand firm in promoting the solutions offered by regenerative styles of living in communities. For that reason, I invite you to read this report asking yourself, which of these fruits are your contribution to guaranteeing buen vivir on this planet? What do you want to do in fellowship with GEN to be more impactful?
As usual, in the annual report you will find details on the financial health of GEN, its achievements and challenges in 2021 and notes on the transition towards being a financially viable network.
Celebrating the achievements of GEN in 2021, I also say farewell after completing 6 years as a GEN trustee and my term as chairwoman of the Board.
Jennifer Trujillo Obando
President of the Board of Trustees 2019-2022
We are pleased to share our activities and updates from 2020. Our staff, partners, and members are diverse, creative, and driven by passion and commitment. We strive to ensure our projects and programmes across the globe are engaging, impactful, and contextually relevant.
“This gathering of human and non-human beings has never happened before and will never happen again.” - Charles Eisenstein, GEN Online Summit.
As GEN celebrated our 25th year in 2020, and all the contributions that lead us here, no one could imagine the uncertainty the world would face. While gathering the stories and data to showcase our accomplishments for the year, we felt an enhanced sense of gratitude for the abundance within our members and collaborators. As a network and organisation, our resilience was tested and proven, and like a diverse ecosystem, we navigated challenges with creativity, flexibility, and solidarity. We were truly pressed to practice the ecovillage principles, particularly "clarifying vision and higher purpose" as well as "listen to the feedback of the world." We believe our Annual Report reflects this and are pleased to share it with you here.
Our Vision and Mission remain the same, as do many of our core frameworks. And we remain open to evolving how we serve these, how we work together, and how we understand our impact. Read the invitation for celebration from our passionate and committed President of the Board. Read the reflection and re-focusing from the Focus Area Directors of the GEN International team. Notice how we exceeded some of our targets (particularly the number of communities we reach out to and the number of online learning participants we engaged with). And learn how our restructuring process is re-shaping our work.
In a year of restricted travel, we maintained our global focus through collaborating with partners in all regions, through the Twinning Project, Hildur Jackson Award, BLAST, GAMER, Green Economy, Ecovillage Transition in Action, Ecovillage Schools, and Research. We continued to showcase stories from the network in our Online Summit. And our volunteers and Ambassadors networks grew and strengthened.
You can also read about our priorities for 2021 and join us on the journey back 25 years, to celebrate all that shaped who we are today. As always, we invite you to dive into each of the regions' highlights as well. Representatives from GEN Africa welcomed well-earned recognition for several awards in 2020 and infused energy into the Pan African Ecovillage Development Programme. CASA Latina held an enriching and regenerative annual meeting and embraced online learning opportunities with several collaborative education projects. GEN Europe followed suit in the online world, creatively adapting their in-person gathering to an incredible array of online engagement workshops, as well as launching a Connect and Create course and Communities of Hope documentary.
Are you looking for hungry children in Uganda? Amigos Internacionales, Inc. was discovered in 1967 to offer emergency services along with disaster relief help right through the world. We provide the best care and facility for hungry children in Uganda. Visit our official website to know more!
School Young Farmers Club- weapon to fight povertyJoe Matimba
Green Africa Foundation is all about empowering and developing young people to become more responsible in developing their own country without compromising the future generation.
Here is your last DAKTARI Newsletter of 2014!! As always, it keeps you update about the local underprivileged children, the orphaned animals and all our exciting projects! Enjoy the reading! www.daktaribushschool.org
This slide is special for master students (MIBS & MIFB) in UUM. Also useful for readers who are interested in the topic of contemporary Islamic banking.
MATATAG CURRICULUM: ASSESSING THE READINESS OF ELEM. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS I...NelTorrente
In this research, it concludes that while the readiness of teachers in Caloocan City to implement the MATATAG Curriculum is generally positive, targeted efforts in professional development, resource distribution, support networks, and comprehensive preparation can address the existing gaps and ensure successful curriculum implementation.
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Executive Directors Chat Leveraging AI for Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTechSoup
Let’s explore the intersection of technology and equity in the final session of our DEI series. Discover how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be used to support and enhance your nonprofit's DEI initiatives. Participants will gain insights into practical AI applications and get tips for leveraging technology to advance their DEI goals.
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty, In...Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty,
International FDP on Fundamentals of Research in Social Sciences
at Integral University, Lucknow, 06.06.2024
By Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
2. A Message from OGHQ
Many times we rush through our lives without pausing to consider what is going on in the world and the impact that
we can have with our thoughts, words, and actions. At Operation Groundswell, we make a conscious decision to do
just that. It’s not something that we do but rather, something that we are. We pride ourselves in being what we like to
call “backpacktivists” -- a special breed of travellers that traverse the world ethically and responsibly, consciously
aware of their social, economic, and environmental impact.
This summer, 173 remarkable individuals embraced this backpacktivist lifestyle and joined us on our adventures
around the globe. Our summer fundraising efforts this year have been like no other with a whopping 2500 donations
for a total of $189,409!
Thanks to your generous donations and support, our backpacktivists built the first factory made out of styrofoam
building blocks in Haiti, constructed sustainable drainage trenches for a village in Peru, shadowed Ghanaian
doctors, and volunteered with youth arts organizations in Cambodia. They watched the sunrise up top the Santa
Maria volcano, lived amongst the hill tribes of Northern Thailand, and trekked the frigid mountains of Ladakh.
We are humbled everyday by the generosity of our donors, the open-mindedness
and compassion of our participants, the multifaceted skills of our trip leaders, and
the tenacity of our local partners who work in some of the harshest conditions in
the world. We are all integral pieces of this giant puzzle.
With love and thanks,
Eyal, Jo, Taha, Kari, Ali, and Justine
OG Headquarters
4. Operation Groundswell (OG) is a non-
profit organization that offers travel and
community service opportunities around
the world.
We aim to build a community of
backpacktivists that are socially,
environmentally, and politically aware of
their impact in the communities they travel
to and live in.
Founded in 2006 by hungry and curious
students, Operation Groundswell is an ethical
and affordable alternative to the many travel
volunteer for-profit businesses out there. When
we first started our travel volunteer adventures,
we were disappointed by the options available,
and so we set out to do it ourselves. We spent
months meeting and connecting with amazing
locals, finding incredible partner NGOs and
setting up an organization we are proud of. In
the process, we’ve made lifelong friends in
Sandema, Port-au-Prince, Phnom Penh,
Jerusalem and everywhere in between.
5. After 6 amazing years of adventure, learning, fun, and growth, we have
learned just how deep the impact our trips have on our participants and
the local communities we have formed partnerships with.
Our first generation of participants returned from their experience wishing they
had involved more people back home and had more resources to make a
greater impact in the communities they worked at. Since then, we decided to
make fundraising for local community projects an integral part of our
programming.
7. Fundraising is a crucial
component of all OG programs
and is just one way we support
our local partner NGOs and
charities.
We ask each of our participants
to fundraise $1000 giving them
the opportunity to share their
experience with friends and
family at home.
10%
5% Past participants continually tell
us that supporting local
In Country Projects
organizations is one of the most
Administration rewarding aspects of their OG
experience.
Carbon Offsetting
85%
8. In-Country Projects
85% of participants’ fundraising efforts go directly to support
projects of our local partner NGOs. From constructing the first
Ubuntu Blox styrofoam factory in Haiti to building houses in Cambodia,
our groups always leave a lasting impact. Employing a consensus-
based decision-making model, each group decides on which projects
to fund once in country, whether they be major group projects or
smaller personal projects. Funds that are not dispersed by the group
in-country will go towards the OG Project Fund, a communal pool that
all OG alumni can submit project proposals to after the summer.
Carbon Offsetting
There is no doubt that running trips around the world has an effect on
the environment. Round-trip flights and in-country transportation
undoubtedly leave a large carbon footprint. If our volunteers are going
to fly, we want to encourage environmental responsibility. For this
reason, we carbon offset all of our programs, contributing 10% of all
fundraising money to PlanetAir, a Canadian organization regarded
as one of the leaders in the industry by the Suzuki Foundation. All
of the projects we support are assessed against the Gold Standard’s
sustainable development criteria.
Administration
OG runs a lean non-for-profit. Only 5% goes towards the administration
of funds, assisting participant fundraising, staff salaries, and bank transfer
fees.
9. Summer 2012 by the Numbers
173 participants
17 trips
8 regions in the world
$1094.83 CAD average fundraised by each participant
$189, 409 CAD total funds raised
$2040 CAD highest amount fundraised by a participant
2500 total donations
35 local partner NGOs and charities
53 ongoing projects throughout the summer
Total
Summer
Fundraising
14,000$
12,000$
10,000$
8,000$
6,000$
4,000$
TOTAL
EARLY
SUMMER
2,000$
PROGRAM
0$
TOTAL
LATE
SUMMER
PROGRAM
12. Guatemala Fair Trade
Eduardo, somewhat of a rugged teddy bear figure, and Mercedes, a cowboy hat-wearing peanut and coffee
farming master, gave us the quintessential coffee rundown of our partner, As Green As It Gets (ASAIG). In
the most patient and knowledgeable manner, Eduardo and Mercedes took us through everything from coffee
types to harvest seasons to cultivating steps. By the time they finished their lesson, we could’ve farmed our
own cuerda of coffee, having all the necessary tools minus the raw experience.
This is OGG’s third year working with As Green As It Gets. One of the coolest parts of AGAIG is that they’re
always testing new techniques and seeking creative alternatives to do what they do best–help people help
themselves. Whether it’s testing new crops in the experimental field plot or marketing new talents like peanut
butter making, AGAIG never stops after one success. There’s always room to grow, potential for new
opportunity, and new markets to uncover. Aside from innovative projects, AGAIG also does an amazing job
working closely with its farmers and crafts men and women. The close relationship they maintain with the
actual people keeps the cooperative from feeling too much like an organization and instead more like a
friendship. It is their personalities that shine through the cooperative, making it what it truly is…
13. Southeast Asia Music and Culture
We struggled through the intensely emotional day at the Killing Fields and the infamous Security Prison 21 (S-21), now the
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Hundreds of Killing Fields can be found all over Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge period.
In an effort to bring Cambodia back to the Year Zero and return to an agricultural society free of inequality and western
values, the Khmer Rouge waged a genocide against its own people…
Over 16,000 people went through the S21 prison and only 7 survived. Famous for its brutal torture techniques, the Khmer
Rouge interrogated individuals they thought were out to thwart the revolution. Men, women and children passed through
this hell. Blood stains the floor. Barbed wire fences are on every level to make suicide an impossible escape. Photos of the
victims line the walls with looks of not fear or sadness, but either defiance or defeat. Tiny cramped cells with chains. Bullet
holes litter the walls. A heavy and negative aura surrounds the museum making it difficult to breathe.
The victims of the S21 prison were brought to Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields, for their final moments. The excavated pits
hold the memories of the 20,000 souls that lost their lives at this site. A pagoda stands in the middle of the site housing the
skulls of the lost. A tree is marked as the baby killing tree. The sound of young school children fills the air with an eerie
sound of the hope and future. Why didn’t we learn anything about this in school?
This is current history. These are fresh scars. Cambodia continues to overcome the odds and has not given up! Growing
from the ashes of this broken society are the youth of today. Empowering the next generation is the only way to guarantee
success tomorrow…
14. Peru Mind and Body
It’s a popular phrase here in South America: everything is possible, but nothing is
certain!
OG Peru Mind and Body lived this motto the past four weeks, soaking up as much of the
Peruvian culture (and Andean sunshine) as we could and spending the past two weeks
completing our major project in the small mountain village of Chahuay. After working
with the community day in and day out, we successfully refurbished and added on to a
children’s park, visited centers for young children and new mothers, and formed a bond
with a community that truly became a home.
15. West Africa Discovery and Development
Living in the community of Sandema was unforgettable. We had the luxury of not only exploring and
developing new potential projects and ideas, but also making friendships and memories that are etched into
our minds forever. Through the magical, and often hilarious moments, we also had our share of difficulties.
Initiatives like starting a recycling and sanitation awareness project and setting up a girls football tournament
take time, planning, and dedication. Visiting schools and waving at excited children is one thing, but sitting
down and really asking the right questions and understanding what students want and need is a complex
process.
Our group struggled early on in our stay to grapple with our prior expectations: what did we think we came to
do, and how can we turn a three week visit into something lasting, something beneficial, and something we
can be proud of? Sometimes that “something” is different from what we originally planned for. What we really
learned was that it’s not about what we want, but ultimately what they need, since these are their lives and
their homes. This is, after all, a discovery trip and this community is giving us more than enough to learn from.
16. India High Altitude
The group didn’t flinch when Rajul told us we could sleep at his brother’s restaurant. We were stranded in Manali for the night
after a long twenty-four hour jeep journey from Leh. It would be closing soon anyway and Rajul would clear away tables and
lay down a long foam mat on the floor, one storey above where we’re standing. We aren’t asked to pay but in backpacker
agreements that means we would buy beers then and breakfast in the morning before another long trip to Rishikesh. The
group didn’t ask questions.
We had slept in weird situations before on the trip (small vans with seats permanently reclined cramping knees behind; local
buses–periodically checking if that woman with the sweat dampened sari is puking out the door; jeeps lost in the high altitude
desert with only rocks, bush and rabbits; large tents covered in snow; homestays with beetles crawling around the floor, mud
dripping from the straw roof; and on the marble grounds of the Golden Temple) so by now there’s nothing that could surprise
us.
Backpacking is a full time job. There is no such thing as easy. This isn’t vacation. We earn the best moments–the bizarre, the
fun, the unpredictable–all of which are remembered best in the fixed routine of our normal lives. Or is this normal?
In discussions early on in the trip, I expressed that traveling with a backpack doesn’t make one a backpacker. A backpacker
absorbs every opportunity, taking all the good and the bad from the experience. A backpacker adapts to the country rather
than imposing their own life into it…
17. Haiti Engineering
Traveling and volunteering abroad always teaches us something about ourselves and the world…in terms of personal
growth, we learned to work harder, push ourselves farther away from our comfort zones, and to humanize the other. By
constructing the world’s first styrofoam building block factory, we are at the forefront of an open-source movement to
remove human-created waste from our rivers and oceans by turning that waste into reusable and sustainable,
earthquake- and hurricane -resistant construction materials. A small ripple of an act in the hope of creating a giant sea of
change.
Haiti is a country known for all the wrong reasons these days. Mainstream media focuses on the earthquake, the
challenges of reconstruction and the lack of progress. All true things. But what our team has learned is that Haiti’s story
is complex, not one that can be explained in a scrolling ticker on 24-hour news. So we came here to see for ourselves,
made some small progress but more importantly, some real connections with real people who are working to create
long-term change. In the process, we became better people and global citizens. There’s not much more we can ask for
in an OG trip.
So to everyone who followed along on our adventures, please don’t let Haiti be forgotten. Its tragic beauty should be a
lesson to us all. We know that our OG crew will never forget Haiti or the time we spent here…
‘Nou pap jamais blye ou’ – ‘We will never forget you’
18. West Africa Global Health
Our work and volunteer placements ranged from the surgical theater at the National Cardiothoracic Center in
Accra, Ghana to the makeshift football pitch at Horizon Children’s Centre (HCC) in the Upper East Region.
During the work day, the participants donned their white lab coats and shadowed doctors, nurses, and
surgeons in the Korie-Bu teaching hospital. There were opportunities to observe, interview, and learn from
professionals in several units of the large campus, including the Cardiothoracic Unit, the Obstetrics and
Gynaecology Department, the Plastics Unit, and several wards and surgical theaters. Several afternoons
were devoted to putting our observations into context by having presentations given from several national
health initiatives, including the National AIDS Control Programme and the National Tuberculosis Control
Board.
The entire trip seemed to come and go very quickly, especially as the group gave their final goodbyes outside
the taxi cabs on the way to the airport. It’s funny to think that in just this short time, new friendships were
made and many changes were made to peoples’ lives. Everyone had a great adventure that will last in their
memories for a very long time…
19. East Africa Discovery and Development
At Good Sheppard School in Kiritu, Kenya, there was no library. They had a few battered textbooks, and the
teachers would copy the text onto the blackboard and the students would write their homework into their
notebooks.
Last month, Operation Groundswell sponsored the purchase of over $2,000 worth of books. The teachers compiled
a list of the materials they needed, and we used our fundraising dollars to go to the publisher in Mbale and buy
them. We bought encyclopedias, and atlases, dictionaries, novels, textbooks, and more novels.
“Since the books were purchased, there have been great improvements with the students.” Said Eunice Ahuga, the
academic administrator of the school. “Before, children in class 1 would have trouble with numbers, and sounds
and letters. Now they have no problems, and even children in nursery are learning to read small words.”
The books were locked up in a newly built cupboard in the Director’s office. They are counted each week to ensure
that none have gone missing. When a teacher wants to use them, they sign them out, and then sign them back in
at the end of the day. They are not letting the children take the books home, though, for fear of them getting lost or
damaged. There aren’t enough books for each child to have its own, but it is a start. An incredible start.
20. On behalf of all of us at Operation Groundswell,
thank you for your generosity!