OVF's founder Joy Tang breaks the silence: "OVF is just me"!

Ever since this blog was launched in March 2011, revealing the reality that lies behind OVF rhetoric, the only person to respond has been Jeffrey Buderer of OVF in California. Despite the seriousness of the allegations brought forth - information based on the analysis of information made publicly available by the organization itself, or on testimonies of the many victims of the organization who wish to remain anonymous - OVF founder and director Joy Tang especially has remained strangely silent.

Now it would seem this silence is broken. Recently, a blog post was brought to our attention that was published earlier this month by Edward Cherlin, volunteer worker of the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) project. The post is a transcription of a conversation where he seeks to enrol OVF's assistance in producing education resources that can provide some contect for the OLPC program. The revealing conversation sheds light on how OVF's founder Joy Tang views and defines her own organization as of July 2011, which is why we have decided to refer to it here.

As the readers of our blog will remember from previous blog posts, despite its chameleonic nature, the OneVillage Foundation remains consistent in terms of its expressed high ambitions and its holistic approach, which is also called the OneVillage Initiative. As can be seen in the figure below, this is supposedly a multi-faceted approach that deals with everything from education, governance, economics and ecology, to wellness / healthcare, as well as culture and traditions. Further, OVF claims to be working with such diverse issues as AIDS relief, farming cooperatives, healthcare and the wellness industry, university activities, ecotourism and open source development. If this professed diversity is in any way to be taken seriously, it would be backed up by a solid, substantial organization including more than a handful full-time committed agricultural, medical, economic (to mention a few) specialists and volunteers, all the more so as OVF is claiming to be actively operating in four countries (the U.S., Taiwan, Ghana and Nigeria), and seeking to expand to at least one more (Kenya). Not to mention the facilities that would be required for any serious AIDS Relief or development healthcare to take place. No such expert organization does indeed exist, nor are any such facilities to be found at the locations where OVF claims to be active.

The OneVillage Holistic Approach of the oneVillage Foundation, presented at the ICOS Community Day in Taiwan on Sept. 27th, 2009 by Jeffrey Buderer of OVF

And yet, as Joy Tang states in July 2011 in response to Ed Cherlin's request, "OVF is just me". Bringing up her ability to make others do the work, Ms. Tang subsequently explains how OVF should be perceived:

Joy Tang 唐瑋: you do not have think of OVF as an organization – rather – it is a force that moves the concept

 From "Chat with a friend"

In other words, OVF as a global organization with any substance is merely a construction, a product of the mind of its originator in order to pose as a global development expert with specific knowledge about and passion for the plight of the African people. Though interestingly enough, the people's plight remains as always strangely absent from any OVF conversation.

As OVF's founder Joy Tang prepares for a visit to Africa starting with Kenya August 12-14th, another batch of students of the NTHU (National Tsing Hua University) in Hsinchu, Taiwan, will be leaving for Ghana to serve as volunteers for an organization which license to operate as a charitable trust is being revoked due to reported delinquencies. The volunteer service program run in partnership with OVF will take place for a third year in a row, amidst the information brought forth about OVF "projects" being at best non-existent and at worst fabrications designed to cover up the fact that any benefits are going straight into the pockets of people who serve OVF's interests. We can only hope that the top level of the university will this time be sending along a representative of their own to accompany the students.