Legal status
Whilst registered as a charitable trust in the state of California in the U.S., the OVF lost its tax exempt status in 2010 due to the failure to comply with IRS regulations and has been advised of the intent to revoke its license by the District Attourney's office in California as of April 16th, 2011. See documentation here.
According to the Bylaws of AIDS Relief Foundation dba oneVillage Foundation;
"This corporation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable and public purposes. This corporation is organized exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or the corresponding provision of any future United State Internal Revenue Law). Notwithstanding any other provision of these Bylaws, this corporation shall not, except to an insubstantial degree, carry on or engage in any activities or exercise any powers that are not in furtherance of the purposes of this corporation, and the corporation shall not carry on any other activities not permitted to be carried on (i) by a corporation exempt from Federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue Law); (ii) by a corporation, contributions to which are deductible under Section 170(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue Law)." (Article III, Section 3.01 Purposes)
"The property, assets, profits and net income are dedicated irrevocably to the purposes set forth in Section 3.01 above. No part of the profits or net earnings of this corporation shall ever inure to the benefit of any of its Directors, trustees, officers, members (if any), employees, or to the benefit of any private individual." (Article III, Section 3.02 Limitations (b) Property)
History
The OVF first came into being as the AIDS RELIEF FOUNDATION, a nonprofit public benefit corporation registered in California in November 2000 with the specific purpose;
"...to promote the education, prevention and cure of AIDS decease [sic] to the public." (Article 2.2. of incorporation)
"...The central focus was on AIDS, the tragic results of which Joy Tang, ARF's founder experienced first hand while traveling through Africa as a employee of Cisco Systems. Joy realized that one way to prevent the spread of the disease is through communication, knowledge and understanding. She looked at areas in which disease rates were high and noticed that these things were lacking. Therefore, it was determined that the organization's actual focus was on leveraging information communication technologies (ICTs) to bring people and groups together to cross the ever-widening "digital divide"... In 2003, the AIDS Relief Foundation began doing business as the oneVillage Foundation."The AIDS connection
In April 2004, the first edition of the oneVillage Review was published, including a presentation of the oneVillage Foundation's mission outlining the specific task of addressing immediate needs related to AIDS by constructing treatment centers and orphanages;
"The one Village Foundation seeks to assist people in Africa in overcoming the AIDS pandemic by addressing immediate needs such as in the construction of treatment centers and orphanages, while also providing a proactive and whole systems platform to promote sustainable development in Africa…and beyond. " (Mission of OVF in first online edition of oneVillage Review 2004)However, as of 2011, no such treatment centers have been constructed and the only reference to an orphanage is the Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home in Jukwa, which according to its manager has received no funding from OVF. Indeed, contrary to what one might be led to believe by the reference to an AIDS Relief organisation, the OVF does not offer medical assistance of any kind, nor does it focus on sensitizing people in Africa to the disease, how it is spread, or how it is treated. Likewise, it does not seek to address some of the prevailing taboos and beliefs surrounding the AIDS disease affecting the lives of many AIDS patients in Africa, including children. And yet despite the name change to oneVillage Foundation, the reference to AIDS in Africa contributes to the illusion that Joy Tang's initiatives are sprung from a heartfelt vision that seeks to benefit orphaned African children with AIDS or perhaps orphaned children whose parents died of the disease. This is certainly not the case, nor was it ever the intention of the people behind the OVF network.
The OVF - a charity front for international fraud
Following a conference organised by the Air Jaldi enterprise in Dharmsala, India in 2006 addressing ways in which wireless technologies could be implemented in rural communities thus connecting them to the Internet, OVF redefined its purpose to the establishment of so-called NICs (network-improved communities, a concept borrowed from Doug Engelbart) by promoting internet access in Africa. The OVF as an NGO, however, is merely a website and a front for fundraising and networking. Any real work is carried out by OVB, the oneVillage Business Initiative (also referred to as the oneVillage Initiative) that has been in existence since 2003, involving the so-called OVF staff Joy Tang in Taiwan, Jeff Buderer in the U.S., Kafui Prebbie in Ghana and Olaposi Abiola in Nigeria as the key people. Though Joy Tang puts on paper that the OVF is legally registered in California and has offices in San Jose, CA as well as Taipei, Taiwan, one will not find any real office in existence at neither of these locations. The property at Ballatore Court 102 in San Jose listed as the official address for OVF was sold in late 2009. Nor will one find any financial reports for the foundation, except for the year 2004. (For a clear overview see the Files of the Registry of Charitable Trusts online and enter the RCT Registration Number "13026").
The OVF's real motivation
The real motivation behind the OVF is plainly stated in one of Joy Tang's Internet profiles where the challenges of AIDS are referred to as "opportunities":
"oneVillage.biz seeks an economic and social investment in the development and growth of emerging markets through information technology and human capacity building... The challenges facing emerging nations dealing with AIDS are also opportunities. Every generation defines itself by the way in which it works to solve the major problems that communities face. We are working with communities that are ready, and prime candidates for this kind of investment."The business initiative run by Joy Tang and the OVF network poses as a business partner with a strong interest in community-development for the common good. It taps people for project ideas and encourages local people to write project proposals and funding applications, under the the pretext that the OVF will help launch these projects once they have been established by the locals themselves. Many of the projects that OVF claims to have supported have never received any funds from OVF, despite having been initiated on the grounds that OVF would support them financially. In Kenya, where OVF operated for a limited number of years, people were exploited in this way, generating proposals to the OVF for projects in Kenya which were started in local communities with the help private money and resources. No support from OVF actually materialised, however, and the formal reports made by the Kenyans were changed by Ms. Tang to locations in Ghana, where OVF has focused its interest by way of OVF representative Kafui Prebbie.
Deliberate overlap between OV foundation and OV business
OVF is the charity front for an international fraud network, operating out of Taiwan and the U.S. through projects in Africa, many of which simply do not exist or are in themselves fronts for profit-making businesses. Confusion between the charity foundation and business activities was made deliberately by the network already in the beginning, both in the US and elsewhere. The OVF people were all using @onevillage.biz addresses when interacting with various networks such as the Actalive coalition, where social issues were being discussed. In effect, the activities in Ghana, where OVF claims most of its accomplishments, are actually run by a business entity which has been "spun-off" into a profit-making enterprise run by OVF staff Kafui Prebbie with the homonymous name of 1village.
Great ambitions
The OVF is currently active in Ghana, and trying to position itself in Nigeria. According to its own presentation materials, it has high ambitions to expand its presence in Africa, notably in the Western part of Africa, as can be seen in the slide below:
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| Plans for OVF in Africa Presentation held by Kafui A. Prebbie http://www.wireless-africa.org/files/projects/GH_onevillage/WA_GH_onevillage_ProjectPresentation.pdf |
