Scandal within Aid: OVF Jukwa Farm Coop is Private Property!

Despite having no agricultural background and having originally been founded to answer the needs arising from AIDS affliction, the oneVillage Foundation now prides itself with its "agricultural achievements" in a small farming community in Ghana called Jukwa. The program, entitled the Jukwa Farmers Coop, is supposedly providing "a livelihood for local farmers using the land sustainably" and the OVF claims to be teaching the local farmers how to promote their crops as organic and how to comply with the requirements for organic certification. It is a program that the OVF wishes to expand to other communities "in the oneVillage Foundation network". However, as of today, its only achievement is the farm located in Jukwa.

According to the OVF, the Jukwa Farmers Coop project has been in implementation for several years, leading to the establishment of a palm oil processing facility, which (according to the NTHU students visiting in 2008) was to 90% subsidized by the Ghana government providing funds by way of the OVF to promote the economic development of what the authorities believe to be a farming cooperative.

But is the Jukwa Farm really a cooperative, jointly owned by a number of local farmers in the community?

Known for its crafts, Jukwa is a small community neighboring the Kakum National Park in Southern Ghana.


Since 2008, when OVF founder Joy Tang was named "Development Mother" in this community due to her personal connections with the royal family of the Denkyira Kingdom, the OVF has been bringing students from the NTHU in Taiwan as part of the volunteer service partnership to visit the "Jukwa Farm Site" (as the farm is referred to in pictures posted on the Internet).

"Farmer Mus" presenting the palm oil press to the students from NTHU which is financed by the Ghana government

Once at the farming site, the NTHU students are introduced to "Farmer Mus" and "Farmer Stephen" alledgely of the cooperative. These two men are in fact not farmers at all but are in reality  OVF staff from Winneba posing as Jukwa farmers (to read more, see Farmer Mus & the OVF Farming Bluff). The students are later also introduced to Agnes Ampong, a personal friend of Ms Joy Tang, who is running a non-registered "orphanage" that OVF is endorsing, whilst working full time at the Kakum National Park (to read more, see the orphanage story).

For three years in a row, NTHU students have been taken to the same site in Jukwa which is introduced to them as a local farmers' cooperative. It is here that OVF prides itself on having established a local palm oil factory, which they are now seeking to launch through fair trade and other venues.

Another picture from the students' visit with the Prebbie brothers at the Jukwa farming site

What the students are not told however is that the land on which all OVF's "charity" investments are taking place is actually the private property owned by OVF head of Ghana Kafui Prebbie and his older brother Godfred Prebbie. In fact, the Jukwa Farm Site - referred to as a farming cooperative - is therefore referred to occasionally as "Kafui's Farm Home" on informal flickr pictures (see example above). Kafui's brother Godfred Prebbie has a long background with the oneVillage Foundation in his previous positions as accountant as well as ecology and agricultural coordinator for the OVF. The latter role raises serious concerns as to what private affairs have been dealt with in this position and why public funds raised from the Ghana government in OVF's name have been used for investment on the private property of the Prebbie brothers, which their family describes as "a very huge acreage of land for commercial farming" belonging to the brothers.

However, until now, the question of why a government-sponsored investment for the benefit of struggling farmers in a small community in Ghana would end up on the private property of an affluent family working with consultancy, teaching at the university and claiming to be engaged in charity work does not seem to have been raised!

In want of any questions, the OVF shamelessly present their "accomplishments" at this large, privately-owned commercial farm posing as a farmers' cooperative (below referred to as the Srowie Mixed Farmers Cooperative Society), whilst soliciting more funds based on the deception;

"The Srowie Mixed Farmers’ Cooperative Society (SMFCS) Project is one of the initiatives under the Ecology Pillar of the oneVillage Initiative of the oneVillage Foundation. It specifically focuses on a bottom-up grassroots approach for helping locals to support themselves. This idea led to the materialization of a farmer’s cooperative known as the Srowie Mixed Farmers Cooperative Society in Jukwa near Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana. The SMFCS received support from the oneVillage Foundation in the USA in 2005 to support its application to the Government of Ghana for a 20,000 US Dollar grant. Consequently, the cooperative was awarded the grant and have since benefited from a series of capacity building sessions and palm oil processing equipment for the collective growth of members. The grant has generated a series of mixed or blend of processes and activities that have been outlined in the following sessions.

...The enormous economic, social, financial and ecological benefits to be derived from the implementation of this project in the life of the project beneficiaries – Jukwa farmers, cannot be underestimated. The grant administrators therefore included capacity building and managerial skills training for a selected number of the farmers. 

...Additional Funding Needed: We still need funding to complete the project. This includes completing the building, installing the hardware and paying for staff and fuel to operate the facility. If you can help please email us at info@onevillagefoundation.org"
Progress Report on Srowie Mixed Farmers Cooperative in Jukwa-Cape Coast, Ghana

As for the NTHU students, who have little time at the site and who are under the constant supervision of OVF staff, they are being instructed by OVF's founder Joy Tang as part of the "Ecotour and Service Learning" program to write reports about the project that are then published on the web, thereby authenticating a fraud in which they initially have no part:

"Zoe and Peter of NTHU were among village children in Jukwa, Ghana, a farming community. oneVillage Foundation Ghana has set up a farming project with the rural farmers co-ops with the goal of yielding healthy production of the palm oil and bi-products as well as increasing its marketing and sales through ICT as the investigation direction."
OVF EcoTour & Learning for NTHU Volunteers, Summer 2008


"After Kakum forest journey this morning, we were heading to palm oil processing factory continually. 2 days ago we had visited Jukwa farmers' farms of palm tree, corns, oranges and vegetables. Today, we were going to realize their processing steps of palm oil.
Ghana farmers have organized a co-up to promote their palm oils. In 2005, they had set up a new automation factory which was subsidized 90% by the government. But it doesn't start using yet till now."
http://ghanaeco.blogspot.com/2008/08/080806-farmers.html

"In Taiwan, we have explored and planned to post a complete project to Kiva site to help the Jukwa farming problems. With the effort the OVF, Ghana and Joy Tang, and many people including 2008 NTHU volunteers team, we have a very good contact and communication with the local farming. We collected the data we need and discovered the problems of the rural village. It is the process of trust-building between farmers in Jukwa and us. On the other hand, we happened to attend the maker-faire Africa in Accra, the capital of Ghana. We also believe it is a process of innovation dissemination which maker-faire has always been challenged. So I proposed the documentary of Jukwa farming and palm oil production to make the world know the Jukwa story and to raise the attention of these issues."
http://iyouth.youthhub.tw/iblog/main.jsp?act=view&id=ghanaeco&did=BDC000001940&month=200908

Furthermore, what is just as worrisome is the fact that the students are also asked to send in applications for more funding:

The students of 2009 made a proposal for the Jukwa Farm Coop... Mentioned in slide 3: http://www.slideshare.net/jefbuder/nthu-students-ecotou09-ppt

How can it be that the OVF is allowed to continue such fraudulent practices, not only deceiving its volunteers but also making them accomplices in a larger deception of the general public, by relying on prestigious institutions in Taiwan such as the NTHU, and by using public funds provided by the Ghana government? We strongly urge the Ghana authorities to open an investigation of all activities in Ghana revolving around the oneVillage Foundation and its network, including Ghanian nationals Kafui A. Prebbie and Godfred Prebbie.

Farmer Mus and the OVF Farming Bluff

According to the oneVillage Foundation (OVF), the Jukwa Farmers Coop in Ghana is a successful farming cooperative established, run and promoted by the OVF. Its only online reference to this co-op, however, is from the onevillage wiki, which is run by the OVF itself.

According to this wiki, the Jukwa Farmers Coop was founded in 2004 based on the vision of a "a thriving market in Africa to produce healthy food sustainably". Also refered to as the Srowi Mixed Farmers Cooperative Society (SMFCS) in Jukwa, the goals of the co-op were "providing a livelihood for local farmers", to expand to other communities (!) and to teach villagers and farmers "how to market traditionally-produced crops as organic". This is a project that the OVF has been raising funds for, as stated on its blog:

Additional Funding Needed: We still need funding to complete the project. This includes completing the building, installing the hardware and paying for staff and fuel to operate the facility. If you can help please email us at info@onevillagefoundation.org
http://blog.onevillage.tv/?p=1437 (September 2009)

Throughout OVF's numerous websites, there is a lot of talk about the impact that OVF is having on the Ghana agricultural society, but nothing specific. These facts do not seem to disturb the OVF in any way, who, glorify their impact amongst local farmers in the following terms:

The enormous economic, social, financial and ecological benefits to be derived from the implementation of this project in the life of the project beneficiaries – Jukwa farmers, cannot be underestimated. Progress Report on Srowie Mixed Farmers Cooperative in Jukwa-Cape Coast, Ghana

During the 2009 Service and Learning Program, the 10 visiting university students from the National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) were taken to Jukwa to visit the OVF's farming activities and to interview the people at the site. As part of their assignment given by the OVF, the students' reports and findings were compiled into a short video entitled Jukwa rural farming. In the video, the students refer to the OVF agricultural interest in Jukwa as a "model of social innovation and enterprise incubation". Having observed the "farming work", the students write about their experience:

"It is a story from Taiwan to Ghana... It is also a story from the urban to the rural village... We lived in the Jukwa. In the beginning, we visited the palm oils factory, to know how to make palm oils."
Jukwa rural farming

Although the topic is farming, the students are taken to a palm oil factory site, where they are introduced to a local farmer, whom they get to know as "Farmer Mus". The NTHU student in charge of the interview asks this Ghana farmer what he thinks about the "brain drain", to which Farmer Mus replies that:

"Sometimes they don't want to enter the farm... they don't want to face the problem again... That's why some of the youth don't want to enter the farm. It's very nice as a youth, even you are educated, you have to enter farm - because farming work is the backbone of every countries. As a youth, if you don't enter it, we are grown-up, we shall go, ...even practice it, who is going to feed you they need to enter farming work."
Farmer Mus, Jukwa rural farming

In another summary, one of the students shared his impression in meeting with farmer Mus and another Ghana farmer named Stephen:

"In the process, I know the two local farmers, Mus and Stephen. They were really nice and kind. I am in charge of the Jwuka farming, so I had the chance the interact with them. I love them. They smelled just like the earth. That was the taste of living with the earth, embracing the deep life energy."
http://www.slideshare.net/joytang/nthu-international-volunteers-for-onevillage-ecotour-service-and-learning-program-2009-summary-report

From the documentary and the student's reaction, one would assume that "Farmer Mus" must be an authentic farmer living an ordinary life working the land in a small community Southern Ghana, but what story doesn't tell is that "Farmer Mus" - whose real name is Mustapha Adjepong - is a very active member of the oneVillage Foundation crew and figures in a number of different roles on web pages associated with the OVF's work in Ghana.

"Farmer Mus": part of the OVF crew in Winneba, Ghana

On the picture above taken outside the OVF's so-called Winnebar Open Digital Village (WODIV), Mustafa "Farmer Mus" Adjepong can be seen wearing an OVF t-shirt, standing between OVF country director Kafui Prebbie and OVF founder Joy Tang together with the rest of OVF staff in a group photo with the NTHU 2009 students.  

Farmer Mus: a part of Denkyira family

What the story also fails to tell is that Mustafa "Farmer Mus" Adjepong, who creatively told the students about the challenges of being a local farmer in a small community in Ghana, is also connected to the royal family of Denkyira - with whom OVF's founder Joy Tang shares several years of personal connections. 

OVF founder Joy Tang and "farmer Mus" attending a wedding

One can only assume that he is either a member of the royal family himself or part of its close entourage. 

"Farmer Mus" OVF founder Joy Tang at a Denkyira ceremony

Mustafa "Farmer Mus" Adjepong's multiple involvement in promoting OVF's agricultural profile earned him an official thank you note by the OVF crew:

Moose, a farmer from Jukwa warmly hosted NTHU students during their visit in Jukwa, a rural village in Ghana where oneVillage Foundation setup a rural farming co-ops project. Moose also is a tailor by trade and well-respected opinion leader in his community. He is a role model as a team player and selfless services. Thanks, Moose!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2913044922/in/photostream/

In an interview made by friend and fellow blogger Ulrike Reinhard during the latter's visit to Jukwa in the late summer of 2010, OVF's agricultural project and its cooperation with farmers Mus [called Moss in the video] and Stevenson are introduced.

"Joy Tang, a "true believer" in the internet for the good and founder of oneVillageFoundation on how ICT can help farmers. One of her projects on farming in Ghana is located in Jukwa, Ghana. At the end she is interviewing two of the Jukwa farmers: Moss and Stevenson."
Joy Tang on how ICT can help farmers, produced and directed by Ulrike Reinhard

Joy Tang presenting "Farmer Mus" for the camera

In this video, Joy Tang presents Farmer Mus as “one of the dear farmers in our group in the coop, his name is Mustapha.” Why would the OVF and its founder Joy Tang disguise one of its own co-workers, elsewhere referred to also as a secretary for OVF activities, as a farmer in Jukwa? The need to mislead the public in having OVF people pose as farmers in order to present the agricultural work of the OVF to the volunteer team from NTHU as well as to the broader public raises serious doubts as to whether the OVF in fact has ever engaged in any serious work with real-life farmers in Ghana at all? And why would one claim accomplishments in farming, when the professed purposes of the OVF are firstly people affected by AIDS and secondly the concern with connecting people to the Internet?

Left: OVF worker Mus pretending to be a farmer Right: OVF founder Joy Tang bringing the students to the "farm"

The OVF needs to come clean with these explicit deceptions of students entrusted to them as volunteers by prestigious universities such as the NTHU, as well as the greater public. There are real problems and real farmers in Africa and elsewhere which can be properly addressed by people who are actually motivated by helping them, rather than by making a name for themselves in the international community and soliciting funds based on falsehoods. Africa and all struggling farmers in the world certainly deserve better.

Joy Tang, Stephen & Mus brings the NTHU students to visit the Denkyira King

To see more of "Farmer Mus" and "farmer Stephen", see the following links:

OVF worker Mus brings the students to the palm oil production site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2880375385/
Mus the Tailor with a newly made dress for OVF founder Joy Tang: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2977177758/
Mus the Tailor and OVF founder Joy Tang discussing fabric: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2977174438/in/photostream/
OVF worker Mus accompanies the NTHU students to see the chief of Jukwa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2912277267/
OVF worker Mus with OVF founder Joy Tang and OVF worker Stephen at the beach http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2977200038/
OVF worker Mus at the beach http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2976328739/in/photostream/
Mus & with the students at a restaurant: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2922625231/
The Mus Family with the NTHU students http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2922625223/in/photostream/

Mus with members of the Royal family of Denkyira and OVF founder Joy Tang http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2977791535/in/set-72157608420084610/
Mus with members of the Royal family of Denkyira and OVF founder Joy Tang http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2977794299/in/set-72157608420084610/ 
Farmer Stephen with Joy Tang http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2976307975/in/photostream/

Farmer Stephen and Joy Tang http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2976303557/in/photostream/
OVF worker Stephen, Mus the Tailor and OVF Founder Joy Tang http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2976324279/in/photostream/
OVF worker Stephen and OVF founder Joy Tang at the beach http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2976326879/in/photostream/
Stephen the artist http://www.flickr.com/photos/1village/2958744822/in/set-72157608201069668/

Learning what and when to applaud: Students socialized by OVF through volunteer programs

In previous posts, serious concerns have been raised regarding the partnership between the Tsing Hua university (the NTHU) in Taiwan and the Joy Tang/oneVillage Foundation for a volunteer program for the university students to Ghana.

The NTHU is not the only university leaving part of its organized volunteer services for students in the hands of Joy Tang and the oneVillage Foundation. Also the Leavitt School of Business at the Santa Clara University lists the oneVillage Foundation as a partner for its Global Fellowship Program, and OVF's application for 2011 can be found online here. (However, to this day it would seem that only one volunteer from this university has visited OVF, accompanying OVF representative in the U.S. Jeffrey Buderer on a visit to Taipei in the fall of 2009.)

As any organization working with interns or volunteers would know, taking care of people with very little experience in a particular field can be both challenging and time-consuming. The upside is of course the potential benefits that can be gained through low-cost assistance and especially of future positive ambassadors for one's organization at the end of the term. It is a commitment that few organizations would enter into without a clear purpose for what they want out of the exchange.

The question then is what motivates the OVF to take such an interest in students? In a conversation with fellow blogger Ulrike Reinhard over Skype, OVF's founder Joy Tang explains her concern with the Taiwanese students who have been received yearly by the OVF people in Ghana since 2008:

"My own experience with working with Taiwanese young people. Just in a very short period of time, less than two full years, this collective learning, the consciousness or ... space of learning for them has really expanded. From the very beginning, they would ask a question like: "Are they barbaric?" This kind of shocking language, almost to your face you want to cry for them! But you cannot really punch them in their face! And how, where is this from, where is this coming from? Is it from media, is it from your parents? Is it from your school? Is it from your peers? You ask them; in their very sincere way I think they will listen with their hearts. And then provide methods, guide them, walk with them, coach them, going through this process of investigation. So that before you even deliver this bundle of treasures ... to another group of people you know that they have already prepared themselves in the best of themselves. And they are trying to do that, I think whatever they pretend is to be applauded. And I think that is what we need to give to our young people - all over, everywhere!"

http://www.catboant.com/category/conversations/joy-tang/ (Can we learn to applaud each other? Conversation between Joy Tang and Ulrike Reinhard, Dec. 22nd 2009; 30:45-32:30)

Through the partnership with OVF, universities submit their students to the guidance of Joy Tang and her team of OVF people who present these young people with very limited experience of the international community and no prior knowledge of Africa to sites and people approved and selected by the OVF. The OVF will introduce their visitors to representatives of the real people they claim to be helping, who instead turn out to be OVF staff in disguise or personal friends. The result is such blatant "mishaps" as the report on the Stoughton Home Orphanage, where the students were fed the story of how this came to be but had no frame of reference of their own that would allow them to question whether wild elephants are in fact to be found trampling around the fields in Ghana...

Another word for what Joy Tang and the OVF are doing with the students is making them undergo a process of socialization - though the OVF terminology for this would be undergoing a transformation with the aim of freeing oneself from what the OVF considers is standing in the way of effective learning and development. Socialization is a process by which individuals learn to conform to the norms and roles that are required for integration into a particular community and network, based both on adhering to certain explicit rules but also on striving to meet the perceived expectations of the group in question. Though some degree of socialization is always to be expected and also desired, to the OVF this is more than the natural process of learning to function in a new environment. As Joy Tang explains in her interview, this is an objective in itself of the volunteer program: "And then provide methods, guide them, walk with them, coach them, going through this process of investigation. So that before you even deliver this bundle of treasures ... to another group of people you know that they have already prepared themselves in the best of themselves." In other words, by providing the methods, guidance, a continuous presence ("walking with the") and coaching, the students are made to see the OVF version of the world and how it should be interpreted.

When such a process explicitly targets people who lack the tools of critically understanding what they are experiencing because they are introduced to an environment far away from their own, then it comes dangerously close to brainwashing.

In her conversation with Ulrike Reinhard, Joy Tang brings up the issue of learning to applaud each other, of expressing and showing gratitude for the contribution of others. Though the idea of applauding as if working towards a better world would be best described as some kind of performance seems quite out of place, it is most worrying when put in the context of the kind of socialization bordering on brainwashing that is practiced by the OVF. Then it has to do with taking away the tools that people are naturally endowed with for thinking for themselves and making up their own minds about something by discouraging questions and dissident opinions, and creating a contained environment of people loyal to OVF with whom to interact.

Teaching what and when to applaud is a most useful way to disguise a fraud and make others see what you want them to see. It only takes one simple question, though, to come free of the illusion: why? True learning can only come from understanding the purpose.

Has CISCO provided the platform for the establishment of an international fraud?

The OVF and Joy Tang would not have been able to establish any partnerships with any serious organization or institution without the credibility of Ms. Tang's claimed background and experience 1996-2003 with CISCO in the U.S., first as an employee and then as a Cisco fellow.

The question is whether Joy Tang in fact has ever worked for Cisco, and if so, what position she held there?

According to Ms. Tang's own written account, she was first employed by Cisco Systems in 1996. She held various positions during her five years with the corporation. Then, in the summer of 2001, she was enrolled as a Cisco Fellow with the Cisco Foundation, a program that was made available as the corporation downsized that year by 8,500 employees. Ms. Tang claims to have held this fellowship until February 2003.

Now, in 2000, Ms. Tang launched into charity by founding the Aids Relief Foundation which was soon thereafter to become the oneVillage Foundation. Thus, during the period that Joy Tang was financed by Cisco to do volunteer work for NGOs, she was running a foundation of her own. A foundation that turns out to be a front for an international fraud network.

At the oneVillage blog, Joy Tang's tenure with Cisco and her efforts to involve the corporation in the oneVillage operations are described by the OVF people:

"...After establishing a successful career at Cisco, oneVillage Foundation founder Joy Tang was assigned to several projects in Africa.

...While at Cisco she lobbied the top level leaders to transition Cisco towards a focus on developing economies in Africa." http://blog.onevillage.tv/?page_id=2

For anyone wanting to verify whether Joy Tang was indeed an employee as she states in her own cv and professional data, they will find that the corporation is not very forecoming in providing such information, even though one would think it would be in their own interest. In any case, Joy Tang is using the name of Cisco to open doors in both Taiwan and the U.S., and to appear to have solid, technological knowledge which she does not have.

The possibility that Ms. Tang would have used her endorsement by the Cisco Foundation as a platform to establish a fraudulent charity raises a number of questions for Cisco:

1. What was the policy of the Cisco Foundation regarding the activities of its fellows in 2001-2003?

2. What criteria does Cisco apply when selecting which NGOs to endorse or to work with?

3. How does Cisco ensure that these NGOs comply with international ethical standards such as the WANGO code of ethics and conduct?

4. Is Cisco aware of instances such as the above where its name is being used to give credibility to NGOs that are not serious charities and which operations are both unethical and illegal in most countries around the world?

5. If not, how can Cisco responsibly address the issue of smaller organizations and institutions with less international experience or knowledge of the aid community being deceived and exploited by delinquent actors drawing advantage from the Cisco brand and name?

Misleading information about a NTHU-sponsored orphanage in Ghana

The National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has, according to its own account, a long and proud history. Originally established in Beijing in 1911, it was relocated to Taiwan in 1956 where it enjoys a solid reputation as a serious, high-quality public institution. It is located in the city of Hsinchu and is today "consistently ranked as one of the premier universities in Taiwan", as well as "widely recognized as the best incubator for future leaders in industries as well as academics."

On their website, the National Tsing Hua University presents its Learning by Service program, where students of the university are sent out to various sites around the world, with the aim of contributing to serious charity work and offering their knowledge to those in need. One of the available programs is in Ghana, and it is run by Joy Tang and the OneVillage Foundation since 2008.

But is the NTHU aware that their students are being set to work for a fraudulent organization, and that their activities are contributing to strengthening the illusion that OVF is a legitimate charity?

The National Tsing Hua University reports that in 2010, the students of the Ghana program raised funds for a local orphanage:

"A large portion of the fee collected from this operation went to the local orphanage to support their programs."
National Tsing Hua University, Cover Story: Learning by Service (2010)

The orphanage in question calls itself the "Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home" and has a wiki page on OVF's so called Open Digital Village Wiki, which has been set up by the NTHU students at the initiative of Joy Tang. It is run by an acquaintance of Joy Tang - Ms Agnes Ampong - and was set up in 2008; the same year that the NTHU - OVF Ghana partnership was established. Although they claim to have 12 "orphans" in their care, the "orphanage" is not legally registered (which was confirmed by telephone communication with Ms Ampong on March 12th, 2011) and is therefore operating illegally, under no supervision of the Ghana authorities.

According to the report by the NHTU students, the orphanage home was set up under most peculiar circumstances. They were told that the home was established because wild elephants supposedly had trampled a large number of fields, resulting in Ghanaian families actually ABANDONING their children, (rather than leaving them in the care of the larger family network that is the basis for African society and which explains why one will find a small number of orphans who are not taken care of any family member even in the poorest of African countries; unless they have been ravaged by civil war). On the Stoughton Home's wiki page, the NTHU students write:

"As a result of many years of elephants destroying vast fields of crops and even cocoa pods in Kakum National Park surrounding villages, many children became homeless and abandoned."
WODIV, Horizon Orphanage, Project Justification (2009)

The OVF's own website presents the support of the Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home as one of its accomplishments in Ghana. There is no mention whatsoever, however, of the fact that the orphanage (in reality sponsored by the NTHU students and not by OVF) is not legally registered. The collaboration between OVF Ghana and the Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home is described as one of the programs outlined for the 2010 Ghana "OVF-NTHU Eco-Tour" and labeled an "orphanaged camp" activity.

"During the Orphanage Camp, the team will interact and have fun games with kids at the Stoughton Horizon Orphanage, Jukwa, whiles finding out their real needs and how OVF can help meet them."
oneVillage Foundation, Holistic ICT for Living: The 2010 HTSU students have arrived! (2010)

Although the oneVillage Foundation itself lacks a legal structure and is therefore itself raising money illegally, it refers to its Ecotour program as a "humanitarian project", which is focused on servicing orphanages in the central region of Ghana. According to OVF, the students:

"...documented the stories in the orphanages visited, to make their stories voiced via Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, such as blogs. With the information online, there is no doubt that people around the world can hear their stories, which helps to run these orphanages continuously and deliver endless hopes for children."
oneVillage Foundation, Holistic ICT for Living: The 2010 HTSU students have arrived! (2010)

According to the NTHU students, they serviced the Stoughton home with 320 books, 44 toys, 43 pieces of clothing, one "bag of stationary" and a first aid kit. More details are given by the OVF itself, writing that the NTHU students presented Ms Ampong with "books, toys and other items collected from donors and well wishers in Taiwan". They categorized the books and tried to teach two of the teenage boys to do so themselves. The students also taught the children in Ms Ampong's care how to play a Taiwanese game called "Tuoluo", do paper design cuttings and "other things". Further, the NTHU students provided the home with "some light bulbs for the reading corner and other rooms" while OVF itself "sponsored painting of the interior and exterior of the home."

The painting job sponsored by the OVF of the Stoughton home may very well have been necessary to make the building look more legitimate for the students' arrival.

According to Ms Ampong, it was the promises of Joy Tang of the OVF to support the orphanage financially in 2008 which led to the home being opened. But to this date, the Stoughton Home has yet to receive any funding from Ms Tang or the oneVillage Foundation, and are left to seek donations from elsewhere. Now, why the orphanage after three years of supposed operations still has not been legally registered with the authorities in Ghana is a question Ms Ampong cannot answer.

Any serious NGO would not be involved with an orphanage that does not stand under the supervision of any serious institution and the local authorities. Who will ensure that these children are not being exploited? Who is taking responsibility for their wellfare? Ms. Ampong herself is fully employed at her daytime job at the Kakum National Forest Park.

Is the National Tsing Hua University - a reputable institution with numerous partnerships - aware of the fact that it is sending trusting and eager students to a foreign country to volunteer at an UNREGISTERED charity (the Stoughton Home) through an organisation (OVF) that itself lacks the basic legal structure required by all NGOs to operate legally? There are several questions which the NTHU needs to consider: Questions for NTHU.

Questions concerning the NTHU involvement with OVF and Joy Tang 對於新竹清華大學與OVF、唐瑋女士之間的幾點質疑

The National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan
位於臺灣新竹的國立清華大學

It has come to our attention that one of the volunteer programs at the NTHU supported by the NYC is run by Ms. Joy Tang and her OneVilllageFoundation. This organisation is an international network with no legal body neither in Taiwan nor in the U.S. where it claims to be based. It therefore operates illegally. Furthermore, many of the projects run by the OVF in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya) simply do not exist.
我們注意到了臺灣行政院青輔會在新竹清華大學的一個志工計畫，是由唐瑋女士 和她的OVF機構執行的。 OVF這個組織是一個沒有合法實體的國際性網路， 無論在臺灣或美國都沒有，雖然OVF宣稱自己是個美國機構。因此，它的運作並不合法。此外，很多OVF在非洲執行的計畫，實際上並不存在。  
Because the OVF is raising funds illegally, it has been reported to the IRS in the U.S. which are conducting an investigation. Furthermore, the OVF has strong links to the mafia and the Hell's Angels in the U.S. and because of extensive involvement with criminal organisations, the OVF and Joy Tang's associates in the U.S. are being investigated by the FBI. We are most concerned that Ms. Joy Tang is able to operate this international fraud out of Taiwan under an international cover, and that she is involving solid, reputable state institutions such as the Tsing Hua university in maintaining the illusion that the OVF is engaged in serious charity work.
由於OVF在非法募款，美國的國稅局(IRS,Internal Revenue Service)已經被報告此事而正展開調查。此外，OVF機構對於黑手黨及美國的飛車黨(Hell's Angels)的連結很強。廣泛涉入了犯罪組織，導致了OVF、唐瑋以及唐瑋的伙伴，正被聯邦調查局(FBI,Federal Bureau of Investigation)調查中。我們最在意的一件事，乃是唐瑋女士可以利用臺灣知名的國家機構，新竹清華大學，而透過臺灣呈現出一種國際化、嚴謹而正派的慈善工作機構的樣貌。     
We assume that the public institutions in Taiwan are unaware of this fact, or they would not engage in any partnership with an organisation that is operating illegally and engaged with other criminal organisations. Regarding the Tsing Hua university and their volunteer program run by Ms. Tang involving OVF's center in Ghana, we wonder what they had investigated and what they knew about the OVF and the activities of Mr. Kafui Prebbie (OVF representative in Ghana who runs his own business and is very much involved in fraudulent activities) beforehand.
我們依然假定臺灣的政府機構並不知道前述事實，否則他們不會和非法運作的組 織(這組織甚至還和犯罪組織有牽連)進行合作。看看新竹清大和他們由唐 瑋女士執行，在非洲迦納OVF機構的中心運作的志工計畫， 我們很好奇，新竹清大在計畫付諸實現之前，到底調查過了些甚麼？又對OVF機構和Mr. Kafui Prebbie瞭解多少(Mr. Kafui Prebbie是OVF在迦納的業務代表，但同時也經營自己的事業，他深深的涉入詐騙活動之中)

The NTHU student program to Ghana, partnering OVF

Specifically, we have the following questions that we feel need to be answered by the university:
明白的說，我們有以下幾個問題想請教新竹清華大學:   

1. Why was there no formal representative of NTHU accompanying Ms. Tang and the students to Ghana? 為何清華大學沒有正式的代表，隨著唐女士和學生赴迦納？
2. Is there any formal agreement between OVF and the NTHU? OVF與清華大學之間，有任何正式協議嗎？
3. The money that is raised by the students for the volunteer services, how is it handled? Do the students handle their own expenses or do they pass the funds on to Ms. Tang or Mr. Kafui Prebbie in Ghana? 因著志工服務所募得款項是如何處理？是學生自行運用呢？還是交給唐 女士或是迦納的Kafui Prebbie先生？
4. What kind of quality control does the NTHU apply with regard to their volunteer programs? 清華大學如何進行志工計劃的品質管制？
5. What information has the NTHU been given regarding OVF's operations in Ghana? Has any formal representative of NTHU ever visited the work in Ghana himself/herself? 有關OVF在迦納的運作，清華大學被告知了些什麼相關資訊？是否有 正式的代表親自去參訪過迦納那邊的工作？
6. How big is the Ghana program compared to the other volunteer programs at NTHU (Tanzania, Indonesia), and what is the size of the cost budget for Ghana per student compared with that of the other programs? 與清華大學其它的志工計畫〈如坦尚尼亞、印尼〉比較起來，迦納志工 計畫的大小如何？ 以平均每位學生所花預算來看，迦納計畫相較於其他志工計劃，又是如何？
7. How much financial support for the Ghana program is provided by the NTHU itself or channeled through the university and how is this money then accounted for? 對於迦納計劃，有多少財務支援是清華大學本身提供或是透過清華大學 的管道而取得？這筆錢之後是如何報帳？