In Kenya, you do not have to search very far to find corruption; corruption usually finds you. My past job often brought me to Kenya to visit NGO projects, attend meetings, and just get a sense of how certain projects were progressing. During late 2008, I was working in Nairobi when I met a young American volunteer. We had a number of quality conversations and met a handful of times at the Nairobi Java House. Over a vanilla milkshake, he expressed his concern of a local volunteer organization which he had come into contact by the name of Waltz Volunteers.
He said he had bad feelings about the "Regional Director" and some of the conversations they had. This young volunteer ambitiously wanted to start a project in Kenya, and the "Regional Director" of Waltz Volunteers allegedly advised him to start his project through Waltz Volunteers. It was simple: he would design a project, raise money, and Waltz would hire a manager and staff to implement the plan. The donor would then be able to visit the project to ensure it was running smoothly. At the meeting where this was being explained, the "Regional Director" offered to show my friend one of Waltz's projects. My friend claims that he was told the project was run and managed by Waltz Volunteers.
They met and walked to the project. When they arrived, there was a volunteer present, but she had not come through Waltz Volunteers. It was soon clearly apparent to my friend that the project was an official project of the Catholic church, not Waltz Volunteers. He became nervous and felt he was involved in a scam.
He was uncomfortable with the "Regional Director." He says now, looking back on the events, that he should have recognized the warning signs earlier. From the circumstances of their meeting, to the "Regional Director's" offering him money in exchange for recruiting volunteers. Without showing the "Regional Director" where he lived, my friend claims the man came to his house to visit him. He says he sent someone to the door to tell the "Regional Director" that he was ill.
When my friend returned home, he sent me an e-mail seeming upset. When looking for internships online, he kept coming across postings by Waltz volunteers. He did not know what to do. He thought of young kids like him who are trying to volunteer, learn, and help others. From his experience with Waltz Volunteers, he was very suspicious of them and would not want others young kids going across the world to work with Waltz Volunteers and the "Regional Director" who he believed were corrupt.
He decided to exercise his first amendment rights and post on an idealist.org forum concerning Waltz Volunteers. He wrote on March 2, 2009:
"I am very suspicious of Waltz Volunteers. While I was in Kenya, the "Regional Director" named John claimed to operate a project that was not his in order to convince a couple I was working with to donate money to start a project like it. It later came to our knowledge that the project was run by the Catholic Church and not Waltz Volunteers. When I called the USA number, not only is it a house not an office, but the woman also claimed to run the same project I personally visited. When I pressed her on names and locations she backtracked and got tangled in her own words. John also sought me out as a foreigner and offered to pay me if I could get him volunteers. I would hesitate before traveling with this organization."
Like he stated above, my friend claims he called the Waltz Volunteer office and asked the woman questions about the projects he had visited. She said Waltz ran and funded their own projects when he specifically noted the area. He says that when he began to talk about the Catholic church and the real name of the project he had visited, rather than the name she said it was, she got flustered and did not know what to say.
Later, in June 2009, this was posted in response by a woman named Carol:
"It’s very sad that you said this because it has taken me five months to investigate and get to the bottom of what you stated above. I have been told everything you are talking about and I personally went to the place you talked about in Kibera and they told me a different version of the story.
I also found out that you had your own reason to say what you did, the police even replayed the call you made in the WALTZ OFFICE in USA so that we know what you said and confirm the conversation. We did these because we fund Waltz Projects in Kenya and part of that Orphanage you talked about is funded by my brother in Spain. It’s owned by Catholic church members.
We realized that John even took his time to come visit you when you were sick and he is the one who took you to that project and left you there. He never took any money from you or anybody. AFTER the investigations the police advised Waltz and John to file charges against you but John said that you are just joining college and there is no need of them doing such a thing because it will just ruin your career.
Lastly you should know by now that waltz is the world third biggest volunteer organization with more than 200 volunteers going through it every month to different volunteer countries and you are the only person who have complained about it. It was given the best Volunteer Award organization this Year. Did you volunteer under it like us or you have your own reservation based on miscommunication?
As a counselor i can only advice you to be careful when you make phone calls to other people. It can be used against you anytime. i hope to see you very soon in the near future for any advice."
Unfortunately, my friend claims the response above is stocked full of lies. 1) John visited his home when he had not shown John where he lived. John was told by another person living in the house that my friend was sick. 2) There is nothing wrong with calling an NGO and asking questions about their projects. "Defamation" is a civil suit, thus, the police would not advise anyone to "press charges." 3) My friend never claimed John took money from anyone.
My friend was threatened for posting on a forum that he was suspicious of an organization. Finally, on October 7, the silence on the idealist forum was broken, and Peter wrote:
"I came to Kenya a few months ago with «waltz volunteers». I believe this Organization is fraudulent."
He goes on to say:
"I also personally went to three of the projects Waltz claim to be affiliated to in Nairobi, none of them have ever heard of this organization, never received funds and have never had a volunteer placed with them from Waltz."
"When confronted, the CEO John, makes threats."
(Read the full text here: http://www.idealist.org/if/idealist/en/DiscussionForum/TopicViewerPage/default?start-index=0&topic-id=129363-135#selectedPost)
But wait: there is more!
"I looked into the US address given as the headquarters of this Organization and found that it is in fact, a house in a suburb. When I called the headquarters, an elderly lady answered the phone."
There is nothing wrong with having an office in a house. But the plot thickens.
On the Waltz Website, it is stated:
"Waltz Volunteer Inc. manages to run its own community centers, shelters, rescue centers, orphanages, homes for elders, health care facilities, schools and others..."
"We started international volunteering in 2000 and have grown to be one of the leading volunteering organizations in the world based in USA that manages to support its own projects. We handle our own volunteers/interns personally in their placement countries, showing how much we value the lives and safety of our volunteers."
(Read the website yourself here: http://waltzvolunteer.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=36&Itemid=54)
The website claims the organization is based in the USA and began in 2000. According to the Florida Department of State, Waltz began on 06/29/2009.
(See for yourself: http://ccfcorp.dos.state.fl.us/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=N09000006403&inq_came_from=NAMFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_
name_ind=N&names_cor_number=&names_name_seq=&names_name_ind=&names_comp_name=WALTZVOLUNTEERS&names_filing_type=)
A woman by the name of Maria later wrote: "My experience there is very similar to what the others are saying, a large amount of money was taken from me too and when I tried to verify where it went, I was met with threats of police and court..I was also told that I had been recorded and the police were on me."
Idealist.org responded on October 9, 2009. Brenden from the community support team posted, "We wanted to let everyone know that we have momentarily removed Waltz Volunteer inc's profile from Idealist.org. We wanted to get in touch with them and ask some questions in regards to the concerns and issues raised here in our Forums. This community is for you guys, and we appreciate everyone taking the time to keep this conversation going."
Carol, the women who claims to be a Waltz Volunteer who invested in the claims, was alleged to be in a management position for Waltz Volunteers. She responded on October 20:
"Maria, Kelly and Peter are the same person called Lida Sourla.she is from Greece .She had her own personal differences with Mr. Pertet and she swore to revenge on him using all means."
To me personally, this accusation by Carol is believable if I did not know my friend who told me about this situation in the first place. He had no "reason" to state his suspicions other than honest concern for other volunteers. He was met with threats. It is clear that he was not alone.
Kelly, a woman in France, summed up the situation perfectly on October 23, 2009: "So, Jacob had his 'own reasons' and was out to tarnish this organization's name, Maria Peter and I are all one and the same person, who had their own personal reason for "revenge", all these people were personally investigated by Carol, who is just a former volunteer and has no personal gain here...
Yes, that adds up perfectly."
Stupid Wazungu will continue to watch this story. This is my first post on the new blog. I hope to continue spotlighting "Destructive tactics, corrupt NGOs, and the stupid white people who support them."
Unfortunately, volunteer organizations are easy for con men. All it takes is a phone number and a clever website. Once a volunteer contacts the organization, they find a local project and ask if they would like to host a volunteer. Of course they are not going to say no. In fact, in my experience in Kenya, I come across many people who claimed to have their own volunteer organizations. Most of them have invested in a website, but have had no volunteers. Many Kenyans see this as a way to get rich. They say, "Once a volunteer contacts you, it is very easy to just find a project for them to work at."
All foreign volunteers should thoroughly investigate the organizations they plan to volunteer with.
In the coming weeks, I will be investigating the available information on various volunteer organizations in Kenya and posting them to the blog.
I invite either side to respond to this post. I want to promote an open and honest discussion. If there is anything above that somebody believes is untrue, they are encouraged to voice their opinion.
Send to: stupidwazungu@yahoo.com
