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Micro financing in developing countries via Trust

GVI CA has a partnership with Grameen Trust. The bank was set up by Yunas Grameen (Nobel Prize Laureate 2006) and supplies low interest loans to community co-operatives in developing countries to help them start or improve small businesses. GVI - CA donates 100 USD to sustainable development initiatives, a large proportion of which goes to Grameen Trust. The Grameen Bank has been incredibly successful at helping people in developing countries fund themselves and has been praised internationally. A partnership and association with the bank will be created by joining the alliance.

National Scholarship Program

GVI and GVI CA jointly offer up to 184 fully funded National Scholarships every year, giving opportunity for local researchers, partner organization staff, and students to join the expedition, offered their skills and experience, and learn the survey and community teaching skills and programs we utilize. Many have these have used their new skills and knowledge to work directly for local conservation or education organizations, including GVI, and our partners staff have gone on to gain promotion within their organizations. By offering the chance for our partners to further train their employees, it also opens up further outside funding opportunities.

Local Partners

In all places where we work, we work with local partner organizations. These are often among the very best in the world, such as the South African, Costa Rican, Mexican, Argentinean National Parks, the Kenyan Wildlife Service, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the Jane Goodall Trust, and awarding winning NGOs such as Amigos de Sian Ka'an in Mexico and FUNEDESIN in Ecuador. Our expeditions have multiple local, national and international partners, who ensure that GVIs resources are used to best effect on priority projects for the region. Through this process, you can be sure that your money and your efforts are of direct benefit to the local partner organizations and the local region.

Local Science Programs and Local Methodologies

GVI and the GVI CA do not decide the projects that we conduct on behalf of our local partner organizations. All the projects we conduct are selected by our local partners, additional work that they would do if they had they additional resources, additional trained manpower, funding and equipment. GVI supplies all of these elements, conducts the projects and gives all data to the local partners, encouraging open access to the resources where ever possible. GVI does not hold the data, we work on behalf of the partners and as such the data belongs to them. The methodologies used are decided by the local partners, and as such as relevant locally and of best use for each particular region and location.

Promotion of partners and region

GVI and the GVI CA actively promotes its projects and partners around the world via a range of media, including websites, partnerships with international organizations and funding bodies, open days, university links, magazines, newsletters and local and national newspapers and television. GVI have been featured in various international periodicals, including The Times (London), The Independent (London), Newsweek International, The Guardian (London), the Geographical Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Newsweek International and various international television programs including a six part series on the Sky Travel channel and repeated features on the BBC's Holiday program and Holiday Top Ten program.

Teacher / ranger training days with presentation packs

GVI and the GVI CA has developed an environmental education training pack for teachers and rangers. Training for use of the pack has been offered to local teachers, and GVI will develop this resource for further use locally in-country and by its volunteers. The pack is being further developed and published as part of a grant from the Project AWARE foundation.

Schools

GVI and the GVI CA sponsored teaching programs currently support and teach over 2000 children in 7 countries by 2007. Of these children, GVI and the GVI CA provide scholarships to over 500 children in Guatemala to attend national public school; education in Guatemala, unlike all other Latin American countries, isn't free. Over 1250 other children in our other countries of operation receive all the educational utensils they need to attend school each year, which includes pencils, crayons, exercise books, etc. Per annum, they supply over 20,000 pencils, 125,000 crayons, 5,000 pencil sharpeners and over 25,000 exercise books. On top of this, GVI provides over 350,000 whole pieces of fruit for the children throughout the year. We make over 5,000 journeys a year to the different communities and also employ directly and indirectly over 100 local Latin Americans with our projects, from family homestays to the drivers to the local market fruit seller!

GVI is also undertaking a new scheme, called "Colegio Urcusiqui", in Ecuador, where we are building a secondary school in the mountains. We supply the teachers, satellite internet for a library and all materials to allow the children to attend secondary school, which up until now, has been impossible due to transport to the nearest town. If this scheme works, GVI will create similar "Colegios" in all our community project countries in Latin America.

Biological Field Stations and Capacity Building Centers.

GVI has developed 8 biological field stations and is currently developing another 4, in Mexico, Patagonia, Seychelles and South Africa. The biological field stations employ experienced, paid, long term staff; and volunteers collect biological data on high priority projects and supply training and education, local capacity building to local researchers, partner organization staff and local communities as needed and as decided by local partner organizations and communities. The stations are the current centers for the local community capacity building initiatives, such as English language lessons, open days, training and environmental education

Interpretive Centers, Open Days, Training and Presentations

GVI is working with its locally based partners on the development of interpretive centers, to ensure the knowledge gained of the local area is available to the local community and visiting tourists alike. These centers will become the focus for open days and environmental education presentations and initiatives. GVI is currently developing 4 interpretive centers, in Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Seychelles, and plans to develop at least one in each Expedition country.

Community and TEFL centre

GVI and the GVI CA has developed 2 community and TEFL centers, which focus solely upon supplying local capacity building to the local partner staff and local communities. The center offers English Language lessons, trains and certifies local people and volunteers as English Teachers, offers environmental education and supports local initiatives aimed at increasing local sustainable development and revenues. Volunteers are offered further positions in-country and around the work so that their training and skills can be utilized post-expedition, allowing them and other communities to benefit from their training in the long term.

Local community and partner organization staff training and certification

GVI and the GVI CA use their resources to supply high levels of training and capacity building to its local partners, local students and community members. We has supplied dive training to local fishermen; certified local partner staff in diving, boat driving and first aid; trained and certified biological researchers in identification and survey techniques; trained and certified English Language teachers; given training to local rangers; created teaching packs and offered training to local teachers in environmental education; supplied English language lessons and certificates to hundreds of local community members, and sponsored and taught over 400 school children basic numeracy and literacy.

Direct funding and donations

Through the volunteer contributions, GVI and the GVI CA supply direct local funding and equipment to its local partner organizations. As well as the free-supply, trained, long term, experienced, qualified and skilled staff; we supply large numbers of trained volunteers, and a large amount of equipment and direct funding to each of its local partners. On the expeditions alone GVI invests, on top of the equipment supplied to set up the project and all the human resources, over 2,000,000 USD per annum in the programs and local regions, and the volunteers add to this via personal spending and further travel. GVI's projects supply almost the same again, and GVI CA supplies a further 1,500,000 USD. That's over 5,000,000 USD per total, per annum! Much of the equipment bought in for use on the expeditions and projects is donated to the local partners and becomes their direct property to use as they see best, including dive equipment, boats and engines.

Indirect local funding

Recent feedback from volunteers suggests that on average people who travel with GVI spend an additional 500 to 2000 USD in the local region, prior to, during and post expedition. Many of these people go on to travel in the region, and use the GVI expedition and project as a safe way to make friends, get to know the area and make their travel plans. In total, GVI supplies a further, estimated, 3,000,000 USD of spending in the regions where we work, per annum, outside of the monies directly supplied by GVI itself.

Local employment

As an international organization, GVI and the GVI CA constantly search, train and aim to employ staff from host nations for our programs. At present, despite the relatively young programs, cultural issues, basic living conditions and lack of personal time for staff, the staff on GVI's bases and programs currently consist of around 25% host nation personnel. Through the National Scholarship Programs, as we become better known, we aim to source, train and employ many more.