Patriot Ventures For-Profit Program of CADS Sierra Leone

May PEACE Prevail in Sierra Leone!
May PEACE Prevail on Earth!

Patriot Ventures
The for-profit entity of CADS Sierra Leone

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The problem our center has been struggling with is that we have researched and looked into all aspects of grant making institutions, but the chances of getting funds from such sources to fund third world initiatives like CADS is extremely slim and most times non-existent. We are therefore so much frustrated with such negative attention given to our local efforts. With international aid only directed to big international non-governmental organizations like ICRC, Refugees International, Save the Children, OXFAM, CARE, United States Committee for Refugees, among others, generally neglecting the efforts of local NGOs like CADS Sierra Leone - organizations which certainly play a critical role in addressing the social needs of societies big international NGOs and governments often failed to address, we have every reason to be very frustrated, and we are doing something about it. We have taken up the initiative of promoting business ventures, seeking benevolent and compassionate investors across Europe and the US interested in the African market, asking them to consider investing in small or big businesses in Africa. And it is in return for our effort in facilitating these businesses in Sierra Leone and along the West Coast of Africa we are earning commissions we will then be using to support our development programs in our rural operational areas.

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The President & Chief Development Officer of CADS --
Responding to the "Hard Questions" Regarding CADS Sierra Leone's "Business Prospects"

Is this project considered to be a business, or an investment?

I think I will like us to appropriately describe this project a business. I agree, you will be investing money in it, but again, it's not quite a big capital intensive project which involves establishing a factory in Sierra Leone. What we are doing here we are buying general merchandize to peddle in Sierra Leone for profit. It's small-scale enterprise with a vision to grow bigger and bigger. But please understand you are not investing in a factory to produce goods -- we are basically merchandize peddlers for now.

If this project is an investment, how is CADS Global Network determining the return-on-investment to be nearly 100% profitability? (Supportive evidence and documentation?)

Certainly, I am keenly aware that the overall world economy is somewhat tentative, few companies offering more than a nominal return-on-investment, in these trying times; but I am able to determine the return-on-investment to be nearly 100% because I know how the goods I suggested sell in my country. The few Lebanese immigrants who are the big time business men in the country with the seed capital to acquire these goods from Europe, the US, and elsewhere are clearly seen to be making huge, huge profits. This is no hidden fact. It is actually difficult for me to produce supportive documentation to confirm this, I only know and all my colleagues know, these Lebanese immigrants in our country are very successful in business and they only sell general merchandize which I want us to do as well, and I am determined to see us excel.

Again, to tell you a little bit about CADS, abbreviation for the Center for Alternative Development Strategies (CADS) Sierra Leone -- CADS is a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Sierra Leone, with a network outlet in the United States.

The establishment of CADS Sierra Leone is a crucial strategy to contributing towards the stable and peaceful development of Sierra Leone and to lead Sierra Leoneans out of the deprivation and despair that cloud their troubled lives -- and guiding them toward brighter, dignified and happier lives.

CADS Sierra Leone is therefore a people's local action for development. CADS exists to successfully make the poor to overcome bondage, misery and suffering using practical alternative development strategies as instruments of social change. CADS helps people to organize themselves and ascertain their rights and train people to utilize development infrastructure, overcoming the impediments, and CADS seeks to make Government function where there is indifference towards suffering of the weaker sections of society.

The center pledges its loyalty to the Laws governing the operations of non-governmental organizations in Sierra Leone and the world at large, to reaffirm its humanitarian commitments to honestly address the empirical needs of its target groups and communities in the areas of rural, social, community development, health education, gender issues, agriculture, appropriate technology, relief rehabilitation, skills promotion, human rights and small business promotion and consultancy services.

CADS Sierra Leone is therefore generally intended to revive the civil structure of Sierra Leone. The center's fundamental objectives include the following:

To motivate, organize and facilitate the development and functioning of farm associations to effectively coordinate programs that address the developmental needs of the rural people.

To support and conduct training programs in a wide range of developmental areas such as rural, social and community development, human rights, gender issues, appropriate technology, small scale industry, skills and trades promotion, agriculture, health education, relief and rehabilitation, and small business promotion and development.

To promote agriculture and entrepreneurship development by establishing demonstration farms, credit schemes, marketing outlets, and income generation activities.

To also advocate for a more compassionate and impartial international community action for support and donor assistance to local NGOs' important work in Sierra Leone.

To share information and assessment of development needs and opportunities.

To identify and discuss critical development problems facing Sierra Leone.

To draw the attention of the Sierra Leone government and civil society to workable development alternatives for Sierra Leone.

To generate sufficient resources from various fundraising activities including promoting trade along the West Coast of Africa for profits which are then used to support the projects and programs of CADS Sierra Leone.

Is CADS Global Network a United States entity? Is CADS International Sierra Leone a United States entity?

CADS Global Network is not a United States entity per se. It's basically a kind of an operation which is very instrumental in presenting CADS to the international community -- seeking business partners, and seeking funds for the various developmental programs of CADS. We do not have a European office of CADS. We have friends in Liverpool, England called Norton Stewart Investors in Central Liverpool who own commercial ships. We have been talking to these people the past one year, and we hope and pray to be in business with these friends in due course -- hopefully.

Which office maintains the overall authority for the operations and actions of the other 2 offices?

CADS Sierra Leone in Freetown maintains overall authority for the operations and actions of CADS, though I wield so much authority as a founding father, President and CEO of CADS Sierra Leone.

Is CADS Global Network a separate entity, or a "sub" entity of CADS International Sierra Leone?

Again, CADS Global Network is basically an action we are undertaking in Denver actively presenting CADS to the international community, finding investors, seeking funds for our programs in Sierra Leone.

Please clarify what the difference is between an International NGO and a local NGO.

International NGOs are NGOs established in the west which are presenting the misery in Africa to compassionate citizens in the developed western countries to raise funds on our behalf in Africa, then in turn sending their expatriate staff to Africa to work trying to help alleviate our plight in Africa. Local NGOs are indigenous NGOs like CADS Sierra Leone appropriately registered in Sierra Leone, managed by indigenous activists like myself but always finding it difficult to raise funds because all the funds from the international community are channeled through International NGOs like Africare, CARE, Action Aid, among others which end up sending more expatriate staff to run these programs from air conditioned Pathfinders and plushy offices while our people continue to be poor and deprived.

Is CADS Global Network a local or International NGO?

Again CADS Global Network is just an action undertaken by me to better describe my action in trying to raise funds for our programs in Sierra Leone through trade promotion, and projects design and funding. My colleagues in Freetown properly liaise with me, doing on the ground researches when I ask them to, especially when I am not in Freetown, and they send me feed back wherever I am, thanks to the internet, and together we develop projects, and I then have the responsibility, through my very effective global network action submitting these projects globally expecting positive results.

From the constitution of CADS Global Network, I understand that the elections are held every 2 years for the Seating Board of Trustees. Is it acceptable for a trustee of the Seating Board to be re-elected?

It is acceptable for a trustee of the seating board to be re-elected for as long as the center needs him/her, and he/she does not betray the trust reposed. CADS Sierra Leone is a private establishment of very compassionate and dedicated individuals who have a vision to help their country through individual sacrifices and commitment. Not everybody is willing to make sacrifices and to share the burden of deprivation with the rural poor we are so concerned about. I personally, I am deeply affected by the abject poverty of the rural poor. I do feel very troubled seeing them living lives of extreme shortages. I just want to be there for them and certainly after my world travels, once I am able to secure very dependable partners and we do have a steady flow of income from business prospects, I will then care less about writing projects to submit to grant making agencies who almost always deny local NGOs in Africa funding but freely give to international NGOs like OXFAM, CARE, you name them, instead I will be with these people for the rest of my life, just making sure we work together with the available resources I will gain from benevolent business partnerships I would have succeeded to consummate.

To how many terms may a trustee be re-elected to the Seating Board?

It is acceptable for a trustee of the seating board to be re-elected for as long as the center needs him/her, and he/she does not betray the trust reposed. There are very few compassionate people in the world, and CADS is interested in people who are dedicated and committed to uphold and promote the ideals of the organization. There are currently 3 members on the Seating Board of Trustees, and 5 staff members by the last name of Kamara : Is this a "conflict of interest" in any manner, for this organization as an NGO, and is listed as a non-profit organization? The last name Kamara is common along the West Coast of Africa. It does not connote we are biologically connected. About 45% of the population in Sierra Leone carry the family name KAMARA. In Guinea about 35% carry the name Camara as spelt Camara in Guinea. And in the Gambia again I will say 35% carry the name Camara as spelt, and in Mali another 45% with the family name Camara as spelt. In Sierra Leone we spell our Kamara, KAMARA; and all the different tribes (13 we have) have majority of families carrying the family name KAMARA. So, the five listed staff members with board member status, we are not at all biologically related. We are all Sierra Leoneans though, with a common goal to help our people through our concerted effort and selfless sacrifices. And there is absolutely no conflict of interest. We are just trying to make a difference in our lifetime pursuing common objectives we have set for ourselves. Of course the difficulty of getting honest and dedicated people from the business community or the civil service makes us less concerned about accommodating most people in the board. Our emphasis is having the target beneficiaries themselves represented in the board and we listen to them a lot because they are the people we exist for. We have various heads -- chairmen and chairladies or mammy queens as we call them from all affiliate associations as board members. So in most sessions of the board we will have not less than 25 participating board members mostly constituting heads from the various affiliated associations meeting to discuss issues and brainstorming on solutions.

Does CADS Global Network have independent legal counsel?

We have a legal counsel. He is Amadu Koroma, Esq. Mr. Koroma (the center's legal counsel) holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College (1986) and a LLB from Fourah Bay College's Sierra Leone Law School (1994). He had also recently completed a 4-month course on Human Rights and related issues at Columbia University in the United States (April, 2001). He also runs his own private law practice in Freetown.

Does CADS Global Network have an independent accountant full-time, or at least 1-2 independent accounting audits, annually?

We do not have an independent consultant. We have our National Coordinator, Mr. Brima Wagen Kamara, an accounting graduate from Fourah bay College, very brilliant and very honest and dependable chap, who is officially National Coordinator -- Development and Accounting Operations. We are not biologically related. I hailed from Makeni and he hailed from Portloko -- two very distinct towns. He is a Konike Temne, and I am a Bombali Temne. He joined CADS in 1998 as Program Accountant, and is now National Coordinator because he has proven to be very honest and dependable and we are making tremendous progress with the available resources we have to work with our rural partners.

What controls have been established, to ensure Fiscal Responsibility?

We have since taken very strict measures to ensure fiscal responsibility, as we have Alpha Timbo who is currently Minister of Industrial Relations, a founding member of CADS and Supreme Advisor to CADS as prime signatory to our CADS account, and notwithstanding his rigorous schedule he is doing a lot to help oversee the operations of CADS especially when I am out of the country. Alpha Timbo is a very dependable colleague who has accomplished a lot for the country. He was Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Teacher Union for many years, and during his tenure in office he managed hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Union, and the new administrative building of the Union is as a result of the fiscal responsibility of Mr. Timbo during his tenure. He appropriately used funds for what they were given for. It is as a result of such conduct that he is able to earn the Ministerial position he now holds. He is working with me very closely as he is a founding father of CADS too. And I trust with his constant support we will not let you down.

How may I obtain the 10-K's for the last 3 years?

What reporting periods does CADS Global Network use? We did an annual report covering the period since 1998 through 2001. The war that ravaged our country which reached its climax in 1999 and 2000 affected our operations because our operational areas were directly affected as such not much was achieved but we were able to prepare the annual report for the period covering 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 which did publish in our website. And you can also get in touch with the Ministry of Development and Economic Planning NGO desk to confirm they received and verified our annual report. This ministry supervises the operations of all NGOs in the country, so you can contact them to cross check information about our work and performance. Our accounting year ends April, so in three months time we will have our annual report for the year ending April 2002, and this will be ready by may 2002. I understand that funding is received from International NGO's, businesses (both domestic to the United States, and abroad), through membership registration and subscriptions, and private donors.

Are the Companies listed on the "CADS Global Network" links page, funding donors for CADS International Sierra Leone and/or CADS Global Network?

The companies listed on the CADS links page are not funding our CADS programs. We do share development information, and if they have conferences they want us to attend they let us know. Like in 2000 the Summit on Africa invited us and I was able to attend the National Summit they held in Washington DC, I was there for a week, and travel expenses including Hotel costs were paid for by the National Summit on Africa.

Please provide a detailed breakdown outlining the percentages and annual US dollars provided by the various donation sectors mentioned above.

Again, the companies or organizations you are referring to have not provided us with any funds. We otherwise get funds here and there from other organizations like the Commonwealth Foundation in Britain which gave us close to 3000 British pounds sterling, the FAO which continues to help us with fertilizers, and fees we are collecting from volunteers from the United States and Europe (we charge up to $4000 as volunteer fees which helps us greatly in financing our operations. And we do have a small scale business going which supports our administrative costs like paying staff salaries (not the $360,000 minimal outlay you purported but modest salaries like Le160,000 (that's about $80 a month for our center's National Coordinator which is good enough compared to what the government is paying junior civil servants). We buy goods from Conakry, Guinea which we bring to Sierra Leone to sell. We do not have funds to buy goods from the US, say buy a container of goods, like what I am dying trying to convince you to do, to help yourself and help our program as well. And we cannot use the small funds we are collecting here and there to engage in full scale import and export business when we have farms to cultivate and we cultivate our farms according to crop seasons.

Please provide a detailed breakdown outlining the usage of the funding received annually.

Again, the usage of funds we pick up here and there all used to support our farms project. Right now we are trying to cultivate over 300 acres of swamp and upland rice so that by next crop season we will have enough seeds to give our rural partners who are working with us on a joint venture through a unique system we are promoting - the Communal Farming System.

Let me just explain to some elaboration about the history of this system and how it works: There are reportedly 400,000 farm families in Sierra Leone (about 60% of the population). From these families, among others, an estimated 120,000 labor in diamond and other mining enterprises are drawn. The average life expectancy of 42 years is among the lowest in the world, and may have declined somewhat during the past decade. The combination of health and nutrition problems which result in a very low life expectancy ensures high ratios of dependents working adults. There is also a rapid rate of urbanization arising from lack of general economic opportunities in rural areas and possibly the lure of cheaper food in Freetown.

All these factors taken together have raised the age rates needed to obtain labor for agriculture. Generally, from the above stated statistics, the agriculture sector has been one of the viable sectors in the country that has benefited a lot of people through individual initiatives. It has benefited medium to small scale farmers, and most are subsistence producers. Food crops produced include rice, cassava, yam, sweet potatoes and vegetables. And CADS Sierra Leone has been very supportive in providing needed assistance to these farmers to improve their productivity and economic development.

In November 1996 the center's research and development department conducted a Needs Assessment exercise trying to find ways to develop a more viable agricultural sector development scheme that would enhance farmers productivity as well as helping the center toward financial independence, more so supporting its extension work that is capable of helping more and more small and medium scale farmers. The Communal Farming Systems strategy was thus recommended and by 1997/98 planting season this unique system was proven to be a workable agricultural strategy for sustainable rural community development.

Notwithstanding the escalating rebel activities in the country, most participating farmers who were participating partners of CADS in implementing the CFS strategy were able to harvest their crops and derived their percentages, and CADS also derived its percentage from the harvested crops. The CFS strategy now intends to build on the experiences of this proven agricultural development strategy for sustainable rural community development by consolidating and extending it to the village communities of the Gbonkolenken Chiefdom in the Tonkolili District.

The CFS agricultural development strategy which benefited 17 rural communities in the Koya and York Rural in 1997/98 planting season therefore emphasizes ways of increasing the productivity of labor employed in agriculture, making agriculture more economically viable as well as making rural communities more habitable. The center observed during its 1996 Needs Assessment exercise conducted in the Koya and York Rural Districts that farmers have a very serious problem in terms of access to rice and vegetable seeds, farm tools and fertilizers which for a long time have affected the potential for expanded agricultural production. The CFS agricultural development strategy was thus carefully designed to address the problem of farmers access to farm inputs.

The CFS approach is a joint venture strategy promoted by CADS among its member farming associations. The system is offering full time cooperation with farming associations. The rationale for the strategy is the center's responsibility of providing its farming associations with all the tangibles they need to improve the productivity of, and returns to farm labor. These tangibles refer to farm inputs - seeds, tools and fertilizers and food-for-work which have a money value to access which most farmers could not afford.

CADS, through the CFS agricultural development strategy demands village communities to form Communal Farming Associations comprising of individual small farmers who join these associations, headed by the village chiefs and/or elders. The rationale for this is to make it easy for the center to deal with small farmers in the various village communities through the farming associations.

The center's CFS strategy therefore provides for the center to work directly with the farming associations, entering into a CFS joint venture agreement which dictates the center providing farm inputs to small farmers in the various target rural communities, through the farm associations, in return for the small farmers who are members of the communal farming associations to provide the land and labor. The CFS strategy itself encourages farmers independence. The center works through farming associations headed by the community chiefs and/elders, and this provides the independence for village communities to work among themselves which makes the system very effective. The Chairman or chairlady of the various farming associations in the target rural communities receive the farm inputs provided by CADS as dictated by the CFS joint venture and they distribute these inputs to their small farmers subjects only when they have verified their small farmer subjects have secured farm lands and have the labor to carry out the work. As such the small farmers are subcontracted by their farming associations. In general, the majority of small holders operate under customary land tenure laws in these rural communities which, among other things, permits and recognizes the rights of individual families to access community lands. These rights, covering allocation and usage are granted through tribal custodians of chiefs and elders, and remain valid so long as the land is tended.

The bottom line of the CFS agricultural development strategy is the sharing of harvested produce to ensure the economic development of participating farmers, and the continuity and sustainability of the program. Therefore, 15% of harvested produce is first secured by the center. This is properly processed and properly stored by the center as planting seeds meant to be given back to the farmer during the next crop season for cultivation. This ensures continuity and sustainability of the CFS program. The center then consults with the farmers to help them market the remainder harvested produce. And the marketed proceeds are then shared as follows:

I. 55% of the proceeds from harvested produce marketed is received by every participating farmers. CADS as an entrepreneurship development and business promotion non-profit as well will then work to motivate farmers benefiting from the CFS project to invest some of the % of the percentage proceeds benefited to start or develop their own post harvest income generation businesses. This is necessary because it makes the difference in their capacities to start and sustain individual productivity and much needed post harvest businesses. Farmers are motivated to put their money to work in very small businesses, such as making food products, or crafts, soap making, gara tye dyeing, farm tools making (balcksmithery), etc. to sell. These small businesses generate income, along with a renewed sense of accomplishment and self esteem. Equally important CADS provides vital business education to these farmers and through follow-up visits the center ensures farmers maintain basic records also providing follow up training as necessary and assisting farmers in solving problems or in securing additional resources where possible. Thus, the farmers we serve through the CFS program are full partners, not beneficiaries of charity. These farmers are hardworking and eager to make life better for themselves and families. CADS Sierra Leone provides the missing elements to help them achieve their dreams.

II. 15% from each participating farmers goes to the farming associations. CADS ensures that the 15% received by the communal farming associations from participating farmers are accordingly utilized by way of funding community projects like supporting health centers, provision of educational materials to disadvantaged rural school going children, feeder roads construction, and/or maintenance.

III. CADS is receiving 30% from harvested proceeds to be utilized in related administrative and extension services costs. CADS has a vision to be financially self sustainable in due course. The 30% is therefore a necessary derivation from the CFS joint venture to strengthen CADS in order to be able to independently pursue projects in future without having to suffer the usual delays and rigorous donor support procedures the center's continues to experience.

Our Salalary Structure ...

CADS is a third world grassroots NGO in Africa, not the INGO in the corporate-superbly-developed United States where corporate executives take away big pay checks. In Sierra Leone the highest paid civil servant receives not more than $500 a MONTH as salary. In fact it is only western expatriates working for international NGOs like CARE International, Africare, Action Aid who are receiving up to $4000 a month in salaries. We are a developing country, and our standard of living is not too demanding like the standard of living in the United States where one pays say for instance in monthly house rent like $800 a month. In Sierra Leone that $800 rent will pay for over a year's rent of modest housing. So that makes Sierra Leoneans, though receiving meager wages, are managing to cope with day to day survival.

I further understand that CADS Global Network maintains financial responsibility for the Sierra Leone Headquarters office.

Again CADS Global Network is just an action undertaken to better describe our action in trying to raise funds for our programs in Sierra Leone through trade promotion, and projects design and funding. Our colleagues in Freetown properly liaise with us, doing on the ground researches when we ask them to, and they send feed back, thanks to the internet, and together we develop projects, and the Network then has the responsibility, through our very effective global network action submitting these projects globally expecting positive results.

Is there an additional staff in Sierra Leone that CADS Global Network maintains financial responsibility for?

The additional staff we recently have is a volunteer from the Wisconsin, the United States we are not paying. In fact he paid volunteer fees to CADS, and he arrived in Freetown on the 15th of January, 2002 and is having an inspiring experience with my colleagues in Freetown. You can call our office at (232 22) 224839 to talk to him, perhaps he will tell you more about our work and how we are trying hard to make a difference, no matter how small. Mr. Chad Simmons will be with our CADS program in Freetown till April 12, 2002. To view a copy of his volunteering briefing for your knowledge, visit the link from the homepage.

Is CADS Global Network also financially responsible for the Europe office, and is there an additional staff at the Europe Location?

We do not have a European office of CADS and we do not have additional staff in Europe. We have friends in Liverpool, England (not the computer friends, but the friends with the commercial shipping vessels) we have been talking to the past one year. And we hope to be in business with these friends in due course -- hopefully.

The primary objective of CADS Global Network is to encourage dialogue and disperse information, to inform the international community to the plight of the Sierra Leone people. Because of the war issues within Sierra it has been difficult to promote business ventures, effectively because it's being so difficult to convince investors that business is still good in the country. The few Sierra Leoneans, especially Sierra Leoneans resident in Europe, who are lucky to get investor friends they take to Sierra Leone are really making it big in various businesses. The war issues have not deterred them. Besides since 2000 Sierra Leone has the highest number of UN troops compared to all areas the UN has maintained peacekeeping troops in the world. And we also have a good number of British troops in the country. And this means also that the economy is good because these troops are paid in US dollars and they do spend money in the country, so money is circulating, therefore business is not bad at all. But only the brave and determined investor, a seasoned business man with an independent resolve will understand that business will do very well in Sierra Leone.

The website "Home" page refers to "Patriot Ventures" as a profit generating enterprise to provide the CADS Global Network with financial security. Is this financial security for the maintenance of salaries and offices, or is this money to support the actual people of Sierre Leone with needed food, clothing, tools, fresh water with proper sanitation, and proper health care?

As explained earlier, profits generated from our business prospects promotion are appropriately used to support our developmental programs, to finance our agricultural program which we believe will provide sustainable help to the rural partners we are concerned about. Though a small percentage of proceeds will obviously be used to support our operational needs, but it is the overriding principle for using over 80% of proceeds generated as commissions from profits generating enterprises to help rural farmers. Then of course, if we do make some good commissions down the road and we are able to save some $$ adequate to import general merchandize to sell, we will go ahead and just do that - kind of reinvesting our commissions to generate more profits to strengthen our CADS program. But our Communal Farming System approach is our priority agricultural development strategy we are determined to succeed with and we hope to make it a blueprint for all NGOs - local and international, working in third world Africa to adopt if they are really serious about helping disadvantaged rural people to develop economically, giving them a hand up.

CADS Sierra Leone is an organization that has pledged and very serious about helping the rural people of Sierra Leone help themselves. Our CADS mission has been to offer a hand up - not a handout - to a people known for self-reliance and pride. So we just need the funds to do exactly this. That's why without apology for raising the subject of "sustainable stability, peace and development" we are seeking support from compassionate Americans like you to work with us in Africa. And with the help of compassionate people like you, we are breaking the grip of poverty - community by community, family by family, child by precious child.

Is there no funding available to support the business venture prospects? Why doesn't CADS Global Network simply use donor funding to implement the center's proposed business ventures?

Absolutely no funding is available for such activities. No grant making organization is providing funds to invest in business prospects. This initiative of NGOs creating a business promoting network as a fundraiser is a new phenomenon in NGO development. Actually it is a strategy first thought of by an NGO in South Africa sometime around 1996. The same year I contacted this NGO to learn more about the strategy and I was able to get pertinent justification of the strategy which makes real sense to us in CADS as we were all frustrated over the donor fatigue constraining our development aspirations which the South African NGO reiterated to me. So since 1996 I have been working on getting some compassionate investor, though more effort on this became intensive in 1998. Though I have not ultimately succeeded to get a compassionate investor to work with us, I am perseveringly hopeful that one day I will get a compassionate investor interested in reaching out to troubled people in Sierra Leone by doing business with CADS/Patriot Ventures, not donating money freely without anticipating profits, but investing to make profit, at the same time will be helping Sierra Leoneans by giving a decent commission to us for our genuine and honest effort which we pledge to direct to CADS, the NGO devoted to helping disadvantaged rural people.

Is CADS Global Network requesting "Venture Capital" funding for the proposed business ventures, or is it requesting "Investment" funding?

CADS Global Network is not particularly interested about technical language of tax accountants to describe what it is doing. Technical descriptions like "Venture Capital" or "Investment" with a more technical definition do not matter to us. All we are simply concerned about is getting the compassionate benevolent business partner capable of independent resolution to venture into West Africa to undertake business prospects CADS Global Network is promoting with optimism to succeed with the focussed goal to making profits from exporting and selling needed merchandize in West Africa, then of course helping CADS with a commission the center will share with its rural partners. In protecting the interests of our business friends we are aggressive, and we do superbly manage any trust reposed on us and we are innovative just to make sure we do not cause loss of any investment made.

"Patriot Ventures" is the name of the CADS Global Network business prospects project? The "for profit" company created by CADS Global Network, is Global Endeavors, Inc.?

Global Endeavors, Inc is Patriot Ventures. We decided to change the name for the center's for-profit outfit from Global Endeavors, Inc to Patriot Ventures this year because we thought what we are doing for Sierra Leone is patriotic enough so we want to reflect that in the name of our for-profit action, that, what we are in fact doing in seeking profitable business prospects is not for ourselves but for the very patriotic motives of using commission earned to help our rural compatriots.

This is a "sub" entity of the NGO? Separate Legal and accounting representations than that of CADS Global Network?

Patriot Ventures (previously called Global Endeavors, Inc.) is a sub entity of CADS Sierra Leone, separate with independent accounting representations as we are required by the Laws of Sierra Leone to pay sales tax to the Government. So, Patriot Investors is independently registered with the Income tax department in Freetown and we have already import and export licenses we paid for that mandate us to do any kind of business. While CADS Sierra Leone is a registered NGO, registered with the Ministry of Development and Economic Planning.

Who is the President / CEO of Global Endeavors, Inc.?

As President & CEO of CADS Sierra Leone my responsibilities are inclusive of Patriot Ventures. Why does Global Endeavors, Inc., (a "for profit" company), NOT bear a portion of the financial responsibility that has been asked of the outside investors? Patriot Ventures (previously Global Endeavors, Inc.) though for-profit does not have the funds to bear financial responsibility that has been asked of the outside investors. We are a network hopeful of serving compassionate investors in Africa for a commission that will help the for-profit entity grow and be able to support the nonprofit entity which is CADS Sierra Leone. If we honestly have the funds to do what we are asking outside investors to do I would not be belaboring on the action of seeking investors. I could have just import goods into Sierra Leone and make all the profits for the cause we are passionate about, than working so hard to find some compassionate business friend we can serve who will in turn give us some portion of his profits. It is a fact of life that you can get everything you want if you help enough others to get what they want.

What services does the company provide?

We are offering tremendous potentials we would like prospective investors to evaluate. We are business promotion agents and coordinators of the Center for Alternative Development Strategies (CADS) Global Network deeply interested in working with investors to engage in reliable and very lucrative businesses in Africa. CADS Global Network is the result of nearly ten years of Business Research & Development, a professionally developed network of development and business projects.

CADS Global Network is an open-end development, trade and investment promotion operation. Significantly, CADS Global Network generally strives to seek cooperation with foreign partners who have the basic technical and capital investment potential to invest in West Africa for the maximization of profits beneficial to the parties involved. We have the know-how and extensive, high level regional contacts in West Africa. We are very serious about assisting committed exporters and manufacturers in their overseas expansion.

Our main region of expertise is "West Africa". We provide Sales support, marketing and Legal Research. A dedicated network of key people in Sierra Leone, Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia and makes us a strong asset to your organization. The bottom line is, we have inside information you need on any business proposals you have and wish to take up in Africa. Tell us what you want to do with your resources to maximize profits, and we would be proud to be able to provide you with such cutting edge information to help you establish and thrive in an increasingly lucrative business environment in West Africa. Africa, as a matter of fact, is a paradox, second in size and population among the continents and arguably the richest of all in terms of natural resources. Emphatically, the African market is one of the most rapidly growing in the world today. West Africa is expanding its economy and there are good opportunities to participate in the growth.

However, here more than ever, you need the expertise of professional agents like CADS Sierra Leone and its Global Network to guide your investments through foreign waters. CADS will provide you with the opportunity to participate in the growth of the West African market, other details.

We therefore encourage you to benefit from these established facts about our continent, and our expertise, particularly in the mineral rich countries of the West Coast of Africa. At CADS we practice sustainable business practices as a team event. I mean we are so motivated and inspired to share every bit of information with our international partners. Our intentions are not just for financial gain but to help our international partners see the real essence of their investments. And we are very passionate about seeking and protecting the interests of our international partners. We have seen some investors' resolve constantly tested in an environment of unethical business practices in Africa, but in CADS and its we stick closely to our discipline of seeking fundamentally sound businesses, and ethically conduct ourselves with a Code of Honor that surpasses all.

We believe this strategy will reward our international partners and our CADS program for a long time. How and from where does the company receive payment for services provided? Patriot Ventures receive payment for services rendered to investors who are given representation and protection of their investments in Sierra Leone. And, when I am contracted as business escort or to conduct business feasibility studies in West Africa by prospective investors, I am paid a fee. For in stance in March last year (2001) I was contracted by some Chinese investors to escort them to West Africa - visiting the Gambia, Dakar, Guinea and Sierra Leone to investigate the possibility of setting up a seafood factory in any of these countries that shows to have flexible and more accommodative trade laws. It was a two-week adventure for me and I was paid $7000 as fees which included my travel and hotel expenses. And I was able to save about $3000 after all the exercise, an amount I committed to CADS we eventually used to buy seed rice by bushels and farm tools for our CFS program. I did what was required of me by these Chinese friends, photo I took with them in Dakar appended, and they since returned to China and I am still expecting them to return to West Africa when they have got themselves properly organized to set up in any of the countries of their choice we visited last year. And I also anticipate I will still be needed by these people when they actually proceed to establish their seafood processing factory. I am always patient, and I am waiting, waiting for many prospects to materialize. It's because CADS Global Network has not got the funds to do what it is asking outside investors to do that's why we are asking for a compassionate investor to operate with us in good faith and optimism that all will be well. We do not promote product that will not sell. The product once properly packaged and securely sealed by the shipping company will not be damaged and once in Freetown we will be as devoted and efficient enough to secure all goods in good order in time to sell. And we do not seek investor friends to work with us to mismanage or misappropriate the trust these compassionate investor friends repose on us.

What assurances and "goodwill" can CADS Global Network offer to ensure, that product is sold at an appropriate profit, that all product and sales have been properly accounted for and are accurate?

Products are sold COD, that's how most business transactions are done in Sierra Leone. I am not saying however there will not be some few people we have known to be in business for long and are credit worthy we are not going to allocate some merchandize and collecting full payment say in 2, 3 or 4 weeks later. There are some credit worthy successful business compatriots we will work with. That has always been the case in doing business in Sierra Leone.

Our overriding goal is to sustain a very durable trustworthy friendship with investors. If you are going to be our first success story of having a compassionate investor willing and independently resolute to risk it with us, for God sake, I am going to lay my life for you, and my colleagues will understand where we have come with our struggle to lay their lives as well just to succeed with this and I can tell you we will sell at an appropriate profit and will properly account for all product and sales honestly and accurately.

We will gladly welcome any investor(s) to visit Sierra Leone and some West African countries with the CEO of CADS, then they will have the opportunity to verify most of what I have been saying and we are doing. I will be more relaxed and trusted if you are also involved in our West African operations for you to see for yourself and just nurture more faith on what we are doing.

With a smaller venture, such as the "Used Goods Business Prospect" that you and I have been discussing, is not CADS Global Network able to bear part of the financial risk?

Again, we do not have funds. The small, small funds we are able to scrape here and there we are already investing in this crop season seeds multiplication program we are working on at the Gbonkolenken Chiefdom. We are even looking for more funds to expand on our seed multiplication farms projects so that by the next crop season we will be fully prepared to launch a full scale commercial CFS farms project hoping to cultivate over a thousand acres of swamp and upland rice with our rural partners. So, in fact, we have just developed a project document our volunteer friend from the United States, Mr. Simmons is helping us to submit to various grant making institutions for funds.

Upon reading the "NGO Survey 2001", I understand that CADS Global Network has secured 4 agreements for product, for the Patriot Ventures Business Prospects initiative. 3 agreements are from Liverpool for computer product. The 4th agreement is from Pakistan. The commission for each of the agreements is 10%. Have any of these agreements actually been carried out successfully and profitably?

Who and how were these ventures specifically assisted by CADS Global Network? Supporting documentation of successful and profitable Results? Yes, we entered into agreements with companies in Liverpool and Pakistan - agreements signed but actual work never commenced because these companies, especially the computer company in Liverpool and the tent company in Pakistan, only provided me with boxes of brochures and small pieces of tent material respectively they expected me to use to promote their products. They therefore put me in an impossible position. We cannot walk into any department or get a retailer to pay for a product(s) they have not seen. We asked these companies to entrust a container load each of the products they had to deliver CIF Freetown and to give me 90 (ninety) days period to provide returns-on-investment, but they could not do that. Therefore we could not perform in any way. The tent we would have sold to charity organizations and the UN for refugees scattered along the West Coast, the computers and security systems I would have sold to big institutions and government departments. But we had to prove to prospective buyers that we really have the products in the country to deliver not just seen on a brochure.

I am presuming that currently, competition is minimal for the "Used Goods Business prospects?" How will CADS Global Network assist in ensuring proper competition, yet ensure that the competitive edge is not lost for participants within the CADS Global Network "Patriot Ventures" project?

We will ensure proper competition if we are able to maintain the quality of products shipped. And our strategy is to import only products we know the market is available for. We will not just be stuck with one product. Market research is part of our business conduct.

For the "Used Goods Business prospect", is the commission 10%? Will it be requested after the 3rd shipment as we have previously discussed, and is it retroactive, including the first two (2) shipments?

Will there be a 10% commission, thereafter, for each future shipment? Yes, we do always propose 10% commission, and down the road, if you think it is reasonable for you to give us an increase in appreciation for our hard work and honest conduct we will most welcome such generous gesture. Yes, we anticipate after the third shipment we will gladly look forward to taking the first tranche of commission, certainly retroactive, to include the first two shipments, as that will help us greatly to support our rural projects. And we will prefer to take commissions after every three shipments. We prefer accumulated commissions taken than taking the 10% for each shipment.

For what services or needs will this 10% commission fulfill? i.e. Will the full 10% or some percentage of the commission, go to the needy people of Sierra Leone in the form of food, tools and/or healthcare services?

The 10% commission is for our genuine effort to represent and protect your business interests in West Africa. We will do all the hard work of selling for you to generate the profits you are looking for in international business, and we believe, though you are the undertaker of ALL THE FINANCIAL RISK, as you put it, it is still reasonable for us to earn a small portion of the profits we will be making for you for our part in helping you sell. Again, the commission we anticipate earning will go to buying seed rice in bushels, fertilizers, farm tools that will directly go to our rural partners.

Will some percentage of the commission go to Global Endeavors, and for what purpose?

Patriot Ventures (previously named Global Endeavors) is more or less part and parcel of CADS Sierra Leone. It is a strategy of CADS, an enterprising network coordinated by CADS officers to raise funds to support its developmental aspirations.

Will I be required to bear financial responsibilities other than the pre-arranged commission, not having to do with the licenses, import/export/storage taxes and fees, purchase, insurance and shipment of product?

We do already have import and export license since we registered Patriot Ventures as an enterprise in Sierra Leone. The financial responsibilities we are asking of you are purchase of merchandize, and shipment of merchandize CIF Freetown Port. Custom duties and any other charges which are minimal can be negotiated to be paid after sale of goods.

I understand that research has been done… however, what supporting evidence and/or documentation are you able to provide, demonstrating a profitability time frame of 60 days, with an estimated return-on-investment of 100%?

Supporting evidence and/or documentation in this kind of business is difficult to produce, but can be justified by simple Math. We are buying a pound of used goods for less than $1. And we know a pound of used goods sell in Sierra Leone for not less than $5. This is how it works, for a pound of clothing you will have at least 3 pieces of say T-shirts to make up the pound, and we know from market research that a good used T-shirt is sold at least $3 in Sierra Leone, so with 3 shirts making a pound we are looking at 3 (shirts) multiplied by $3 (each) would be $9 retail price. Therefore, if we are selling whole sale to retailers we will then reasonably sell the pound at least $5.5 or $6 leaving some room for the retailer to also make some profit.

Bottom line, what we are asking of you is to have the goodwill and good faith with great optimism that we are not trying to take your money but to serve you, to work with you, while we pursue our common goals to eventually help needy people in Sierra Leone without knowing in fact you are helping because you will be taking home profits for yourself too. I won't get you into a situation you will lose your investment. Just do not even anticipate such thing to happen. Myself and colleagues are apparently consciously working as a team and we are committed to conduct ourselves with integrity as we are determined to prove ourselves worthy of trust, once reposed on us by any compassionate business partner, as we are very much determined to make CADS an NGO to reckon with.

Yes, of course, reasonable losses happen at times, but that too we will work harder to avoid. And you should believe, if I have signed agreement with you, there will certainly exist some form of legal or financial recourse. Sierra Leone too has laws. We have a Police Department now headed by a British expatriate therefore commands integrity. But be rest assured I want us to work as long as it takes. Trust me, let's proceed to start without delay to building a strong and mutually beneficial relationship. Be assured that I will bend over backwards to protect and represent your interests in Sierra Leone and to accomplish everything I have emphasized to you.

To Know More our Busines Prospects, Send Us an Email at: CadsIntlPrograms@aol.com or Call Our CADS Global Network -- USA Office at:
1-720-351-5520 or Our CADS Sierra Leone Headquarters at (232 22) 224839.