Written by: Mark Foreman/Project RENEW Committee Chair
As some of you may know, last January the VFP Board of Directors agreed to act as the fiduciary between Project RENEW and USAID if Project RENEW could secure a 6.8 million dollar grant from USAID. Project RENEW's grant proposal is designed to help Vietnamese victims of Unexploded Ordinance and the affects of Agent Orange. Project RENEW submitted it's Concept Paper to USAID in early April and USAID responded with a letter of rejection in mid-May. USAID rejected Project RENEW's Concept Paper for two reasons:
- The province that Project RENEW was proposing to expand its services in is considered to be a low priority province for purposes of assistance by the government of Vietnam.
- In terms of Project RENEW's technical approach, USAID found that their Concept Paper did not present a clear plan for physical, occupational and speech service delivery. USAID claimed that Project RENEW's technical approach didn't assure sustainability of these services.
The staff of Project RENEW believe that USAID's reasons are false, so on May 20th, Chuck Searcy, along with Chuck Palazzo and Suel Jones, met with the USAID Grant Review team in Hanoi to appeal USAID's decision. The USAID Review team agreed to look at a new Concept Paper from Project RENEW, but they would have to have it done in two days (May 22nd).
If Project RENEW can deliver the new, revised Concept Paper to the USAID Review team by May 22nd, and if the USAID Review team accepts it, Project RENEW will then be required to present a full grant proposal by June 2nd. Chuck Searcy believes that they can do it.
I will keep our VFP members updated as this process continues.