Drama with SKIP! and problems with migraines and my knee :(

So, there has been drama lately with our organization for months now... but I should say that we only find out recently that there is drama because we were not an active participant in the drama.

Basically another organization here has for some reason felt threatened by us (and i'll elaborate on my thoughts of why) and created a mock website pretty much having copied the front page of ours (literally copied.. like a print screen copy or something) .. and what i mean by mock website is that they used the domain www.skipperu.xxxx (something else, ours is org) and then at the bottom they have something about the "REAL" history of SKIP and then they have a banner saying something about how our director in 2003 stole their project and named it SKIP. this eventually links to his site.. where he has yet another link to a webpage devoted solely to naming all the ex volunteers who "stole" his project, took it somewhere else, and renamed it...

So... my thoughts on why this guy feels threatened and has started to pick on us... apparently from things i've heard and read from ex volunteers of their organization (and i know a few people who used to work for them) is that despite the outragious volunteer program fees that they charge, the volunteers are not supplied with even basic materials such as paper and pencils for the projects they are doing... that among other problems (such as the organization not doing nearly half of the things it claims on it's website)... so basically the thought is that if the money isn't going towards the program... ... it's going into a particular someone's hands... so that being said i'm guessing we are a threat because recently a few people have chosen to come to our organization instead of theirs, taking away his precious income... it seems that he's been watching us for a while though because we only launched our new website format in january, and it appears (from his whois on register.com) that he coincidentally updated his mock one.

In our research to find out what else he may have been writing about skip, we came across quite a many negative reviews about that organization.. actually, an ex volunteer had told me that she had done some investigation on various projects that this guy claimed to be in the budget and turned out that these projects do not exist, but her apartment was broken into and her computer and files were all stolen... she decided not to further pursue this.

We were thinking it may be a good news story because from reading all the reviews (and from personal experience of some folks we know), it seems like theres a pretty good chance there is fraud going on.. and this is quite unfortunate because it is taking advantage of a giving community and putting a really bad slant on it. I would imagine he may be receiving grants and other sorts of funding... it is unfortunately if all this stuff is actually true that this money is going into one person's hands instead of helping a community that is really in need. I'm not one to yell and scream "DOWN WITH THEIR ORGANIZATION!" but if what's being claimed by many people is true.. then someone needs to expose what's going on... alas, none of us know any journalists... I dont even know that this would be a big enough story anyway, despite my thought that they would find out he and his wife are running a fraudulent game...

Anyway, it's annoying that he's bringing our name into it.. it just looks unprofessional for the both of us to be playing this "SKIP stole my project" game. When has helping a community been an original idea to steal? And besides, we are far from doing what he's doing... we're actually spending our money on projects that we claim to be doing.. and no one here is getting any sort of "profit" (except hopefully the families we are working with... hehe well and the intrinsic rewards for us of course; but lets not get cheesy here). :)

On another note.. ive been having quite a few migraines.. have i mentioned before i think how much MSG is in the food here.. i'm thinking this is a likely contributor.. also seems to happen on the few weeks that i have decided i need a bit more energy (such as the last 2 weeks pounding away at the nursery planning).. and divulged in some chai tea for the caffeine... and i haven't been so particular on the foods i'm allergic to (which also seem to be related to my migraines)...

another ailment i woke up with was my knee in a bit of pain.. it's right in the front of the knee slightly to the right (on my right leg) its swollen and hurts to put pressure on... probably didn't help that i attempted to surf today. i say attempted because although the waves were beautiful today, they were slightly over my level and i barely made it up for 3 seconds twice heh..