PEOI 2003 Annual Report

PEOI

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL

2003 Annual Report

Table of contents

Programs

» New Courses
» Country representatives
» Designing materials
» Web development

Teams

» French team
» German team
» Arabic team
» Chinese team
» Spanish team
» Russian team

      Dear volunteers, dear donors, dear students, dear all:

      2003 is the year in which PEOI became an organization. What made PEOI an organization is the network of over two hundred volunteers working together in a multitude of tasks assembled into programs of writing courses, translating, writing and designing materials, building relationships with educational institutions and reaching out to new students. It isn't just the number of volunteers, but the manner in which they interact that creates a community, and at the heart of this interaction are the program coordinators. As will be clear below, PEOI's successful programs are those supervised by coordinators. PEOI is fortunate to have several coordinators that are outstanding leaders and motivators.

      Naturally, it is difficult for a virtual organization to convey a sense of belonging when group members do not see each other, and are located thousands of miles apart. Knowledge of other volunteers working for the same goal is therefore essential. To that end, volunteers are asked to register with PEOI and to join a group. Then, they can exchange emails with the coordinator and other members. They can also participate in group discussions, and read the opinions of other members.

      This registration process also allows records of most work performed by authors, translators, editors and other volunteers to be created and compiled. For instance, the procedures "List of authors" and "Edit text" show in great detail what each member of the group has been doing, and what remains to be done in each program. "List of volunteers" gives the names of volunteers in all the programs, and access to a volunteer's background and contribution records. To protect privacy and to maintain the integrity of members' records, non-registered visitors are only given a volunteer's profile, but do not have access to most information in registrations, nor can they participate in group discussions: only other registered volunteers can. For a good illustration of how PEOI decisions are starting to be the product of a shared vision, one can visit the group discussion on the design of PEOI logo, vocational courses and ESL development.

      This Annual Report is mostly made up of reports of PEOI's various groups and personal testimonies. As such it is intended to show current and potential volunteers, as well as outsiders, that PEOI is indeed a community. The Annual Report also pays tribute to the enormous efforts of so many generous and humble individuals. PEOI's mission of delivering free universal post secondary education for a better world could be just a dream. But PEOI's volunteers are making this dream a reality. Thank you PEOI's volunteers.

John Petroff
PEOI Executive Director

Table of Contents

Programs

In 2003, the emphasis of PEOI's strategy was put on developing new courses, translating existing courses, recruiting partner institutions, writing and designing materials, in addition to maintaining PEOI's website and perfecting its procedures. (Studying by students is taking place without costor effort for PEOI, as can be verified in the section dealing with students below, and as intended in PEOI's mission. Student recruitment is not currently a priority, and student course completion will not be of importance to PEOI until courses are part of complete programs of study which are accredited, and for which PEOI can award diplomas. In other words all PEOI's efforts in 2003 were focused on course offering expansion.)

Table of Contents

Program #1: New Courses

It is PEOI's goal to deliver courses of professional or graduate level, and to obtain accreditation for its curriculum in order to award degrees that aspiring professional would want to seek. Writing an entire university level course is considerable work. PEOI's volunteers who commit themselves to such a task must receive the deep gratitude and admiration of PEOI's students and entire community. Such is the case of Kishori Mundargi whose course on Programming in C is approaching completion. Another outstanding effort is that of Kalyani Suresh whose course in Mass Communication has already attracted a significant number of students even though it is not quite finished.

" I am associated with PEOI for almost a year. I have worked in the IT industry for five years and Electrical industry for three years. I volunteer in order to share my learning with others, to network with others and in the process learn and enhance my knowledge. I was impressed by the mission of PEOI, that is, to make quality online education available and affordable to all. Moreover, the best part of PEOI is that it is not targeted towards one country or one field of education, it is accessible to everyone irrespective of their location. Being from India I want to promote PEOI in India through my friends and contacts. . "

Kishori Mundargi from India living in NJ, USA
Author of Programming in C

The following standard university level courses have been started in 2003:

Thank you to authors of university level courses

Course title

Proposed by

Food technology

Sassi Kittithumkul
(faculty #48) from Kasetsart University, Thailand

Managerial Economics
Jason Solomon (faculty #36)
from Georgia State University, USA

Programming in C

Kishori Mundargi (faculty #9)
from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, India

Web design
Anthony Grace (faculty #21)
from Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

Windows 2000 server administration
Karen A Allen-Smith (Staff Volunteer #19)
from University of Phoenix, USA

"Working as a volunteer at PEOI will allow me the opportunity to assist in the construction of a course that may benefit disadvantaged individuals, who have a dream of entering the technology field. My desire to teach and instruct others will be an asset to PEOI."

SAS programming

Divya Ravishankar (faculty #18)
from Rutgers University, NJ USA

Mass Communication

Kalyani Suresh (faculty #118)
from University of Madras, India

"M Phil in Mass Communication from the University of Madras (1998). Submitted thesis entitled “Internet and Children: A Study of Factors Related to the Uses of Internet Among School Children” Professional background Underwent training in editing and reporting for a local daily and also at the Audio Visual Research Center, Chennai."

Project Management

Elizabeth Cregan (faculty #53)
from University of Maryland, USA

"17 + years experience as an IT consulting project manager, responsible for all aspects of business consulting services, planning and personnel development.. Successfully managed many high-profile, multi-million dollar consulting engagements within schedule and budget.."

Fundamental Statistics

Vinata Kulkarni (faculty #29)
from Illinois Institute Of Technology, Chicago, IL USA

Political system

Mike Yawn
from Plato, TX, USA

Principles of taxation
John Petroff (faculty #4)
retired from State University of New York, USA

Although university level courses are essential, PEOI is also realizing that it must respond to more modest needs of professionals who may not find employment simply because of poor language skills or insufficient basic technical knowledge of a vocational nature. Consequently, two new programs, ESL and Vocational Training, have been started at PEOI in 2003, and are discussed below.

Table of Contents

English as a Second Language (ESL) Program

The need for ESL courses was most effectively expressed by Tay K. Young (staff member #17) following requests from students in China, in particular. Consultation with program coordinators led to the formulation of a curriculum made of five course levels. The plan is to offer similar programs for at least French and German, once ESL is completed. Recruitment for ESL course authors started in August 2003 and has attracted 45 expressions of interest. Ten volunteers registered and have started work on ESL level 1. This joint effort demonstrates how course content material is developed by a number of individuals with different skills such as creating lecture plans, writing content, designing supporting illustrations and handling audio files.

" I learned about PEOI while visiting the NetAid web-site looking for an opportunity of on-line volunteering. I became greatly interested in this project because it was just the thing I have been dreaming about for a long time. This assignment was interesting for me because I believed it would be a great thing to share my knowledge and experience with other people especially- what is the most important- with the people in need. I realized I had enough knowledge and professionalism to perform well in the task I would be given. It was very important for me that I will have a chance to devote my time and effort to people whom I can help. Besides, as my younger son is only 3,5 months old and I am not working at present, this work will give me a good teaching practice and experience. I must admit that when my work as a PEOI author was started it turned out just what I was looking for and dreaming. I am very happy. Thank you for giving me this great opportunity to help disadvantaged people all over the world. "

Kira Vladimirovna Polevaya from Gomel, Belarus
ESL Course author

Thank you to ESL level 1 course contributors
Name	Responsibility
Ann Cowan (staff #47) from Canada	-
Sara Day (staff #53) from UK	-
Jean Delgado (author #151) from USA	Chapter 1
Kelly Jennings (staff #73) from USA	-
Jill Jodrey (staff #78) from USA	-
Alison Manche (author #152) from USA	Chapter 2 and 20
Kirsten Mathieson (author #136) from Canada	Course outline
Kira Poleyeva (author #165) from Belarus	Chapters 15, 19 and 25
Erica Sharma (author #149) from Canada	Chapters 6, 16 and 22
Silvia Vargas (author #154) from USA	Chapters 3 and 13

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Vocational Training

Among those who advocated offering vocational training at PEOI was Dian Dogan (staff #21) from Indonesia. Country representatives and other volunteers expressed support for such a program. In November 2003, Maree Weir (board member #20) was appointed to the board of directors in part because of her experience in vocational training. As is evident from the following, the board was right in expecting visionary leadership for this program from Maree.

PEOI and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector

What is VET?
As learning and development needs of people evolve to keep pace with the evolution of our society as a whole, the once-distinct boundaries of VET and Tertiary level education become increasingly blurred. In some instances it is useful to think of VET as concerned with 'practical' application of skills, whilst Tertiary Education is concerned with 'theoretical' application of knowledge. However, by way of demonstrating the indistinct boundaries, the question should be asked: what does a medical doctor (tertiary educated) in a hospital do, if it does not involve 'practical application of skills'? It is for this reason that consideration must be given to the classification of offerings by the outcome produced in the learner rather than by the traditional terms applied to education and learning. Therefore, what is VET? VET is a term that is not useful for the purposes of viewing, or determining, PEOI offerings.

What could determine what PEOI should offer?
PEOI is unique for many reasons - one of which is that it has two distinct, sometimes conflicting, yet inextricably dependent, markets to satisfy. The former is composed of students without the means to attend a formal course but with a desperate need for the skills and knowledge delivered by such education, in order to improve the lives of themselves and their families. The latter is made up of universities and other institutions, which require fee-paying students to survive. A third set of stakeholders - and future possible market - is made up of the governments of developing countries. Such impoverished governments stand to gain innumerable benefits from the development, in their citizens, of the critical skills and knowledge required to lift standards of living and stabilise their economies.

Within the former market, the demand for services depends heavily on the development of the country within which the student resides. For example, fifty students may wish to study. A university may only offer tertiary-level education that will qualify those 50 students to become town planners. The country, on the other hand, requires 35 carpenters, 7 site supervisors, 5 building company managers, and 3 town planners. The result is that the majority of the potential students can see no benefit in studying to become a town planner when there are only three positions available, the University may only get a few fee-paying students, and the developing country does not get more residences built, and people housed - and may even lose motivated citizens to a more developed nation.

The win-win solution?
For PEOI, the solution lies in properly defining its markets - according to where application of least effort will bring the most benefit and the ability to meet its mission while satisfying needs both present and future.

The first step in this process is to narrow the focus - to determine which countries/regions (developing or otherwise) will benefit most from PEOI's services.

The second step is to identify the critical skills and knowledge shortages of those countries, and the types of education that will fill the gaps identified.

The third step is to classify the types of education addressing these critical shortages according to their level. An example classification system could be:

Functional - education which leads to the learner performing a hands-on function eg computer programmer, medical assistant, nurse, language teacher, physical therapy, welder.
Organisational- education that leads to the learner being an organiser of several different functions eg real estate (organises buyers, sellers, builders etc), commercial lending, Linux server administration, medical billing (organising doctors, patients etc), construction-site foreman.
Managerial- education that leads to the learner being able to manage organisational and functional elements eg hospital administration, public administration, mass communication, project management, care for the elderly, civil engineer.
Strategic- education that leads to the learner being able to contribute to a macro-view within their field eg political system/government structure, substance abuse programmes, economics, urban planning.

Last, but by no means least, progressive universities and institutions that are both flexible and customer-focused - and who are motivated to support PEOI's mission - need to be identified. The potential client base PEOI can direct to such institutions is enormous; therefore it is in such institutions' interests to be able to provide clear stepping-stones for students. That is, to provide course support at all levels, with the ability for students to articulate an accumulation of excellent work completed at lower levels, into some form of credit at the next highest level. It is with this facility that the institution can potentially gain a fee-paying client for life, rather than for the term of a traditional 'tertiary-level' course.

How do these diverse offerings affect the achievement of PEOI's Mission?

PEOI's stated mission is to provide free online university-level course content and, while doing so, provide a service to students, universities, corporations, educators and governments.

The offering of diverse levels of complementary course content neatly supports this mission, by the following:

Providing a more accessible entry point into education for potential students, some of whom may be intimidated or discouraged by the thought of 'tertiary' study;
Providing a clear pathway to higher levels of learning for students who enter at the lower levels, assisting to promote and support life-long learning and capitalising on the well-documented phenomenon that any learning leads to a greater desire to learn and grow skills and knowledge;
As a consequence of the former, growing the potential client base of universities and educators, increasing the demand for their services;
Increasing the pool of talent for corporations; and
Raising the ability of citizens of developing countries to help themselves and their nations out of the cycle of poverty.

Where does this path lead?
PEOI's view is necessarily a long-term one - the decision to establish such an organisation was with the goal of creating a better future for our world, through education. The offering of education at all levels can support and speed the attainment of this goal by the creation of a cycle of development through which people can see themselves progressing. The stepping up of a student to a higher level, in both education and employment, leads to the creation of a vacancy that another student can step into. Increasing the general level of education within a community in this way, improves the ability of that community to support and nurture its own sustainable growth.

As a consequence of the ongoing attainment of PEOI's mission, future pathways to consider, which may support continued growth, include:

Creation of formal partnerships with governments of developing countries- to gain financial assistance to help educational institutions create pathways where there are currently none, in areas that are deemed to be critical to the development of the specific country.
Creation of change champions from successful students - building in a 'return of service obligation' with students (particularly scholarship students), enlisting their assistance to promote and advocate for the system of education. This can be through working with the university or institution that supported their learning needs, or within their country by coaching and mentoring potential and current students.

Who benefits?
Currently, the main beneficiaries identified are students, educational institutions and governments. In the future, achievement of PEOI's mission makes major stakeholders and beneficiaries of us all.

Submitted by Maree Weir from North Queensland, Australia,
PEOI Board Member (board #20)

Acknowledgement is made of the contributions, to this submission, of ideas and opinions from participants in the PEOI's "Vocational Training" forum.

"Maree Weir is a typical 'aussie' with a house in the suburbs, ten minutes from the beach, a husband, four children and a dog. She works for a large government organisation in the education, training and development field, has her own consultancy business developing training programmes and is also a qualified (paid) sports coach (swimming and netball). In her 'spare' time she spends time with her family, performs volunteer work via NetAid Online, including for the READ Foundation in Pakistan, coaches kids sport for fun, hikes, scuba dives, swims, travels, reads and plays violin. She is thinking seriously about taking up triathlon, but is not particularly fond of pain. Her personal 'mantra' is that, 'one person alone may not be able to change the world, but the world CAN be changed - one person at a time.' She believes that education has the power to illuminate paths that may have previously been overlooked in the dark.. and that PEOI has the ability to provide that light to millions."

Maree Weir from North Queensland, Australia
Board member

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Program #2: Partner Institutions and country representatives

Reaching out to institutions of higher learning to make them aware of what PEOI offers and to locate potential course authors is essential for PEOI to carry out its strategy and fulfill its mission of serving everyone in the world. This tatic is especially important in developing countries from where 70% of PEOI students come from, and where PEOI is relying on country representatives to act as liaison with local institutions.

Joanna Chalmers (staff #9) is the program coordinator for the partner institutions and country representatives program. Included in this group are only the English speaking country representatives. French speaking country representatives are grouped with the French Programs presented below. Joanna has been with PEOI since May 2003 and has been instrumental in editing many documents for PEOI, including promotional and fund raising material, in addition to interacting with country representatives. Her input can be found in many group discussions and her presence in PEOI decisions is often vital.

Partner Institutions and country representatives

In March 2003, PEOI started looking for volunteers to approach potential partner institutions in their countries. The response of people willing to become country representatives for PEOI was encouraging. A total of 35 people volunteered, and although not all of these people stuck with it, quite a number did (around 30%). At this stage we have country representatives in the following countries: Pakistan, the Maldives, Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, and China. Some countries have more than one representative.

As the country representatives started on their mission, a few problems were encountered and issues were raised.

One of the major difficulties the country representatives encountered was the accessibility of the Internet. Tay K. Yong (Singapore/China) wrote: “I suggest that the ESL courses should not be e-learning type as it would be difficult for most of the poor students who do not have PC at all.” Bridget Adeoshun (Nigeria) wrote: “The new courses are good and surely will be welcomed, especially the English as a second language …it is quite a great task putting this information across to people / higher institutions in my country because of poor Internet availability, but however, they will get to know.” Muhammad Al Humaigani from Saudi Arabia also commented that e-learning was not common in his country yet.

However, despite this major obstacle and other difficulties facing people in developing nations, the country representatives were all enthusiastic about PEOI’s mission and about helping people in their own countries.

Thank you to all the country representatives for your hard work in 2003.

Thank you to volunteers working as country representatives
Name	Region or institutions served
Bridget Adeoshun (staff #13) from Nigeria "I decided to help PEOI just to help the less opportuned. In my country Nigeria, Internet service is not everywhere and also not at easy reach because you have to pay too much for it and those less opportuned cannot even afford it. It is not even available in most Universities and Higher Institutions of Learning. So far, my help include making those that are accessible to Internet services know about what PEOI has got to offer and that they too can help in developing new courses. "	Lagos, Nigeria
Muhammad Al-Humaigani (staff #70) from Saudi Arabia "To help people in Saudi Arabia benefit from the great educational opportunities which PEOI provides. "	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Suraj Buruah (staff #20) from India	Assam, India
Aitazaz Farooq (staff #14) from Pakistan	Punjab, Pakistan
Zakariya Hussain (staff #16) from the Maldives "I am highly motivated and interested in volunteer work . "	Galolhu, Maldives
Victor Muoneke (staff #30) from Egypt	University of Abuja Imo State University Abia State University Federal University of Technology Alvan Ikoku College of Education
Alfred Musa-Jambawai (unregistered) from Sierra Leone "I feel that the content and intent of the program can be quite useful in Sierra Leone. I believe that many students in Sierra Leone would use the material in some of their courses to achieve better understanding of their present subjects. Others may take the courses as a means to an end - thereby getting some sort of international certification, which they can use successfully in Sierra Leone to find jobs or to enter other Colleges for further studies. "	Freetown, Sierra Leone
Vinay Poddar (author #70) from India "Want to contribute to making people aware of technolgies and help them in learning new skills . "	Mumbai, India
Tarek Saba (unregistered) from Egypt	Faculty of Economics and Political Science in Cairo Modern Academy MSA University American University International University
Judy Wawira (unregistered) from Kenya	Nairobi, Kenya
XiaoGang Wu (translator #145) from China "I want do something that can help chinese poor student. "	Shanghai, China
Tay K. Yong (staff #17) from Singapore	China (Western provinces) and Maylasia
Mariam Zahid Malik (staff #27) from Pakistan "During my life i have been a volunteer at many places and it surely give me a lot of strength to carry on, therefore i want to utilise my abilities to its best." "I have been writing in the dailies of Pakistan but now i want to put my talent of writing to good use. I want to upgrade the situation of higher education in my country Pakistan . "	Lahore, Pakistan

Submitted by Joanna Chalmers from Perth, Australia living in Jamaica,
Partner Institutions Coordinator (staff #9)

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Program #3: Designing promotional materials

As mentioned in several reports, PEOI's activities require a number of letters, flyers, posters, official documents and various promotional papers to carry out its strategy. Designing these materials requires a variety of skills such as product specification identification,creative or professional writing, editing, translating, graphic layout and electronic publishing. Volunteers have been instrumental in creating high quality publications. Many volunteers, without doing the work itself, were very helpful in offering useful advice, and although many of these are not mentioned in the list below, PEOI is grateful to all of them.

Thank you to volunteers designing promotional materials
Name	Performed work on
Bakalli (staff #30) from Albania living in France "Background: I’m the general manager of a watch company in France with backgrounds in marketing and business management." "I joined PEOI because I believe that poverty can be eradicated in the world by giving people the right weapon i.e. education." "My commitment with PEOI started out with the translation of the first pages of the macro economic courses and progressively I joined the logo design project with all the willing people, John, Sandrine, Berengere…and of course all those who expressed their ideas. Working to achieve a qualitative logo was a hard exercise but we all agree that the result is very nice." "I am always pleased to see all the people communicating and highly involved with education…I believe that PEOI example is another good lesson that globalisation can be brotherhood, interest less help and commitment in order to give everyone a chance. I am proud to belong to the PEOI family. All I can add is to keep this spirit going, one day our will to give everybody a chance, and that will pay off."	Logo
Joanna M. Chalmers (staff #9) from Australia living in Jamaica	Flyer, poster
Sandrine Cortet (staff #11) from France living in NJ, USA	Flyer, poster, logo
Berengere Cortade (faculty #112) from France living in NY,USA	Annual Report, logo
Ann Feeney (unregistered) from IL, USA	Fund raising inquiries
Stephanie Malone (unregistered) from USA	Logo
Ron Silva (unregistered) from NY, USA	Flyer
MAKENGO SONGA Stephane (author #80) from Kinshasa, Zaire	Poster

PEOI logo redesign

In April 2003, John Petroff introduced on the forum a discussion about the re-design of PEOI's logo. Soon, several member volunteers were involved in the discussion and first ideas were produced. Following the forum suggestions, a team was put in place that gathered Marlen Bakalli (as a designer), Bérengère Cortade (as a guideline and methods expert), Sandrine Cortet (as a coordinator) and John Petroff (to give directions and prerogatives). From this simulating cooperation, we discussed several sketches that let us make out what should be PEOI's logo. With clearer strategic and specific directions, Sandrine and Marlen kept working on a new logo. The current version, produced in November, is Marlen's work. However, it is regretful that the final project is not totally satisfying. We may complete the work in 2004.
Special thanks to Marlen who was a dexterous designer and to Bérengère who enabled us to reach a well-thought-out creation level.

"Biography: Bérengère Cortade is a French national who mastered in Political Sciences with specialisation in International Relations in France. She then goes to England where she finds her first job as Account Executive in a leading graphic design agency. Back in France a year later, she progresses in the industry and is soon called back by her English employer. She goes back to England, with husband and child. Three years later - and a second baby later - she left her position of Account/Client Manager to follow her husband in the USA. Since then, she had another baby and embraced online volunteering, which gives her great satisfaction.

"I decided to get involved with PEOI because giving every chance to everybody for a good education has always been something I have strongly believed in. I began working as a translator, but as the subjects became more technical, I felt I couldn't deliver, so I switched to what I know best: communication strategy. I was delighted to see things progressing and hope that my contribution is as helpful as it is gratifying and rewarding for me."

Bérengère Cortade from France living in NY, USA
Translator and communication consultant

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Program #4: Web development and Translating

PEOI was initially written entirely in English. To fulfill its mission of providing education to anyone in the world, PEOI had to be available in as many foreign languages as feasible. In 2002, PEOI's structure was expanded to duplicate the English portion into Spanish, then French and Russian, and translation was started. In 2003, German, Chinese and Arabic parallel structures were installed. The translation of the material is handled by teams for each of the six languages, which are described below. The translation involves three types of files: general text, procedure text files and completed courses. The completed courses represent the most voluminous part and require familiarity with the subject matter. Translators are encouraged to localize the content of courses to make it more relevant to readers rather than just offer a literal translation. In some languages such as Arabic and Chinese, there are additional difficulties because of the character set and layout of the language.

Actually, the language teams are involved in much more than translation. They are encouraged to seek course authors in their language for subjects most appropriate for their region. In particular, teaching of each language is planned to duplicate the ESL program. Because of their location in distant lands, members of the team may act as country representatives and promote the use of PEOI in local institutions. Finally, each team is encouraged to develop a version of PEOI that has its own character and relevance.

To recruit the volunteers, PEOI has relied on a number of on line volunteer recruitment services. The most productive organizations turned out to be VolunteerMatch.org and NetAid.org to whom PEOI is deeply indebted. Among the other services where PEOI has been listed, Idealist.org is sometimes mentioned by volunteers that contact PEOI directly. PEOI is also listed on GuideStar and other non-profit directories. For all their help, PEOI extends a deep thank you to all the organizations that spread PEOI's information.

In the following sections, it will be apparent that the pattern of contacts of PEOI by volunteers differs significantly from team to team. The role of the coordinator, or someone who speaks on behalf of PEOI, is very important in the recruitment process.

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French programs

The French PEOI website structure was set up in October 2001. Most of the text was machine translated into French. Putting the machine translation into proper French did not start until Fall of 2002 under the guidance of Sandrine Cortet (translator #8 and staff #11). Sandrine did a significant portion of the translation, taking care of the entire course in Macroeconomics by herself. As her report shows, French programs involve much more than just translation and its energetic development promises to make French PEOI of great usefulness throughout French speaking countries, as can be verified by the comments of French speaking students presented below in the Students section.

French team

"I have decided to commit myself in things I really believe in. As for me, access to education should be a right for anyone anywhere; I followed up my commitment for PEOI in 2003. It was an exciting year for me because most of French speaking volunteers were really motivated. Even if each of us is working in his country by himself, I really feel like we are a team. The atmosphere is warm and friendly. It is great to share the same purpose with people from everywhere and to think that we may, even at a small scale, help the world to improve."

Sandrine Cortet from France livinb in NJ, USA
French Programs Coordinator

Under the efficient coordination of Sandrine, the French team set itself the goal of animating and developing the French section of PEOI. It achieved this objective through the implementation of two main programs:

the translation of courses and of the site's French section
the promotion of PEOI within the French speaking countries

The French team developed its strategy around two areas: the recruitment of more French speaking volunteers and the development of a communication strategy:

recruitment of more French speaking volunteers
- by posting ads on the internet: in March 2003, ads for "French translators" and then for "French speaking country representatives" were posted on different volunteer's search sites, including NetAid, Volunteers Opportunity Exchange (Canadian website), Place Publique (French website), Volunteer Match and Idealist;
- by managing the French volunteers as a coherent team: in March 2003, Sandrine was appointed to act as French Programs Coordinator
development of a communication strategy in order to find out the relevance of PEOI in some French speaking countries and to promote PEOI in French speaking countries

Since Spring 2003, a collective reflection was lead with several PEOI members to outline a communication strategy. Among other realizations, this work resulted in the collective conception of a flyer, a poster, a logo and interactive tools such as a forum on the site. In a more or less long term, PEOI is to become a real platform of exchange between teachers, students and employers.

" I sincerely believe that the world needs more volunteers and generous hearts. I decided to join PEOI to give unfortunate people the opportunity to live up to their dreams through free educational material. I myself from a third-world country where half of the population is illiterate and its impact is enormous at all levels. Some of us cannot leave our daily routine, families and obligations to join physical fights against poverty, wars and else, but thanks to our keyboards we can bring something to others who have a little. Thank you PEOI for giving us the tool to lend a helping hand. "

Nadia Serhani
Translator from Morocco living in VA, USA

Backgrounds and profiles of volunteers are multiple. People of any ages, students, workers or job searchers, professional translators, financial analysts, sale expert, journalist, hotel reservation manager or future UN volunteers… are gathered here. Each one works at his/her own pace and according to his/her availability and in a major he/she is good at. Each time it is possible, I make a liaison between volunteers. They sometimes help each other, for translation technical questions for example. Some volunteers who have started their commitment by translating or teaching quickly showed interest in getting involved in other activities too. Paulin Gbesso is one of them. He is both a translator and a country representative in Africa. Stephane Makengo is a teacher and he did not hesitate to take contacts with other teachers in his university in Congo. He has also redecorated the poster. Laurent Cazalet, translator in microeconomics, may create a glossary to complete economics courses. Marlen Bakalli and Bérengère Cortade, both translators, were the key members of the logo creation team. Bérengère is still working about communication strategy and site improvement.

" I got to know PEOI through a volunteering website and I really appreciate the way I was integrated in the team by Sandrine and John. I had the pleasure to translate texts in an area I am not an expert in: accountancy. So I had an opportunity to learn and help other people to learn. "

Sandrine DOSSOU-YOVO
Translator from Cotonou, Benin

PROJECTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Translations Courses
Macroeconomics	completed
Microeconomics	13 chapters completed out of 16
Accounting - Part I	1 chapter completed out of 12
Accounting - Part II	2 chapters completed out of 14
Financial Analysis	12 chapters (ongoing) out of 16
Communication supports and PEOI website
Website texts	Almost completed
"Support" section	Needs to be rapidly updated in order to recognise the great work already provided by the French team
French flyer	completed
French poster	completed - thanks to Stéphane Makengo for having brightened up this promotional support.

COUNTRY REPRESENTATION

Before sending the country representatives to action, we opted for a discussion about what should be their roles, their objectives, and the most relevant methods according to the specificities of their areas. We decided to work in two directions: to find new courses in French and to reach new students for PEOI.

First, we focused on Africa. Paulin Gbesso is living in Togo. Didace Baranderetse is in Belgium but originally from Burundi and Stéphane Makengo is based in Congo. We agreed about a geographic partition in accordance with the travel abilities of each one and closer to social realities than national borders.

" It was a pleasure for me to bring my contribution to PEOI for an education for everybody especially for deprived people. During 2003, I translated texts into French and I also commited myself as a country representative. I diffused posters in several universities of Togo and Benin. PEOI still needs help to kit out the country representatives so they will be able to convey the message. Moreover, internet access remains an issue for Togolese and more generally for African people. It is a challenge to face for 2004 and the following years. "

Paulin A. GBESSO
Country representative, Sokodé, Togo

The most difficult for us to figure out was what kind of majors should be searched for new courses. Maybe the "professional" term of PEOI needs to be clarified in 2004. To avoid the issue, we decided to target new teachers according to opportunities and following students' demands.

The right interlocutors appeared to be the teachers themselves in universities. So we made frameworks for letters to send and each representative collected addresses and contacts. We waited for the logo to be fixed to make first contacts in order to use the flyer. The logo was almost fixed at the end of December so 2004 will be the good time to reach teachers. Beside, the representatives had diffused the poster in universities and in various student organizations. Soon we had received demands for courses in sociology, bee breeding, and English as a second language. Students who wrote pointed out their need for financial support, which is an important issue in Africa. We may think about finding a course about financial supports for student. Another concern was about the lack of computer and network equipment in those countries. For this reason, we suggest to work on partnerships with non-profit organizations that provide computer materials or financial support.

Emmanuel Coulombeix joined the team at the end of the year and will work in France. Other representatives would be welcome to build an efficient network in 2004.

Because finding new courses is not an easy thing, we also asked students to share essays, reading reports or other materials on PEOI's site. Some web sites already provide this service in France but none is free of charge. Moreover, in that way, PEOI would develop a relationship with students. Notice also that we received a technical question about economy from a French student. Nicely, Professor Salomon answered and the student was very grateful.

" I was delighted to discover PEOI and his honorable purpose in July 2003. It touched me straightly and deeply because I am originally from Burundi, a small country in the South, where access to education, even it is a right for any child, remains a privilege. Very few people can benefit the wonders brought by the World Wide Web there especially concerning virtual training. As a French speaking country representative located in Belgium, a small country in the North where education and training are not a privilege- because it is basically compulsory and free for all children- and where a small number of PEOI students are enrolled, I had the opportunity, via the French Programs Coordinator, to meet French speaking country representatives from Africa with whom we have enriching discussions about the relevance of PEOI objectives regarding an African target audience. "

Didace Barenderetse
Country representative from Burundi living in Mons, Belgium

FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Such as English as a Second language, we think a French course could be relevant and would attract students. A framework is ready to build the course. So we just have to find a French teacher in 2004.

As a conclusion, we can say that the French section has really taken off in 2003. However the number of French speaking students is still very low (less than 30). Let's hope 2004 will be as dynamic as 2003 and allow PEOI to make a real difference for French speaking people who need free professional education.

Submitted by Sandrine Cortet from Dijon, France,
French Team Coordinator (staff #7)

Thank you to volunteers of the French programs team

Name

Work performed

Gbesso Assouan (translator #109) from Sokode, Togo

Country representative for Togo and general text translator

Bertand Baudelet (translator #22) from Beloeil, Belgium

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 1 and 7

PASCALE BOLAZZI (translator #47) from Cagnes-sur-mer, France

Microeconomics Chapters 13 and 14

annabelle Boussault (translator #123) from Angers, France living in UK

General text

Didace Barenderetse (staff #65) from Burundi living in Belgium

Country representative

Anne-Cecile Cabot (translator #34) from Fougères France working in Thailand as a teacher for deprived children

"As for me, access to education is a right for everybody; I have supported PEOI with a real pleasure. So during 2003, I took part in the team by translating microeconomics courses towards deprived students from English into French. I hope this modest contribution is going to help students who can not access to university in their country."

PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapters 11, 15, 16 and questions for same

Laurent Cazalet (translator #113) from Bruxelles, Belgium

"Giving my time in PEOI is to me an act of solidarity with underpriviledged people. I believe in education, as the best way to development, and as a mean to reach social justice. Joining PEOI, as french translator, made me discover passionate people sharing the same interest and dedicated to make something happen. It is for sure a very enriching experience. I'm now looking forward to seeing the content base expanded, and maybe, trying to go beyond the translation job to increase the momentum.."

Questions data bank for PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapters 1 and 2

Bérengère Cortade (translator #112) from France living in NY, USA

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 9 and graphic designing

Emmanuel Coulombeix (translator #143) from Soyaux, France

Country representative in France

Edith Daurier (translator #38) from Lovagny, France

Legal text

jean-francois de laulanie (translator #128) from Paris, France

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapter 2

Claire DERVISHAJ (translator #45) from Miramas, France

Chapter 1 and questions of PRECIS DE COMPTABILITE II

Sandrine DOSSOU-YOVO (translator #52) from Cotonou, Benin

"I have worked for 5 years in a Danish NGO dealing with sponsorship with focus on education. I am now working with USAID Benin as a Translator/Reviser. I do some frelance translation too."

Chapter 8 and questions for PRECIS DE COMPTABILITE II

Caroline Druet (translator #49) from Oullins, France living in Canada

General text

Delia Duncan (translator #122) from Cluj-Napoca, Romania

"Avec toute l'aide des nouvelles technologies et de l'information (dictionnaires en ligne, recherche sur l'Internet, connexion permanente a l'Internet, mon propre ordinateur), je peux faire des traductions (incluant le francais, l'anglais, le roumain, le hongrois) de n'importe quel domaine."

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 13

Damien Gourbiere (unregistered) from France living in GA, USA

General text

Odile Grisard (translator #59) from Paris, France living in NY, USA

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 5 and 6

Olivier Gujise (translator #117) from Manosque, France living in PA, USA

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 8

Naoual Jidal (translator #159) from Rabat, Morocco

PRECIS DE COMPTABILITE Chapter 3, 4 and 5

Danielle Kirk (unregistered) from Australia

General text

Lydie Laforet (translator #57) from Beaumont, France living in NY, USA

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapter 15, and Chapter 3 and 4, and questions of PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE

Cécile Lambert (translator #59) from Ris-Orangis, France living in Italy

PRECIS DE COMPTABILITE Chapter 1

Stéphane Makengo Songa (author #80) from Kinshasa, Congo

Author, graphic designer and country representative for Congo

Bakalli Marlen (translator #30) from Tirana, Albania living in France

PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapter 1 and 2, and graphic design

Samuel Michel (translator #166) from Haiti

PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapter 6

Yolène ORS (translator #54) from Montreuil, France

PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapter 5

Fifen Paul (translator #19) from Victoria, Cameroon

"Avec toute l'aide des nouvelles technologies et de l'information (dictionnaires en ligne, recherche sur l'Internet, connexion permanente a l'Internet, mon propre ordinateur), je peux faire des traductions (incluant le francais, l'anglais, le roumain, le hongrois) de n'importe quel domaine."

General text

Rachel Powell (translator #26) from Truro, UK living in VA, USA

"Early in 2003 I started to look for some voluntary work that I could do online, as I look after my two young children at home. Through www.volunteermatch.org I found PEIO, which appealed to me as I am studying university-level French with a dream of becoming a translator one day. My mother tongue is English so it is not natural for me to translate into French, but I enjoy the challenge and hope that my contribution is valued."

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 14

Sophie Richard Couarraze (translator #42) from Paris, France living in UK

ANALYSE FINANCIERE Chapters 4

nicolas roys (translator #111) from Nice, France

PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapter 3

nadia serhani (translator #114) from Casablanca, Morocco

"My will to help people who need education. My skills : ability to switch back and forth smoothky between Arabic, French and English. I have some spare time that i have to turn into rewarding actions."

General text

Gabrielle Shaughness (translator #33) from DC, USA

General text

Marie Gael Taverni (translator #125) from Rabat, Morocco

PRECIS DE COMPTABILITE Chapter 3, 4 and 5

Olivier TIA TIONG FAT (translator #40) from Orléans, France

General text

gwennola villedary (translator #32) from Montreal, Canada

"The most rewarding part of my job is getting to talk to all sorts write, and am very interested in education."

PRECIS DE MICRO-ECONOMIE Chapter 8, 9, 10, 12 and questions for same

Table of Contents

German programs

The German PEOI website structure was set up in March 2003, and solicitations for volunteer translators were placed that month. No translation was undertaken until Verena Voges (staff #10) took the team in her able hands. Efforts have been made to recruit German authors of university courses and courses of German as a Foreign Language.

German team

The German Translation Team started out in May 2003. As the months passed we slowly made our way through weird sounding machine translated "German" texts. Now most texts on the frontend of the website appear in German. Up to this day we unfortunately have not found a German webmaster. This means John Petroff himself functions also as our webmaster.

There is still a lot of work to be done. Especially the courses - the bulk of all translation work and, at the same time, the core of the PEOI project - need to be translated into professional German. This is our task for 2004. A team of translators has recently started to work on the first two courses: macro- and microeconomics.

The German Team consists of people from very diverse backgrounds: students, IT-consultants, marketers, teachers, chemistry PhDs, psychologists, to mention only a few. Some of them are living in Germany, some in other countries like Spain, USA and Great Britain. New volunteers keep coming, while other volunteers quit when their jobs and other personal duties do not leave them enough time for volunteering.

No matter how different the volunteers are, they have one thing in common: They want to contribute to a promising project like PEOI. Asked why they decided to volunteer for PEOI all of them answer that education is the means to help people help themselves. And, above that, the access to a profound free education is vital especially for people who cannot afford expensive schools or professional courses. E-learning via the internet offers an excellent opportunity to integrate further education with one's living circumstances. That is why they support PEOI.

Our goal for 2004 is to set up a complete German version of peoi.org with at least two courses running in German. After all, we want to welcome the first German-speaking student on the German PEOI-website!

Thank you to volunteers in the German translation team

Name

Material translated

Maris Sven Harster (translator #169) from Germany living in Spain

General text

Dorothea Edeltraud May (staff translator #28) from Munich living in CA, USA

General text

Svenia Nierling (staff translator #33) from Werl, Germany

General text

David Reuker (translator #55) from Stuttgart, Germany

Macroeconomics

Andre Voges (translator #51) from Konstanz, Germany

" I volunteered for the German translation project of PEOI courses. Mr. John Petroff subsequently directed me to Mrs. Verena Voges, coordinator of the German Translation Staff. She invited me to registrate in order to become a member of the staff. "

-

Diana Wieser (translator #77) from Ennigerloh, Germany

General text

Submitted by Verena Voges from Hamburg, Germany
German Team Coordinator (staff #10)

Table of Contents

Arabic programs

The Arabic PEOI website was started in July 2003. Translation started in September 2003 and progressed briskly after Karam El-Mubasher took over the coordination of the program, and energized the group. This group should be extremely proud of its superb translation, as well as its honed computer knowledge without which the Arabic pages would not appear as well as they do.

Arabic team

In his report conclusion, Karam, the Arabic Programs Coordinator, writes:

"New Goals:
1) Implement a new model for assignments of tasks.
2) Recruit more efficiently.
3) Create a more detailed annual report next time around, with more time to prepare. "

Karam El-Mubasher (staff #52) from Egypt living in CA, USA

" Biography: United States. Superior Court Mediator of Civil Cases, second year in a three year program law student with emphasis on international law (medical, business, space law), enjoys jogging, martial arts, journalism, travel, soccer. Hopes for peaceful world, but if this is not possible, will complete plan to take over Earth and rule with an iron fist."

"Comments: I joined PEOI because I still am able to find free time during the day which could be better spent doing my part for those having difficulties doing it on their own. I sense PEOI and its translators have become a vehicle that facilitates change at the deepest level - giving tools to others who can learn to use it for themselves. We are not in the business of teaching, and we are not in the business of politics. We are in the business of making sure that information is accessible so that people can make their own decisions, and gain the skills they choose to develop, through us."

"We all have different reasons for joining. But the end result is the same - this world becoming a better place through diversity and knowledge."

Karam El-Mubasher

Yasir Elsanousi (staff translator #76) from Sudan living in Libya

"Biography: I am in Sudan & Libya. I practice as a physician, specializing in infectious diseases and hygiene. I enjoy travel, computer (internet and web design particularly), literature and traditional music. Mixing with other people and making friends. I am hoping for a world with less diseases, pollution, ignorance and hostility."

"Comments: I am very impressed with the serious and dedicated humanitarian task they are involved into, and I feel it is the place where my humble efforts could add to their great work. I am looking forward to see an info-rich full academic site accessible to all learning seekers in the world and particularly in our Arab world. I am taking the challenge of translating the whole "Fundamentals of Economics I" course. I just started delivering the first chapters. I may have some comments regarding the site design, I will send them later."

Yasir

Naoual Jidal (translator #139) from Morocco living in Canada

"Given the purpose and mission of PEOI, I find myself sharing the same views: everybody is entitled and have the right to receive and have access to education. Most preferably courses are better understood when they come in the mother tongue. On the other hand, it is a way for me to help and give a hand to less fortunate people."

"PEOI assignments are a way to share and redistribute knowledge. Therefore, I consider it's a wonderful achievement in itself to join a volunteer’s team animated by the same spirit of warmth and enthusiasm."

"My current assignment as a translator is to translate Accounting I and II courses to Arabic. I also applied for French translation assignments concerning courses in Finance."

"I'm currently working on the first four chapters of Accounting I and work is going pretty well. As soon as I'm done, I'll be transmitting progressively to Karam for review and then posting them on PEOI web site."

Naoual

Mervat Al Sayed (translator # 119) from Syria

"Biography: I’m working as information officer at the Syrian - European Business Centre, a European Union funded programme for Syria. My hobbies are tennis, interior Decoration, reading and watching movies. I wish I could open my own bookstore and that I could help youth in my country to develop their education and interests."

"Comments: I’ve learned about PEOI while I was browsing the different volunteering opportunities set by Netaid online volunteering, and since I’ve always believed that education is an effective way to fight poverty and build well-functioning democracies and peaceful societies. I’ve selected PEOI assignment because I found that PEOI’s objectives meet with my beliefs and that their mission in spreading education all over the world is very noble."

"Although my contribution to PEOI was very modest but I’m really glad that I’ve had the chance to be part of this organization. My assignment was very simple; I have completed the translation of the Authors’ section in PEOI website into the Arabic language. Hoping that the Arabic website will attract more Arab students and that my Arab friends will learn about PEOI and will have the chance to benefit from the free courses and develop their knowledge and education."

Mervat

Ossama Nabil (translator # 136) from Egypt

"Cairo, Egypt, a freelance translator from English/German to Arabic. I like music, reading, football, and best of all; a good company! I feel lucky I could take part in the PEOI volunteer project; it makes my translator work more meaningful. I felt tempted to join the team when I started thinking of how important it is to do something to remember when I'm an old lonely pensioner!"

Ossama Nabil

Ely Ould Ahmed Salem (translator # 160) from Mauritania

" I consider the idea to help poor people through professional education a genial idea. Such a humanitarian enterprise would be benefic for thousands through the world. I decided to join this group to contribute to these humanitarian efforts and to exchange experience with other colleagues."

" I would like to share my experience with professionals in the same field and to learn from them we work together."

" I am working on Financial Analysis. I have completed Chapter 1 sections A and B."

"For recruiting more translators, we should consider making more contacts by joining translators at conferences and congresses"

Ely Ould Ahmed Salem

Tarek Saleh (staff #79) from Egypt

"I decided to join PEOI because I like to see it’s web site in Arabic, I want every thing, information, to be available for the Arabic communities, and because PEOI is a good idea that is helping a lot of people. .My goals is to help, if I can, to make the Arabic web site looks fine, and to help by that the Arabic speakers to know more about the world we are living in."

"My current assignment is to translate some pages and I don’t want to say its url’s for more than reason, and I think I could help the other volunteer to make their pages look good on the web site. I have completed more than one page with help from the other volunteers and I am very honored that any one can see it on the web site. I am working in the development field, environmental right, children care, human rights, refugees, no matter if I am volunteering on it or if I get money from it. It is all about how to help while you can help."

Tarek

Karmen Sakhr (staff translator #57) from Lebanon living in Brazil

"I joined PEOI because I am a true believer that everyone has the right to education and think that volunteerism is one of the means to improve our lives before others. in addition to being a human rights field former worker."

"My goals are simple. Joining a team in order to avoid becoming a marginal in life and giving some of what you have learnt (it could be helpful at times, even if at others it could be worthless!)."

"Pages translated so far: Partners / Employers / Support "

Karmen Sakhr

Submitted by Karam El-Mubasher from Cairo, Egypt living in CA, USA,
Arabic Programs Coordinator (staff #52)

Table of Contents

Chinese programs team

The Chinese PEOI website structure was set up in June 2003. Listings for Chinese translation volunteer opportunities were placed on Netaid.org and volunteermatch.org that same month and received an astonishing response: within 12 weeks, 18 volunteers had expressed an interest. Moreover, one volunteer, Guan Yu Lin (staff #32) had the qualifications to act as webmaster, and another one, Jian heng Luo (staff #28) had the maturity and energy to take on the role of coordinator. Work started briskly with Yanan Zhang (translator #62) completing the translation of all the chapters of Macroeconomics. A special challenge was posed by the Chinese character set which required to modify all PEOI procedures, but the reprogramming went smoothly.

Chinese team

" In China, a more efficient professional education, especially in experiential learning, is imperative. As a tradition, Chinese pay much attention to scholarly education, but neglect professional needs in practice. Nowadays, Chinese economies enhance quickly, the lack of qualified and professional workers and cadres has slowed down the development and the economic structure's updating. And professional education in one way or another is welcome and urgently needed. "

Jian heng LUO from Beijing, China
Chinese Programs Coordinator (staff #28)

Thank you to volunteers in the Chinese translation team
Name	Material translated
Ellen Dou (translator #79) from China living in Canada	General text
Yan Jiao (staff translator #62) from China " I happily joined the PEOI as a volunteer translater in July, 2003. I am assigned to translate Accounting II into Chinese. Initially, I would like to do what I can to help others to learn. As I move on, I find the more I translate, the more I learn from it. I believe what I do now values, not only to whom use it, but also to myself. Thanks PEOI for providing me such a good opportunity. " " I like to learn and would like to do what I can to help those like me. " " My background is basiclly from Electrical and Computer Engineer. I self-learned accounting and market management, as well as some investment strategies. I would be very glad to work with other people. "	Accounting
Ying Millie Lau (staff translator #29) from Hong Kong, China	General text
isidora Lee (staff translator #64) from Singapore studying in Canada " Presently taking the CTESL course and would like to gain working experience on teaching and marking. "	Procedure text files
Jianto Li (translator #158) from Shanghai, China " Just want to do something for others. "	Accounting and general text
Guyn Yu Lin (staff #32) from Taiwan studying in MO, USA	Chinese webmaster
Olivia Lo (translator #72) from Hong Kong studying in New Zealand	General text
Lo Nicole (translator #110) from Goungzhou, China " I found voluntary work very meaningful and interesting. I hope to learn more about translation through working on it. "	General text
Lo Shu Ning (staff translator #44) from China " I want to gain some experience as a translator. I found voluntary work really interesting and meaningful. "	General text
Jiani Wang (translator #78) from Shanghai, China " I just want to do some volunteer works.... "	General text
Wen Hua Wu (translator #66) from Shanghai, China " Just want to help all Chinese children who can not get the formal education due to any reasons. I have 8-months old child. She bring me many funs and she has a good environment to grow up. I do hope every child can be lucky like her. "	General text
Hailiang Zang (translator #36) from China	General text
Yanan Zhang (translator #62) from Beijing, China " I like volunteer activities and I like to help Chinese disadvantaged students as well. "	Entire Macroeconomics course
YU ZHANG (translator #69) from Beijing, China " To help the people in need. "	General text
Pei Zhi (translator #71) from China living in UK " I am a graduate in Computing science from University of Greenwich. I am confident that I have necessary skill and knowledge to do this job. And I like to contribute my knowledge to the world. "	General text

Table of Contents

Spanish programs team

The Spanish PEOI web site was set up at the end of 2001. PEOI received 45 expressions of interest to do Spanish translation in 2003. Translation started with much energy in January 2003 as Yolanda Dempsey completed the translation of all the chapters of Macroeconomia by April 2003. Unfortunately, no coordinator emerged from the group for any lasting period. Consequently, translation slowed as many volunteers dropped out. Completing the Spanish PEOI web site is all the more imperative because there are more new visitors to PEOI with searches of Spanish phrases than any other language including English. At the end of 2003, 20 volunteers are still registered, but most of the translation was performed earlier by the following volunteers:

Thank you to volunteers in the Spanish translation team
Name	Material translated
Miguel Arce (translator #17) from Colombia	Macroeconomia questions data bank
Silvia Belo-Tomic (not registered) from Australia "My name is Silvia, I am 33 years old and I live in Sydney, Australia. In 2003 I decided to start working from home as a virtual assistant and I found PEOI’s ad looking for Spanish translators. I worked for John Petroff / PEOI as a volunteer not for a long time and I helped with the translation of some pages in Spanish. Although it was a small participation, I am very grateful for being a bit helpful to John and his wonderful project of extending studies at no cost, which is an example that should be followed by many and many more institutions. I would like to invite you to visit my website on www.xpress-secretarial.com.au and please feel free to contact me in case I could be of any assistance. Thank you very much."	general text
Milton Caldena (staff #69) from Ecuador "BUILT EXPERIENCE WHILE CONTRIBUTING TO A GOOD CAUSE. - DEVELOP EXPERIENCE WORKING IN INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS RELATED TO EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - CREATE POSITIVE IMPACT WITH MY WORK."	general text
Patricia Casey (translator #29) from Argentina living in UK	Macroeconomia assignments living in UK
Javier Cosp (tranlator #20) from Paraguay	Economics
Yolanda Dempsey (translator #13) from Spain living in UK	entire Macroeconomia course
Isidora Lee (staff translator #64) from Singapore studying in Canada	procedure files
Kristin Lilly (not registered) from MD, USA	large portions of general text
Pamela Romero (translator #129) from Ecuador "I have been supporting ngo's with my translating skills, I am just trying to contribute with what I am good at, tough offering my services online"	Economics
Veronica Rubio (translator #27) from Mexico	Analisis financiero and general text
Blanca Suarez (translator #17) from Spain	Contabilidad I Macroeconomia
Marta Taboas (staff #59) from Spain living in Germany	general text

Table of Contents

Russian programs

The Russian PEOI web site was set up in 2002. In 2003, there were only eleven expressions of interest to do Russian translation. Yet, seven remain registered at the end of 2003, and most of the general text has been translated and some chapters of economics and accounting courses. The most notable translation was performed by the following volunteers.

Thank you to volunteers in the Russian translation team

Name

Material translated

Serdar Bayriyev (translator #44) from Turkmenistan

Accounting I
Economics I

Ashraf Hajiyev (translator #28) from Azerbaijan

Economics I

Mikhail Sher (translator #7) from Russia

Economics I

Table of Contents

Students

As of the end of 2003, there were 511 registered students at PEOI. The students are located in 90 countries with 28% in United States, 13% in India, 4% in China and Pakistan each, and smaller proportions in the rest of the countries. The gender of the students is heavily in favor of males with 77%. The age distribution shows a concentration of college age students with 28% under 20, 38% 20-30, and 21% 30-40. The students were enrolled in a total of 322 courses with Macroeconomics and Accounting I attracting over 100 students each. Traffic statistics show that most students come to PEOI after searching for information on the phrase of a concept that PEOI's courses cover (such as "npv formula"). This suggests that the most important method of attracting students is the quality of the content of courses. In certain months, search that produced the most hits was for Spanish words, which suggests the importance of completing the translation of PEOI courses.

Student course registrations
as of 12/31/2003

  Accounting I

107

  Accounting II

22

  Macroeconomics

106

  Microeconomics

24

  Financial Analysis

54

  Mass Communication

5

Total number of student course enrollment

322

Total number of registered students

511

The number of registered students does not necessarily reflect the true student population visiting PEOI because neither registration nor enrollment is required for studying courses. Naturally, the reason for this is to allow anyone to benefit from what PEOI offers. Unregistered visitors can even take tests for which grading and scoring are entirely automated (although if a person is not registered, test score records are not maintained). For instance, traffic statistics show that a large volume emanates from Greece, (more than any other single country), but there are only two students registered from Greece who are not even enrolled in a course. Furthermore, and as previously indicated, student recruitment is not currently a PEOI priority. Obviously, PEOI would like to have as many students as possible, but the current priority of PEOI strategy must be to develop courses and translate existing courses.

One may wonder what students think of PEOI. Below is a list of those students who chose to leave comments in the past 24 weeks. These comments have neither been edited, selected or sorted. They speak for themselves. They are also instructive of PEOI's student profile. Note for instance the importance of offering courses in languages other than English.

#	Student name	Comments
628	c sarin	"this site has been helpful in clearing most of my doubts. thx a lot! "
630	EARDLEYABAYARATNA	" I am employed as a Technical Manager.I am an Aeronautical Engineer. I look forward to completing your courses in Management, Finance and Project Management"
633	Damien ASSEYA	"Les cours me permettront d'approfondir mes connaissances en gestion. C'est l'occasion pour moi également de tisser des liens d'amitié avec d'autres étudiants."
658	Akahoulou BATCONAME	"J'ai trouvé peoi très interessant c'est pourquoi je désire m'inscrire comme étudiant pour bénéficier des cours de peoi. parce que je n'ai pas les moyens pour m'inscrire à l'Univresité"
662	david schwartz	"would like to take sas online course "
666	Novan Subagyo	"I want to know about financial value added or equivalent depreciation"
682	Harriet Hester	"Have completed 18 classes online with the University of Phoenix and have 4 more to receive my BSBA. This site will be very useful in my two managerial finance classes. Thank you very much."
701	Jason Eaton	"Cool idea."
705	mohan umasudan	"good work "
707	Fadli Alexander	"this site is ok for improvement "
708	N. K. Hemavathi kaveriappa	" good site...love to know more about it"
716	Edna Keili	"I want to develop a career as a chartered Accountant"
616	MOhamed MOUTAIROU	"Avoir plus de notions pour rencherir son vocabulaire."
604	barthelemy dossouklounon	" je serai heureux de travailler et de recevoir des cours sur ce site"
603	appolinaire akogninou	"je voudrais avoir les sur la science économique"
599	christophe Abalo	"J'espère que votre site me permettra d'acquérir de nouvelles connaissances"
595	yllias slawani	"je serais heureux de travailler sur ce site et d'en tirer le plus de profit"
580	Neeraja Maradani	"Would like to study microeconomics, macroeconomics and financial management"
548	sinan cafri	"I think such educational online programs are very beneficial to self-learner. And I think that this site will enhance my knowledge about financial and economical issues."
541	Shahzad Javaid	"PEOI IS PROVIDING VERY GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN ONLINE ABOUT ECONOMICS/ACCOUNT."
539	michael raymond oluk	"I would like to learn this package to keep me abreast with the modern computer world Thank you"
538	Tofan M	"Great "
511	ijaz shafi	"thanks "
509	Ngoie Kyungu	"I am a student at Manchester Business School Distance Learning, in MBA for Engineer"
504	Kunal Khanna	"Great work, and a good primer"
501	LUNGU BENSON	"I HOPE TO GET THE BEST FROM PEOI TO ENABLE ME SUCCEED IN MY LIFE. I WILL COMMIT MYSELF AND CO-OPERATE WITH ALL PEOI STUDENT REGULATIONS."
497	Olanrewaju Olowookere	" I found this whilst browsing the internet for Financial Analysis, and was excited 'cause this is just what I've always wanted - to understand Financial analysis."
496	fernando villasana	"I am interested in Financial Analysis because my own business"
491	jeff yeo	"Hope to improve my accounting knowledge"
489	Angela Vinny Lumanau	"What a great medium of learning your services are! I look forward to participating in your courses."
487	Ifechukwude Okonkwo	"Learnt about PEOI from the Netaid.org website"
485	Mariam Zahid	"I am applying for Project Management and Website Development."
481	M. Mukhitdinov	" I would like to learn about macroeconomics and computer programming."
455	Krishna Chandrasekharuni	" I am interested in Chartered Financial Analyst program. When I am searching for fundamentals of economics, I got your wonderful site. I am basically a IT consultant."
442	zhehong Li	"great Website!!"
441	Wasim Abbas	"The Site is Looking very good and contents too.

Table of Contents

Board of Directors

As of December 2003, PEOI board of directors consists of the following 13 members:

Name	Location	Background
Kenneth Barden (board #3)	Republic of Palau	Attorney
Ayan Battacharia (not registered)	New Jersey, USA	IT specialist
Bonnie Bracey (not registered)	Washington, D.C., USA	Educational consultant
Merryn Bryant (board #16) "Interest and qualifications in science and communication combined with an inherent interest in education and a desire to put my skills to good use lead me to volunteer. I am also taking on a 12 month contract in East Timor, as a Distance Learning Training Coordinator. My role there will enable me to gain a good appreciation and understanding of the requirements of Distance Learning organisations, which I can bring to PEOI and vice versa. "	Ainslie, Australia	Program Manager - ASF Limited
David Wah-Fuk Chung (board #7) "Graduate of PhD(Physics) from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Surface Physics division (http://www.ust.hk). Working as a Technical Manager in Specialized Technology Resources (HK) Ltd, a global provider of quality Assurance services. I was a poor farmer when I was small. Because of having the chance of receiving education, the living condition could be improved. Hence, I would like to make contribution in providing education opportunities to others. "	Hong Kong	Ph.D., quality assurance researcher, Specialized Technology Resources (HK) Ltd
Kimberly Cook-McDaniel	El-Paso, TX, USA	On-line instructor, IT and Human Services
Jeanne M. Henry	Terre Haute, MI, USA	Clinical consultant and psychological counselor
Poi Kee Frederick Low (board #17) "I had enjoyed serving on online volunteering assignments with UNV, WSIS and of course PEOI. Being a volunteer manager myself, I am impressed to see the number of PEOI volunteers growing day by day. It is a joy to join many others to share learnings and contribute to the development of individuals around the World. I proud to be associated with PEOI. - Frederick Low Poi Kee, MSc. B.SoSci. Certified Behavioral Analyst. "	Singapore	Programme Coordinator, TRANS Family Service Centre
Alan Main (board #6) "I read the requirements on the UN volunteer site and felt the aim of the organisation reflected my own belief in the power of education to enhance the lives of many people in disadvantaged communities. I hope to bring management, communication and strategic skills to the Board. I would be happy to assist in the recruitment of partner institutions overseas and to guide and motivate local volunteers. "	Hong Kong	General Manager, Roche Consumer Health
John Petroff (board #8) "To make universal post secondary education a reality taking advantage of internet cost effectiveness, I created PEOI. "	Conesville, New York, USA	Retired professor of finance and economics
Romina Sengara (board #21) "I am choosing to serve as a Board member in an effort to provide PEOI with resources and ideas for course and organization development. "	New York, NY, USA	IT Business Consultant
Stacy Speidel (board #22)	Rochester, NY, USA	Recruitment and IT specialist, A+ Consulting
Maree Weir (board #20) "To be able to contribute to what I see as the future for education - and help education be used to free, not to oppress. "	Sydney, Australia	Training and ESL, Australian Defense Organization

Some board members are more active than others. To make sure that board members continue to be interested in PEOI, bylaws have been modified in July 2003 to cause any board member who fails to take part in online board voting in two consecutive online board meetings, is automatically removed from the board. In addition, three committees were formed, and board members are required to become member in at least one of these committees.

Table of Contents

Financial position

The tightness of PEOI's finances is the major cause of the slow development of all its programs. It is clear that courses would be written much faster if authors were paid, and that recruitment of partner institutions and students would accelerate if promotional materials could be produced and mailed out. Even making the most from volunteers' work is not possible because there is no permanent staff to deal with them on a timely and continuous basis. Yet, the financial situation is far from desperate because on-going expenses are currently so small that the operation can certainly continue indefinitely.

Fund raising

Fund raising efforts in 2003 have finally become productive with a grant for general purposes from the Eggleston Foundation to whom we are deeply grateful. In addition, a system of receiving donations over the Internet has been set up with Network-for-Good, and has started to produce minimal results.

Overall, fund raising was very disappointing in 2003 as it was in the previous year. In 2003, two mailings of over 300 letters of inquiry were conducted, one in March and the other in September. A few invitations to submit proposals will be acted upon. But difficulties in fund raising were expected because PEOI is still not a fully established organization. Also because its long term sources of funding, those from employers who hire PEOI graduates, and from the graduates themselves, are still far away in the future.

Expenses

PEOI expenses continue to be extremely modest because all operations are conducted out of John Petroff's home.

PEOI Financial Statements

Statement of Revenues and Expenses for year 1/1/2003 to 12/31/2003

Statement of Revenues and Expenses
for year 1/1/2003 to 12/31/2003

Revenues

  Donations

$5,010

  Interest income

6

     Total

5,016

Expenses

  Internet

185

  Telephone

533

  Postage

366

  State fees

120

  Publications

342

  Supplies

48

     Total

1,594

Excess Revenues over Expenses

3,422

Balance Sheet

Balance Sheet



as of
12/31/2002

as of
12/31/2003

Assets

   Cash

$86

$4,822

Liabilities and funds

    Owed to founder

4,653

5,967

Excess (deficiency)
Assets over liabilities

-4,567

-1,145

Special thanks to Joanna Chalmers, Sandrine Cortet, Karam El-Mubasher, John Petroff, Verena Voges, Maree Weir for collecting the above information, to all volunteers who provided their comments and profiles, and to Bérengère Cortade for designing and putting the Annual Report together

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PEOI

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL

2003 Annual Report

Director's Message

Programs

Teams

Students

Administration

Financials

Programs

Program #1: New Courses

English as a Second Language (ESL) Program

Vocational Training

PEOI and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector

Program #2: Partner Institutions and country representatives

Partner Institutions and country representatives

Program #3: Designing promotional materials

PEOI logo redesign

Program #4: Web development and Translating

French programs

French team

PROJECTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Translations

COUNTRY REPRESENTATION

FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

German programs

German team

Arabic programs

Arabic team

Chinese programs team

Chinese team

Spanish programs team

Russian programs

Students

Board of Directors

Financial position

Fund raising

Expenses

PEOI Financial Statements