Dear Friends and Supporters,
Due to irreconcilable differences, destructive decisions and an escalating pattern of overtly hostile behavior, CDRS / SHINE Humanity Pakistan has ended its partnership with SHINE Humanity US (but only after ensuring that SHINE Humanity US would not carry out their threat to withhold funds in violation of US law governing charitable organizations. My firm stand was that they must send every penny raised at events I attended, planned and/or held in the US this past summer so the money would go directly where it was intended- toward our humanitarian mission in Pakistan as promised to our donors). They finally sent the funds due to CDRS / SHINE Humanity Pakistan last week, realizing the hot water they would be in if they acted in any way to further harm our mission in Pakistan.
This new beginning is a very positive and liberating development for my Pakistan Team and I, as SHINE Humanity US became non-productive, incompetent, uncooperative and dysfunctional ever since former CEO Laila Karamally left at the end of 2011 to run Developments In Literacy (DIL). In fairness, it must be stated that the original board members of SHINE Humanity US did raise a significant amount of funds, personally donated their own funds and time and supported my work in years past, however, in recent times they formed an inner circle clique, literally a board-within-the-board, and began to misuse their power by behaving dictatorially towards my staff and I, severely criticizing my frequent public statements against CIA drone attacks and ignoring potential board members that I had recommended, while stacking the board with pliable personal friends who didn't previously know me or my work. And in 2012, SHINE Humanity US began pursuing a much smaller vision than CDRS / SHINE Humanity Pakistan has been striving for. They weren't willing or able to take advantage of the Pakistan team's great achievements of the past 7 years and do the hard work required for the organization to have an effective marketing and fundraising strategy beyond the Los Angeles / Orange County, California Area. As a result of all this instability they have caused, two of the newer board members have quit in the past two weeks and three newer board members recently told me that they had supported me but had been left out of important decisions. The inability of the board of SHINE Humanity US to meet its obligations, comprehend ground realities that my team and I face in Pakistan, see beyond their own social ambitions and build a larger more productive organization, led them to desperately scapegoat my finance department and I for their failures. I'm already leading a very stressful life of heavy travel, insane schedule and huge responsibility, so this betrayal sent me over the edge and caused me to suffer a severe bought of exhaustion, depression and anxiety in June and part of July, which thankfully I have been able to overcome. What they did was unjustly accuse me of having a "bloated" budget. Our administrative costs were 10.1% in 2010, but had risen to 22% in 2011. This was the "evidence" that they used to harass and threaten me with. But the inconvenient and verifiable truth is that our administrative and fixed costs actually had been reduced as low as possible and the percentage was artificially elevated only because they didn't raise the funding needed to maintain our projects. We only needed a minimum of 300,000 dollars per year, not at all an insurmountable amount. Our field team has very low salaries compared to other organizations, just one rented vehicle, heavily discounted office rent, no security budget for me and a very lean budget for supplies, equipment and medicines, and yet SHINE Humanity US still insisted on blaming me for a contrived financial “crisis” that they alone were responsible for. I founded SHINE Humanity US to support my work in Pakistan and to have an international presence so I could perform disaster relief missions in other parts of the World whenever needed. I voluntarily handed control over to a group of supporters that I’d met after the 2005 earthquake, and I entrusted them to properly run the organization, which I had voluntarily resigned from as Chief Operating Officer because I was also serving as Chief Executive of CDRS / SHINE Humanity Pakistan and wished to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in the successful pursuit of the IRS registration process for 501(c)3 designation that I initiated. The Executive Committee of SHINE Humanity US promised that once it received the 501(c)3 status, they were going to be able to raise not only the funds we required for our existing projects, but would also be able to get funds for new and larger projects. This of course never materialized as they never demonstrated any sincere effort to plan fundraisers in other parts of the country. That would haven't taken actual work, far more than the once a month meetings and pat-ourselves-on-the-back photo opportunity social gatherings where they could bask in the respect and position they enjoyed in their own community as a result of the hard work my team and I were performing in the field to make them look so good. Even one of their volunteers who wanted to put together fundraising events recently contacted me to say that they were just all talk talk talk and no action. Any fundraising efforts outside the LA area were started by my supporters and I, but I'm very busy managing the field work in Pakistan and I can't do it all and can't be everywhere all the time, although as most of my supporters know, I have certainly tried because I don’t have any choice if I want to ensure that we will be able to continue helping to ease the suffering of Human Beings in Pakistan. Every emergency disaster relief project that SHINE Humanity US has ever done to date (including Haiti and Japan) was envisioned, initiated and implemented in the field by me and the field teams and partners I brought together. While SHINE Humanity US now has Zero projects in Pakistan and no registration with which to legally operate there, CDRS / SHINE Humanity Pakistan has six cleared independent program and financial audits is now proudly moving forward into 2013 with productive, effective and meaningful humanitarian interventions in Swat, Sindh, AJK, Balouchistan and Punjab, through active collaborations with HUM Network Foundation, Karachi Relief Trust, Hisaar Foundation, Global Disaster Relief Organization, IDSP, Rehabilitation Response, UM Healthcare Trust and many other fine partners to operate projects in the fields of Mother & Child Health, Sustainable Community Healthcare, Education, Special Patients, School Health, House Reconstruction, Music Schools and Peace Through Music. Your continued support is appreciated. A tax deductible contribution can be made to our projects at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/sustainable-healthcare-for-pakistan-disaster-areas/ Thanks for all your support. I'm confident that everyone will have no difficultly in clearly seeing who is actually doing the real work and who is just enjoying taking credit on the backs of others’ hard work in the field. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I have all emails and supporting evidence and would be happy to forward this information to any donor who would like more details. Best Regards,Todd Shea
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