First Steps currently has two full-time staff and one part-time individual. Our monthly salary expenditures, while essential, are not our primary fund raising objectives during the current period/coming year. This is mainly because we (Mundo Real Inc.) have been highly successful at maintaining payrolls at manageable levels, and the current staff of First Steps has, from beginning, been dedicated to a single cause: establishing an independent community-based and community-led organization to empower disabled and elderly residents of Rocinha. Our staff has dedicated themselves to the development of the organization, First Steps, before any other individual interests, and for the first several months they worked wholeheartedly, and virtually full-time, as volunteers. However, they recognize, as do we, that in order to prosper as an organization certain financial resources are necessary.
During the past fiscal year of First Steps work, and in particular over the last three months (since Sept. 2007), the staff has identified (collectively) the following 3 items listed below as central to our organization development goals during the forthcoming year. A brief description and financial estimate for each objective is listed below:
Principal Project Goals for 2008:
1. Acquire a van for transporting Rocinha's (special-needs) population.
1. Handicapped equipped vans currently available in Rocinha = 0
2. Planned acquisition of van by First Steps:
i. New Van (Handicapped Equipped): 20,000 USD
ii. Used Van (Operational for Handicapped Transport): 5,000 USD
2. Acquire/Secure Office Space for First Steps:
1. Annual Rent for street level storefront office space in Rocinha: 7,500 USD
2. Annual Costs of Supplies and Equipment for office space in Rocinha
i. Telephone, Internet, and Electric: 3,000 USD
ii. General Offices Supplies: Paper, Printer, etc: 1,500 USD
3. Maintain an ongoing Emergency Assistance Fund for Rocinha's most vulnerable disabled/elderly residents.
Transportation Expenses (to and from medical appointments): Projected Annual Expense: 2,500 USD
Medication and Medical Supplies: to cover costs of medication that many families cannot afford but vitally need and/or to cover costs for necessary medical equipment they similarly need but cannot afford; for example, wheelchairs (second-hand), orthopedic devices, oxygen tanks, etc. Projected Annual Expense: 3,000 USD
Construction and home-repair materials for First Steps clients/members whose houses (shanties) are in desperate need of emergency repair, such as; leaks, crumbling infrastructure, insufficient running water and/or electricity, etc. Projected Annual Expense: 2,000 USD