Hide and Seek – Animals For Autism

by Allison Creighton on February 3, 2012

The exchange copied below was not sent to the families involved in the Pepsi Mess. It was not placed anywhere in response to THE FAMILIES questions, letters, emails, pleading for answers.

It was only found because the families are still trying to get answers.

I’m not sure how “We have also encouraged the grantee to be in more regular communication with the families going forward, to which she has agreed.” translated into “Take down your Facebook page”, but as of a couple of days ago, that is exactly what Lea/LM/Millie Kaydus did.

The families have asked, repeatedly, for something in writing. Really, is it that hard to do? Not phone calls, no more “he said, she said”, but in writing.

They have asked, repeatedly, for a picture. A simple picture! Some families have been asking for 10 (TEN!) months for a simple picture to share with their special needs children.

They have asked to know WHO is training the dogs promised to the children.

And yet, no one will answer….

Kelly Sp***k

Why are you not responding to the questions being asked about the Animals for Autism Pepsi Refresh Grant fiasco? It’s about time for Global Giving and Pepsi to admit that they made a mistake in supporting Lea Kaydus and Animals for Autism and do something to make it right for the CHILDREN!

- GlobalGiving
  
  Hi Kelly, we appreciate your concern for the families involved with this grant. We wrote a blog post about our monitoring process here: http://blog.globalgiving.org/2012/01/27/animals-for-autism/
  We are listening and we still have an open offer to any of the families who are still involved with the program to discuss their concerns one-on-one. The blog questions that you’re referring to span across a number of issues/people but we’d be happy to address the ones that we can.
  
  19 hours ago ·
- Kelly S***k
  
  then why haven’t you or Lea Kaydus provided pictures or video of the dogs in training? why haven’t the families been better informed during this process? why did she go “off the grid” multiple times including now – her website and facebook page were taken down? if you supposedly did a site evaluation/inspection we not post pictures of the site – surely you took pictures of the dogs being trained in their new facility. this whole thing smells fishy. can you say COVER UP???!!!!
  
  18 hours ago ·
- GlobalGiving
  
  We can only speak for ourselves. As the grant administrator, GlobalGiving is trying to balance our commitment to transparency with the grantee’s right to privacy. We fully appreciate that the lack of public information is very frustrating for the families. We can say, based on our contact and site visit, that she is in compliance with the terms of her grant agreement and is scheduled to deliver the dogs to the requesting families starting in Spring 2012. As noted in our blog post, we stand firm in our commitment to do everything we can to support the grantee to help bring this project to fruition. We have also encouraged the grantee to be in more regular communication with the families going forward, to which she has agreed.
  
  16 hours ago ·