In the six months since the organization was renamed Verista, with a new mission, the board has taken concrete steps toward fulfilling that mission.

Verista has:

• Registered on Dun and Bradstreet, on the U.S. System for Awards Management, and on Grants.gov, making the organization eligible to apply for grants from the U.S. federal government.
• Applied June 25 for a grant from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, to produce a multimedia exhibit of Indian Americans practicing their faith in the United States.
• Become a fiscal sponsor of News Lens Pakistan and transitioned out of its sponsorship of Herb Bus, in June.
• Adopted a Conflict of Interest Policy, on June 5 (see Documents page).
• Redesigned the website, logo and header.

In its board meeting today, the Verista board elected two new members, Ann Ravenstine and Arnold “Skip” Isaacs. Their biographies are on the Board of Directors page.

The five members voted unanimously to:

-Offer sponsorship to News Lens Pakistan, an independent news organization which Board President Lisa Schnellinger launched in her role as President of NearMedia LLC. News Lens is owned by the Pakistani nonprofit Media Foundation 360.  Verista will accept contributions via PayPal on behalf of News Lens and will pass through any fees from PayPal.

-Clarify the fiscal sponsorship of Herb Bus to ensure that it meets legal standards.

-Write and adopt a Conflict of Interest policy.

Baraka is a name we’ve used and loved since 2007. It means “gift” or “blessing,” and that seemed especially appropriate for our fundraising mission then.

As our mission evolved, we needed a name that would encompass the story better. All the standard words to describe it have been misused and abused into meaningless oblivion.

So we decided to make one up.

We believe that the pursuit of truth underlies high standards in any profession. Verify, verity, verifiable, verdict, veracity – all come from the Latin root ver meaning “truth.”

We also wanted to convey that our outlook is 360 degrees. We aren’t limited by culture, geography, or other traps of the mind that limit our thinking. The word that best captures that sense is “vista.” The root is vis meaning “to see.”

Ver-vis didn’t have much ring to it, but we tried other combinations – and Verista emerged. It carries the spirit of meaning in a new word that is easy to pronounce and spell. It also has a  vitality that we hope will communicate how we feel about our mission.

Culminating a discussion that has been ongoing for the past year, the board of Baraka Foundation unanimously approved today a new mission statement for the organization.

The mission reflects a broad definition of “media,” to include media development, arts projects, public information and education, particularly in assistance to emerging media overseas, but also in the United States:

Our mission is to promote best practices in media worldwide. Our activities are to provide training and administrative and technical support for emerging media, including public information, education and artistic ventures, in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as in the Southern Appalachians, home of its regional headquarters. We specialize in using technology to engage and assist colleagues, in particular via distance learning methods. People who work for us are professionals who uphold the highest standards of quality and integrity.

For 2014, Baraka Foundation disbursed more than $4,300 in earmarked donations to the Herb Bus through its fiscal sponsorship program.

Building community through herbalism, this mobile herb clinic provides herbal first aid and earth-based constitutional medicine to underserved populations.  We are currently hubbed in Atlanta, Georgia. The Herbalista Free Clinic, traveling via the Herb Bus, also serves as a mobile classroom.  We share the Herb Bus model with communities and herb schools around the country.

Source: Herb Bus