BENNIN:

Location: Ouagadouigou  Burkina Faso

From 12 to 15 february Kassimou Issotina attended to a workshop entitled ' regional workshop on integrated water resources management and gender'. This event was organized by Water and Gender Alliance for west and centre African French speaking countries. 11 countries were represented:   Benin,  Burkina,  Burundi,  Cameroon,  Congo,   RD Congo,  Republic of Centre Africa,  Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Rwanda, and Senegal. During the four days we have worked on a three years activities planning of this network in our regions.

Kassimou Issotina           lambassaica@yahoo.fr

CANADA:

Location: Toronto- Listen to the Drumming

The Aeroplan miles campaign has brought in 150,000 points so far. This allows for one rountrip to Africa. John and Thea Patterson hosted a lovely update event at their home for people who have supported the work in Africa. 51 people came out last night to hear Miriam Patterson and Liz Donnery give speeches about the work in Africa and to thank donors for their support!

Lynn Connell has returned to Canada after volunteering at ICA Zimbabwe and ICA Tanzania. We look forward to hearing her reports about the exciting work she was involved with in each location!

Liz Donnery           ldonnery@icacan.ca

KENYA:

Location: East Africa

  a.. Funding for a three year Leadership Training and Integrated Development Programme for Machakos District was secured from Bread for the World, Germany.

  a.. ICA staff Mr. German Gituma and Mr. Meshack Mutevu are attending a partnership workshop in Western Kenya, organized by Bread for the World.
  b.. A very successful field day for farmers was organized in Embololio village in Kajiado District through the Grassroot Partnership Scheme Programme financed by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency through ICA Japan.
Lynn Connell from Canada visited the project on 8/2/2007

Edward Mutiso attended one day workshop in Nairobi in "Community Based Worker" organised by Africa Institute of Development based in South Africa.

John Cornwell the former Director of ICA South Africa is now based in Nairobi and he visited ICA Kenya.

Two young volunteer members, Laura Mwikali and Ruth Mutile Jacob have joined ICA Kenya as programme staff to work for the new programme in Machakos as programme facilitators.

Mr. Robert KIage, who worked in our finance Department as an Accountant between 2002 - 2004 has rejoined ICAK to work in the same capacity. Since he left ICA, he has been working for a publishing company in Nairobi as  an Accountant. He is Certified Public Accountant (CPAK) and currently doing a masters Degree in Finance

Click URL below to view two photos which were taken during farmers field day in the Project in Embololio Village, Kajido District. One photo is showing the area Chief, Mr. Philiph Ole Sironka (Centre) at the ICA Demonstration farm. The other photo shows women group entertaining farmers with a song during the field day. 

http://www.allmembers.org/buzz/7daysupport/pics-pages/kenya1.html

Edward Mutiso           icak@wananchi.com

PERU:

Location: 100 Valleys

The staff celebrated the highly successful completion of the first AVANZA PERU 3-week community leadership formation program and enjoyed a couple of days of discontinuity.  In depth reflection was done on the program and some modifications made in preparation for the next one on 4 March.  A first review was done by the entire staff of the full details of the major funding grant proposal, generating great excitement and reflection over the potential impact of the 100 Valleys Project, and the sheer size of the 10-year task ahead.

Ken Hamje           kenh@ica-peru.org

UNITED KINGDOM:

Jonathan and Julie delivered two ToP courses in London this week- Introduction to Group Facilitation and GFM, training 24 people in total, including our new Youth Programme Coordinator, Amelia.The week ended with Martin and Jonathan shortlisting people for interview for the admin post we advertised recently.

Jonathan Dudding           jdudding@ica-uk.org.uk

ICAI:

Location: Montreal

In Montreal this week I continued the Office Manager interview process, set-up first-round interviews with the Director of Global Capacity Building and Director of Global Policy applicants, and finalized terms of an office sharing arrangement with The World Conservation Union - IUCN Canada Office at 555 Boul. Rene-Levesque Ouest.

Collated institutional donor tracking surveys into one database and announced its availability to the membership.

Was stuck on an Amtrak train for more than 20 hours during the blizzard that hit the Montreal-New York corridor, and as a result did a lot of writing, including completed a draft revision of the Member Organisations Handbook, developed detailed program descriptions for the web and fundraising, worked on the 2006 annual report, and worked on the 2008 conference brochure and strategic plan.

Lambert and I also talked extensively by phone and are working with Montreal International to resolve the continuing delays in securing his work permit.

Sarah Miller           sarah.miller@earthlink.net