Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICAI website

Weekending: Saturday 2009 08 22

BANGLADESH:

Location: Dhaka

From August 16-20, Mujib Ahmed Patwary Pintu taught and surveyed street children in the Dhaka City Project. He also collected stories and feelings in written form from children in their language.

On August 13, the DGFI investigation was held for NGO AB clearance. Aziz and Nurul arranged papers and visited members houses and projects. On August 23, Mizan collected signs for Chandpur office for ICA and Shamim gave a book on literacy and life skills for our education project.

ICA Adviser Taibur Rahman helped us in getting a letter from the NGO Affairs Bureau that will help us in getting home clearance.

On August 15, ICA Bangladesh members observed the death anniversary of our Nation’s Father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. We prayed for his departed soul. ICA Bangladesh also strongly urged the government to punish those who were engaged in this killing.

Staff           admin@ica-bangladesh.org

ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)

Location: Canada

Jo Nelson facilitated another coaching session with the York District School Board. She also facilitated a planning workshop with a working group that involves people from several school boards on the use of IT in the school system.

ICA Associates has invested in a licence to use Elluminate. It's a program/service for online meetings. We have found a way to do a ToP Consensus Workshop in an online environment - - the lost chord we've been looking for all these years.  It has a good meeting space - easy learning curve for participants - good Voice over Internet, a chat function, a white board that can double as a place to display presentations and do tours of the net, share your own desktop with the group etc. We're excited by the possibilities. It's a feeling of being out on the edge.

Jo, Wayne and Duncan went to a reception hosted by The International Family Literacy Initiative. Ann Avery, Elise Packard and Miriam Patterson were there and several other ICA colleagues are involved in the project including Mangala Gavai and Bimrao Tupe in India and Sharon Miller in Saskatchewan. We saw several colleagues and got an update on a very substantial initiative. We were notified that several of our proposed sessions for the next NA IAF conference in Chicago have been accepted.

Bill Staples left for Taiwan to attend the ToP meeting there.

Wayne Nelson           admin@ica-peru.org

PERU:

Location: Lima and Azpitia

Gloria Santos almost single-handedly coordinated another one-week training program in Azpitia for 30 Promoters for the Women's Small Industry project in Chincha, which is the fifth program out of 16, running through 2011.  These 30 will be engaging the women from their neighborhoods in a process which will launch dozens more new micro industries in the next two months.  Meanwhile, Jesusu, Pedro and Alex headed out to initiate a new Implementation Project in the Sierra, the first of four events running through November.  These two-day monthly Implementation Programs get the newly trained local leaders in front of their communities and accepted as leaders who are fully capable of facilitating significant change in the community.  The events also serve to give our staff valuable feedback on the effectiveness of our formation training during their 3-weeks in Azpitia.

Our volunteer, Shu Sun, returned to the UK after a very productive month of work, greatly assisting us to develop a new entrepreneurial apprenticeship program plus a computer training course to be included in our next AVANZA PERU program.  We just have to get our grads up and operating on e-mail in order to keep their journeys alive, plus there are so many resources for them on the Internet.  Overcoming their fear of computers is definitely the first stage.  We are now working on getting a satellite Internet connection in Azpitia so we can actually set up all of our grads with an active gmail e-mail account.  Luis Tarazona has worked with this whole process with Shu, and has also put together an interesting new seminar to enable our participants to be more involved in the formal government planning process for their communities.

Meanwhile, the marketing team contracted another AP and Implementation package, with contracting going forward for one more.  They also made two more great connections for sure programs next year, and found an interesting new applicant for expanding our staff.  Martha Sanchez also coordinated the sending out of Annual Meeting notices to our Socios to comply with the legal necessities of our Institution.

Staff         admin@ica-peru.org

TAIWAN:

Location:

We are having a busy week preparing for the ToP R  D conference and the IAF conference.  Larry was in Korea for the week with a client. Evelyn is preparing for the Social Artistry program at the IAF and trying to get Tatwa to work with her.  Gail has been working with the typhoon support team. No typhoon news to report.  The Philbrook's, the West's, Laura and Shawn and Jorie and George and our FCP crew who live in Taipei are all high and dry. But not so for those living in the middle and south of Taiwan  who struggled with all the mudslides and lost bridges, roads and homes. It is hard to believe that 80 inches in three days could destroy so many lives in such a short period of time. 33,000 have been saved, but several thousand are still without aid and homes in the remote rural areas.

Unfortunately those who suffered the most are the aboriginal and hill tribe people who were pushed up and away from the more prosperous bottomland in south and central Taiwan. Many bitter responses have come from those who literally feed the nation of Taiwan. Flooding takes the whole plant and the seedlings needed to replenish the land. The most important thing to remember is that there are people who are willing volunteers who will go to help anyone in a crisis, whether here or abroad. A Buddhist Monk, a woman named Tsu Chi, has mobilized hospitals, clinics, volunteer groups in the thousands and more around Taiwan. On her TV station she broadcast news of people going to help those who needed aid, and gave free health care, free clean-up crews, free wheelbarrows to be transported and she has received aid from those who have money to give for helicopters to transport bulldozers and backhoes to areas that need this equipment. It is not easy for the government to do all this alone, but this foundation has the trust of the people because they will help and go where it is needed and do not take credit for it. The Christian Missions in those areas also are important communication points to get help brought in from outside.

Gail and our colleagues from the Global Facilitation Service Core and the International Association of Facilitators are working to bring crisis intervention aid people to work with the social workers and volunteers who went to help because the emotional impact is so great. We worked with them when we had an earthquake and we want to bring them again. We want to have Chinese and Taiwanese speaking people ready, and aboriginal dialect people so that we can work together to help ourselves in times of crisis. Those who have lost everything still need help and Taiwanese people can find ways to support those in need. I have heard of groups of women here in Taipei who have already started working to collect money for lunches of those children whose families lost their homes so they can keep going to school. This is a long term plan. We are still operating out of a principle of self sufficiency and self confidence, not just charity.

Larry Philbrook           larry@icatw.com

ICAI:

Location: Montréal

Over the past week, Renée continued her efforts in preparing grant applications for the Schools Program. She also began coordination for the facilitation courses that ICA International will be holding at the end of October in association with ICA Associates. More information on these courses will be available on our website shortly.

Audra worked on new marketing tools for fundraising efforts. She and Marie-Eve met with a representative of one of Canada’s largest newswires to discuss potential collaboration.
Michael was very busy wrapping up several projects and ensuring a proper handover before leaving on holidays.

Flora, who will be managing the Working Gifts program, has been reviewing the program’s current structure and consolidating all existing information. This week she will begin work on a strategic plan for the program.

Staff           info@ica-international.org