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 ICA International website

Week ending: Saturday 2010 01 09

BANGLADESH:

Location: Dhaka

On 29th of December, ICA Bangladesh organized a concluding event for the 2009  Street Children Project 2009 at the Surjodoy Sangsad Club in Dhaka City. The project was supported by TUC Japan for one year thanks to the cooperation of Wayne at ICA Japan. The event started with a cultural competition among the street children and was followed by an award ceremony and an ORID reflection. The children were happy to share their stories and appreciation of the ICA project. Fuad, Pintu, Aziz and Shahinoor were present at the event.

   
   
   
   

On December 31st, ICA Bangladesh’s Ghoramara Human Development Project hosted a school building ceremony Ghoramara, Chandpur. ICA Bangladesh has been implementing non-formal education in this landless community since 2004. To celebrate the foundation of the school building, supported by TUC Japan, the community organized an event which was attended by Manik, Mizan, Habib and Aziz. Working Gifts were distributed this past week: a well, a sewing machine, a radio, a rickshaw and school materials, which were received through ICA International’s Working Gifts program. 

ICA Bangladesh facilitated their community strategic plan for 2008-2010, which was prepared with Maria and Richard in 2007 and an action plan for 2009 prepared in 2008. The Working Gifts are in line with their proposed projects: supply of safe drinking water facilities, dressmaking training for disadvantaged women, education for the underprivileged children, and income generation activities. Aziz, Manik, Habib, Mizan from ICA Bangladesh joined the celebration.

Aziz left for Toronto on the 3rd of January. Upon his arrival in Canada, Aziz had a Skype meeting with Jahangir, Mafiz and Nasrin, regarding ICA's administrative activities, on the 6th and 9th of January. He also ensured that the staff send audited reports for 2009 to ICA Australia. Aziz also contacted ICA Japan and ICA Australia to inform them about projects and future support for office and staff, for the Chandpur village project and the Dhaka street children project. Before his departure, Aziz was able to join in on two meetings. On December 30th and January 1st, we discussed our  estimated Budget for 2009, and our action plan. We found that the budget core expenses include office rent, utilities, staff salary, ICA International dues, telephone bill, internet bill, post box rent, website rent, stationeries, desktop computer and accessories, conveyance and fundraising visits. Our program expenses include school teacher salary, tours, materials and admin expenses for Ghoramara, Gabua, and the street children project. In addition, training and facilitation skills training for members and research and advocacy will incur costs for 2010. 

The discussed action plan includes a website redesign and update, newsletter and brochure publications, training promotions, fundraising and proposal submissions to the local government, the education department, the police, and partnerships with at least 2 NGOs. Habib is currently working on the website while Fuad is going to start his full time masters degree. Two potential staff members for the head office have been identified at this point: Zaki and Jahangir, who joined on January 1st. Jahangir has been serving as an intern for last two months.

Staff           admin@ica-bangladesh.org

PERU:

Location: Lima and the Provinces

As we all returned from a refreshing discontinuity over the holidays, we sent two teams into the field this week to the north and south of Peru, to work with local community leaders.

We were also pleased to welcome Maria Claros and Hernan Heredia to our professional staff. They have take on the challenge of learning the ICA methods quickly so that they can be a part of the Implementation teams which are doing follow-up in the field with the Avanza Peru program trained leaders for three-weeks, in Azpitia.  In their first week, Maria and Hernan designed a blog to support the community leaders coming out of the Avanza Peru program, which will be refined over the next couple weeks and ready to go public at the next AP beginning on January 24th.

We wish our colleagues everywhere a glorious New Year as enter a new decade of excellence in service of the ICA to releasing the power of the Human Factor in communities and organizations around the world.

Staff           admin@ica-peru.org

ICA International:

Location: Montreal

We are happy to be back from the Holidays and have spent the past week settling in to the New Year. 

This past week, Lambert has continued to work with the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) in the preparation for the Major Groups Initiative (MGI) Stakeholder meeting, which is to be held in Ghana this year.  He is also continuing to collaborate with other organizations and relevant United Nations (UN) agencies for fundraising and preparation for the workshop.

Renée has continued her fundraising efforts for the School Program, sending out a few proposals to local foundations and private institutions.  She has also been assisting with communication and general office needs.

Michael has been on leave in the Canadian Rockies and is back in the office on Monday January 11th.

We are happy that the Working Gifts program proves to be a success. ICA Bangladesh has announced the distribution of several gifts they have received through the program. If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to visit the site at   www.workinggifts.org

Staff           info@ica-international.org