ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)
Location: Canada
This week, John Miller facilitated a workshop in Kitchener Waterloo.
Bill Staples did a training workshop with the Quality Health Network in Ottawa.
Jo spent the week in Northern Quebec working with the James Bay Cree Nation Governance Project. She then flew to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to work with Sharon Miller on a Native Day Care Centre project.
Wayne Nelson convened the ToP Virtual Design Patterns team and facilitated an Action Planning workshop. This team is creating the foundations for Virtual ToP Facilitation.
Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca
CHILE:
Subject: ICA Chile - Earthquake
I checked with Isabel and others in Chile after the earthquake. There
were some issues with electricity but all seem to be okay so far.
With respect,
Larry larry@icatw.com
INDIA:
On January 12th to the 14th, ICA India conducted a three day workshop on capacity building and leadership development at Pune Environment Education Center, for the project community leaders. A total of 35 participants took part in the training. The program was facilitated by Ms. Shizuyo Sato of ICA Japan (JICA Project Manager) and the ICA India team.
On January 16th, a group of Japanese individuals visited the ICA India project site and stayed at villages for one day, in order to study the Indian rural life. They took part in the local folk dance, stayed in the family and had close discussions with farmers. They also studied the biogas and renewal energy projects of ICA India.
On January 18th, Mrs Shizuyo Sato, ICA Japan Manager, and Mrs Sarmila Pawar, a distinguished social worker, inaugurated the Dairy Center and irrigation scheme of ICA-JICA’s rural project in two villages. The Irrigation scheme will irrigate more than 100 acres of land in the Katarkhadak village. Four villages will benefit from dairy.
PERU:
Location: Lima
This was a week of preparation for the next AVANZA PERU, establishing a new staff understudy program and contracting about one third of our budget programming for 2010. As the staff prepared for another AVANZA PERU program in Azpitia, we came up with a plan to have our four new staff members be understudies of senior staff members, in order to deepen the process of skills building and context setting for the 68 different sessions of the 3-week program. The immediate result has been a lot of interchange and new activity for the staff, as they have taken these roles very seriously.
This new assignment design was made necessary due to a sudden explosion of program contracting over the past week or so, which lead to an urgent demand for new staff roles. The most surprising contract is to train an additional 60 community leaders in one area of 14 communities, right after we completed the training of 30 in the first round. The challenge to our staff was to then take these 90 new leaders on a journey which was to make them able to be in charge of the development of their communities, be fully prepared to present complex proposals and implement major development projects. We have been asked to do a full 12 months of Implementation follow-up, to be followed by the development of a Demonstration Community, which will eventually house a Leadership Development Center staffed by local people. This center would be under the direction of ICA staff. We think this development approach is immediately transferrable to other clients who know our work. Later in the week, we were able to apply it successfully to receive verbal approval from the Lima Regional Government, for a similar project in the valley; home to the oldest civilization in the Americas. We are honored to have such challenges presented to us, and humbled by the responsibility to care for so many communities in such a profound way.
In order to link all of these emerging local leadership teams together across the country, this we launched the ICA-Peru community leaders BLOG, which can now be viewed at lideresXL.blogspot.com. XL symbolizes the size of the leaders and their excellence. As a start for the use of this tool, the announcement was sent out to over 300 active community leaders, who are ICA-Peru grads. That number will top 600 by year end. This does not count the networks, which each member will employ to spread this word of hope and support for the initiative of local leaders.
Staff admin@ica-peru.org
UNITED STATES:
Location: Chicago
International Initiatives Task Force
Terry Bergdall (CEO) and Richard Alton invite one and all to the International Initiatives Task Force event, scheduled for March 26th – 28th in Chicago. You’ll be joining thirty other colleagues to “consider ideas about ways that ICA-USA might assist in connecting human and financial resources from the United States with national ICAs” and others, according to Bergdall. Alton points out a few highlights: a video of Don Elliott’s (former board member and international work advocate) global experience, followed by a Jim-Wiegel-lead conversation; Rob Work’s State of the Globe address; and a reception Saturday night during which participants can hear reports about the work of ICAs in Canada, the US, and around the world.
Karen Sims, Director of Resource Development and External Affairs, has been invited to join the Board of Directors of the Uptown Chamber of Commerce. She is also beginning a term as chair of the Membership Committee for that organization. As ICA-USA enters the LEED’s process (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), Sims’ position helps to solidify connections to the Uptown community. ICA-USA wants to renovate the building at 4750 as an example of an urban “green” building.
Pat Druckenmiller Dpat23@msn.com
ICA International:
Location: Montreal
Our thoughts this week are with our friends and colleagues in Chile after the devastating earthquake.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck 325 kilometers south of Santiago killed more than 700 people and damaged at least 500,000 homes. An official call for aid was made by Chile on Monday. Governments, members of Chilean communities and citizens around the world are responding to the tragedy.
We are relieved that everyone at ICA Chile is safe and we stand in solidarity with all Chileans as they deal with this tragedy. Due to the destruction of communication systems, ICA Chile has not been able to have contact with all the people they are working with in Talca and Concepción but they will provide us with information as soon as it is available.
We will be happy to deliver messages of support to ICA Chile, or they can be sent directly to icachile@entelchile.net
Staff info@ica-international.org
