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

Global Buzz Report: 2011 11 01

ICAI Leadership Team Report:       November 01 2011

News
- New ICAI WINDS AND WAVES magazine shared with the world. It looks great with   excellent contributions from around the world.
- Audit is almost done which will allow us to issue the annual report
- Requests sent to all members to report on Statutory Member Criteria established in GA   last year.

Peer to Peer
Dick works with Nepal
Larry connects briefly with ICA Uganda
Isabel's work is carrying her to several locations in South America
Gerald is hosting ICA USA (Seva Ghandi and Robert True)
Sabah is heard and seen on Facebook

Concerns
Delays in the audit while understandable raise concerns on how we can work the ICAI operation next year
Preparation delays in Nepal slow finalizing the site for the conference in 2012

Coming up
Reports need to be in from all ICAs to Larry on the 10 criteria by Nov 15
Three regional meetings being scheduled at the end of Nov (Check with your VP)
General Assembly 2011 scheduled online for Dec 10, 2011- please send questions or topics to Larry before Nov 25 so they can be included in the regional dialogues

Larry Philbrook           larry@icatw.com

ICAI Leadership Team Report:       October 01 2011

News
Great meeting in Kathmandu to prepare for the conference in 2012. All
ICA's have received a notice about the criteria decided in India for
Statutory members. Dick Alton stayed in Kathmandu to do visits with
World bank, UNDP and USAID to prepare for conference participation.

Team from ICA Canada is working to finalize the 2010 Audit

Concerns
Working with each ICA to report on the current reality and ability to qualify under the criteria set in India
Not surprisingly the first issue of the magazine is delayed, need to see how we can support our colleagues and revise the timeline based on this experience

Next steps:
Follow-up with each ICA on the criteria and on their preparation for
next years conference
Preparing for regional dialogues and the General Assembly in December

Larry Philbrook
           larry@icatw.com

ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)         October 01 2011

Going back to July

We had a full house for our 6 day advanced course this year and a smaller group in the Community Development course in August.

Jo and Wayne spent much of July in Egypt. We did a training event with a management training organization, visited friends and spent some high quality time with ICA Egypt. The day at the Bayad Training Centre was magical.

In September, the real busyness began. Jo is beginning a strategy - culture change process with Brock University amid some strong union resistance. They seem to have a long way to go. She is also working with a project called, "Our Kids."

Duncan Holmes facilitated a workshop in London, UK with people from World Vision around the world. He's also working with Save the Children.

John Miller taught Group Facilitation and Bill Staples taught Organizational Transformation in our Toronto Training Centre.

Wayne Nelson           wnelson@ica-associates.ca


BANGLADESH:

During the months of September and October, the ICA Bangladesh team was fully engaged in preparing for the AGM. And on the 28th. October 2011 our AGM was held in the Pacific Hotel, Banani ,Dhaka.

ICA Bangladesh paid our respects to the Ghoramara village project community leader, Moklesur Rahman, who passed away in August. We observed one minute of silence and read the message of the Chairperson, Aiz Rahman, at the AGM. Moklesur Rahman, as the community leader, was our first contact, and the one to involve us in our ground breaking community work in 2004, when we were first registered with the Government as a charitable organization. The Chairperson's message was presented to the Community representative who was present at the AGM.

There were two Board meetings in October. At the 13th. of October meeting we decided the date and the action plan for the AGM. The last Board meeting, held on October 27th., approved the agenda and the reports for the AGM. On a Board conference call in September we took some bold steps to have mandatory executive reports at each Board meeting.

We have also activated our ICA Bangladesh official facebook page, with the help of Habibur Rahman. In addition we have published our first official ICA Bangladesh Brochure. The Brochure is intended to promote ICA Bangladesh activities, especially inviting people to get involved, marketing our training products and the raising of funds at home and abroad. One of our Advisors – Sujit Roy Nandi who witnessed the AGM formally inaugurated the brochure.

The AGM passed, through an election conducted by elected commissioners, Billal Hossain and Sahalam Khanto, a proposal to increase the size of the executive Board, from five to seven. The AGM approved the 2010 Audit, the Financial Statement of 2011 and the Budget for 2012. ASM Saifullah and Mohammad Zakiul Islam, facilitated reporting sessions and Abdul Bari Jamader, facilitated the election and business sessions of the AGM.

The Guest of Honour of the AGM – Sujit Roy Nandi expressed appreciation for our projects, including Phulki (Street children), GHDP (Ghoramara Human Development Project), and the terrorism study. We thank T. M. Abdullah Al Fuad, Habibur Rahman, and Tahmina Akter, for presenting reports on the Human development journey, and Our Phulki at the AGM.

Attendees at AGM
The new ICA Bangladesh Brochure
Click picture for enlargement

Aziz Rahman          aziz.uoft@gmail.com


COTE D'IVOIRE:           October 01 2011

Dans le cadre de la reprise totale des activités du gouvernement et de la société civile en Côte d'Ivoire, j'ai participé à un atelier sur le renforcement des capacités de suivi et d'évaluation de projets pour les ONGs responsables de la lutte contre le VIH/Sida de la Vallée du Bandama. Cette  formation a été organisée par Health Alliance Côte d'Ivoire, du 22 au 25 Août 2011 à Yamoussoukro, la capitale politique.

Du 01 au 03 Septembre 2011 j'ai participé à une fortmation sur la prise en charge des OEV ( Orphelin Enfant Vulnérable) du fait de VIH/Sida, organisé par l'ONG Espoir-vie qui est un partenaire de ICA-CI.La formation a été financée par UNICEF Côte d'IVoire. Du 28 au 02 Zoro bi agent de ICA-CI a prit part à une formation organisée par save the children sur les enfants perdus ou enfants orphelin et vulnérable à Bouaké.

Je tiens à vous dire merci pour votre soutien et dire que notre pays est devenu fréquentable au vu des nombreux sémaires qui sont entrain de s'organisés maintenant. J'espère que ICA-CI pourra un jour avoir des financements et bénéficier des subventions grâces aux ICAs du monde.



As part of the full resumption of government and civil society activities in Côte d'Ivoire, I attended a workshop on the capacity building in monitoring and evaluation of projects for NGOs responsible for the fight against HIV / AIDS in the Bandama Valley.  The training was organized by Health Alliance Côte d'Ivoire from 22 to 25 August 2011 in Yamoussoukro, the political capital.

From 1 to 3 September 2011, I attended a training on the care of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) due to HIV / AIDS, organized by an NGO partner of ICA-CI, Hope-life. The training was funded by UNICEF Côte d'Ivoire. From August 28th to September 2nd, ICA-CI took part in a training in Bouake organized by Save the Children on missing, orphaned and vulnerable children.

I would like to say thank you for your support and to say that our country has become accessible considering the many seminars that are in the process of being organized. I hope that one day ICA-CI will be able to receive funding and to benefit from grants thanks to the ICAs of the world.

Eugène
ICA-CI 

JAPAN:           November 01 2011

Shizuyo Sato, Takako Shimizu and Naomi Sato left for Kenya, to be with the Somalian refuges in camps in Kenya.  They will also go to Magati Kenya, along the southern border with Tanzania where they still live in primitive wooden huts. There are salt mines and more than 100,000 flamingos colorfully splashing in the drying waters. In both of these places, these wonderful people are trapped with dying children and only sparse water.  They have to walk as far as 5 hours one way, to fetch a little muddy water.  Along with delivering aid of food and water, they will listen to people’s tales and introduce the Community Development Intensive.

Just before leaving for Kenya, all of our staff hosted the Formal Members meeting and the Annual General Member’s meeting.  We showed slides of the active projects, held a live Skype chat with Naomi and Massai’s in Kenya, facilitated a workshop for the future of ICA Japan, had a Japanese singer and a yogi teacher to keep the sense of culture, and ended with a 2 hour feast at a local restaurant.

Yuichiro returned from monitoring construction of a second school ICA Japan is building in Haiti, and he is finishing his report and starting on future projects proposals. He took a day to rush his wife to the hospital, but his pregnant wife’s baby decided to wait until November 6th to come into this world and to join Wayne in a birthday celebration.

Wayne sent all 15 copies of Anastasia to ICA’s and personal friends, and will hold a study group to gain the most from this book and the remaining 8 books, in preparation for the 2012 Global Conference on Human Development.  The Conference brochure arrived just hours before our AGM and printed copies were handed out at our AGM, to friends, and the brochure was also put onto ICA Japan’s emerging new website.  Two Japanese have already committed to attending.

Wayne, Reiko Kanda, and Adam rough designed the website and engaged Siddharth from Pune India to smooth out the design and to implement with pieces streaming to him for careful placement, in both Japanese and English.  Watch in November for our new website to go live. One piece of interest might be our long range plan:

  1. Establishing the Conditions required for a lasting Global Peace
  2. A World free from de-habilitating Poverty
  3. An end to AIDS and other easily Preventable Diseases
  4. Sustainable Highly Productive Agriculture
  5. Advanced Methods of Communication, Consensus Building, and Action Planning
  6. Catalyzing and Demonstrating Comprehensive Community Development
  7. Reshaping Education for the 21st Century
  8. Appropriate and Abundant Technology Transfer to All
  9. Promoting the Creation of Spaces of Love for every family on Earth
  10. Recuperating the Human and Physical Environment

Shizuyo had lunch with one of the vice president’s and two other top executives of NEC to talk about BOP work they can deliver with ICA Japan to suitable foreign countries.

We passed with high marks JANIC’s tough SELF EVALUATION criteria on Monday, and we became one of about 20 NGO’s to become a Japanese certified NGO/NPO. They used 41 inspection points to visually see that we have a short and long term vision, strategies for carefully delivering these projects, sophisticated agency proposals with extensive monitoring and documentation, written personnel policies, professional financial and audit systems understood by all, and a secure data base.  Reiko pulled all of the paperwork together, and Shizuyo presented ICA Japan for more than 2 hours.

After presenting the secure database, both the main hard drive and the backup hard drive failed the next day, loosing all 350GB of data.  Reading the second book in the Ringing Cedars series that humans affect reliability of computers, Wayne got a good night’s rest, applied Reiki to the totally defective computer, and sure enough, the computer began once again, after failing to start more than six times.

Maki returned from Pune, made a presentation to JICA, and they approved a two year extension of the project with an emphasis on women’s capacity building.

Meanwhile a returned contract employee suddenly came to our office and began pulling together a proposal for aiding Thailand.

We continue to work with the Fish Foundation and AmeriCares to deliver changing goods to the Tohoku area.

We arranged the last room available for our next GFM and have 7 people register and pay for the course on December 11th and 12th.  Our plan is to hold a course once a month, instead of once a year!

Wayne Ellsworth           wayne@icajapan.org

JAPAN:           October 01 2011

Partnership Project Highlights

Shizuyo participated in JICA’s Ending Evaluation in Isinya Kenya, and they encouraged us to continue with private funding, which they can introduce.  With NALAPO funding, Shizuyo facilitated the planting of 50 Mango trees in each of 10 villages.  Wayne secured water to maintain the trees and help the people with the drought.

Wayne and Shizuyo prepared to go to India to do a transitional evaluation with JICA India, ending a three year project with ICA Pune of agriculture, irrigation, bio-gas, and dairy.  JICA India suggested that we apply for another two years of funding to provide sustainability, and it is near approval.  We will involve NEC Co. as a partner to introduce high tech hydroponics in the most remote village.

In Tohoku (Fukushima), Takako completed the 3rd phase distribution of essential goods including foods, school room air conditioners, fans, and radiation level measurement devices.  Shizuyo lead workshops on how the people can lead the way to recovery.  They also submitted a proposal for phase 4 of help, and a proposal to assist with drought relief for the Horn of Africa drought, focusing on Somaila refugees.
 
We have received proposals from Nepal with Tatwa for Peace Keeping, Cote d’Ivorie (with Eugene) for Peace Building, and the Amazon (with Nira) for community sustainability in the heartlands of the Amazon. We are researching how to proceed, with limited staff who will need intensive preparation with GFM, CDI, and financial and project coordination.  Is it possible?  And we are proceeding with another funder to provide deep bore wells for Insinya Kenya, with Eiki Kubokawa writing this proposal!

We will go once again to the Philippines to research building another Women's’s Center and in cooperation with Eli, working with local people on ecological restoration of the mountain sides.  Eiki is also writing the proposal for the ecological restoration.

Our long time proposal for Bihar, India, (with HCDI) finally passed the initial screening, and was sent to the Japanese Embassy in Kolkata for their comments, as well as another group of professionals for their comments.  We pray for positive results!

Home Office Activities

We have begun an entirely new website, with an aim of having a skeleton version by October 22, the date of our annual meeting. Our implementer, Siddharth Lele, lives in Pune, and we will meet him on September 28th.

Our Annual meeting will be October 22, and most of the extensive documentation has been finished.  News and letters are welcome!  In preparation for the Annual Meeting, we had a Board Meeting on Friday, September 23rd, with long time colleague Andrew Hashiba being the Chairman.

On October 1 and 2, JANIC’s Global Festa occurs again with Maki, Reiko and Takako being in charge of our booth while Shizuyo and Wayne are in Pune.  About 100,000 people attend, and some get to know ICAJ better, and we have a great chance to sell items from our partnership projects.

We held a GFM with JIMTEF, the association of medical practitioners, and arranged and co-facilitated by Mr. Obata.  It was the best GFM we have held with enthusiastic participants providing abundant energy for the facilitators to be fully alive.  Follow-ups they were encouraged to consider are Strategic Planning, Community Development Intensive, and more practice of what they have experienced.
I am sending copies of Anastasia to Nepal, Pune, Zimbabwe, and friends here in Japan, along with 2 DVD’s that portray some of the essence of the book series.  I have a few more for those who ask in October 2011.  Interested?  Well, maybe I have forgotten some I promised, so remind me please!

And finally, we converted our finance system to the official NPO system using board member Mr. Iwata for the implementation.  It also calculates taxes, salaries, and retirement benefits (new this July) to lessen the burden on ICAJ staff.

Wayne Ellsworth           wayne@icajapan.org
ICA Japan

EHIO Tajikistan:     November 01 2011

News
As you now know a staff meeting is held every Monday at the office of PO Ehio-Farhang va Tarakkiyot. There we summarize the organizations activities over the past week and discuss plans for the coming week. At this week's meeting we reviewed activities on such projects as TSEP, IREX and GIZ.

On October 21, PO Ehio-Farhang va Tarakkiyot celebrated its 10th anniversary at the restaurant Khushbahti, in Khujand. On that remarkable day we had invited former colleges and partners from the international organization who had cooperated with us and had become our best friend.

On project TSEP
In October, training was conducted and completed on the topic, 'Household budgeting,' in Tavildara and Rasht District. The trainers submitted a written report on the results of the program including a financial report. On the 20th of October, Program manager Roger Horton, coordinator of the TSEP and SOGD project, Mirsaidov R, and Executive director of PO Ehio, Safarova M, discussed plans for future training, and the budget, for the third year of the TSEP project. Later an annual training plan was developed.

On project IREX
In October training was conducted on the monitoring and assessment of the project, for partners and working staff of IREX, in Dushanbe. An evaluator was requested by IREX for the monitoring and evaluating of our project SOGD in the Khatlon region. From the 12th to the 14th of October, assistant coordinator, Yakubova N, together with evaluator Negamatov V, and J Rasulov, arrived in Kanibadam, Isfara. Their aim was to conduct a survey of a theoretical group, with new participants, and to conducted focus groups with adults and a young audience, who had participated in our theoretical performances. We are continuing our monitoring of drama circles in three regions. In general our 15 drama circles are working in three regions. They all work according their own work plan, conducting two hour seminars, and showing forum theatre in their schools, and also in schools nearest to their village. We also prepared our quarterly report this month.

On project WB
We are still conducting the training of farmers of the target dekhan/farms, introducing them to the new technology of growing agriculture, within the framework of the project.

FVWR management.
Also within the framework of the project, a study tour was conducted in the Turkish city of Adana, which was a participant in the target dekhan/farms. On the 25th and 28th of October a World Bank mission arrived in Tajikistan, centre of our target communities, to become familiarized with the way we carry out the Program activities.

On project GIZ
An Agro training session was conducted on the topic Garter, and the care of plants in greenhouses. Also harvesting methods and the storage of vegetables. In addition we monitored practical Agro training, following consultations on issues relating to cash flow within groups.

Nigina Sadikova          nigina7811@rambler.ru

EHIO Tajikistan:     October 01 2011

EHIO report for September
Every Monday PO EHIO-Farhang va Tarakkiyot conducts a staff meeting at which all project activities are summarized and plans are discussed for the following week. In September PO Ehio-Farhang va Tarakkiyot conducted activities with such projects as TSEP, IREX, AKF, GIZ and WB.

Project TSEP
On the 13th of September, a retreat was held to evaluate the second year of the TSEP project and make plans for the third year. The executive director, Marina Safarova, project manager, Akhmedov Bobokhon and the whole TSEP EHIO team participated.
On the 14th of September, two of our EHIO TSEP trainers, Abduvalieva.M and Boiboboeva.R, arrived at our target district of Garm to continue conducting training on the topic: Household budgeting.

Project World Bank
For the WB project we conducted training at the Dekhan Farms of Kanibadam in our target district of Bobojon Gafurov. The training was on four topics: vegetable growing, cotton growing, horticulture and irrigation. For the training on horticulture the subject was based on diseases and pests and the way to control them. On vegetable growing, training was conducted on the topic: technology of tomato cultivation. For irrigation, training was conducted on the topic: operating conditions for drip irrigation. Intensive technology of cotton growing, was the subject for cotton production.

Project IREX
In September our granters, Sulhju and Gurdofarid, representing three groups, arrived in Kirgizistan and the villages of Andarak Borborduk and Koktosh to meet the directors of schools that had previously been selected. This was with the aim of preparing a place for performances. The groups involved must give theoretical performances in these villages. The name of first performance was: Migration. In addition we monitored the drama circles at schools 31 and 11 of Kanibadam and at schools 1, 5, 6, 19, 16 of Jabbor Rasulov and at schools 29, 24 in the Isphara district. Our drama circles having been opened at these schools. In each drama circle we have leaders and young participants. They work according their own plan and they have worked up a schedule for their coming performances. The drama circles are open on fixed days for the people of those villages.

Project AKF
For project AKF in September we conducted additional training at three consultative centers:
At the center in Tandurusti, hukuk va jamiyat, from September 22 to 24 and from 27 to 29, it was on the topic of Critical thinking and Self-development.
At the centre Fidokor, we conducted training on the topic, Development of strategic plans of financial stability and organizational development.
And at the center in Iktidor we conducted training sessions from September 22 to 24 on the topic of Project management. We will finish our final Program report this month.

Project GIZ.
Agro training sessions were conducted in September for projsct GIZ relative to the the cultivation of vegetables in hotbeds and greenhouses, explaining different pests and diseases and ways to control them.
The first training session was conducted on September 3, the second on September 6, and the third one on September 17. We also monitored the practical application of the Agro technical group's activities, we were there along with consultants who were available for questions on all subjects including the group's cash accounts and cash flow.

Nigina Sadikova           nigina7811@rambler.ru


TAIWAN:         November 01 2011

    News:
  • New Spirit of Facilitation Course held October 1st and 2nd with 16 participants
  • Larry conducts a six day program in Entebbe, Uganda with the UN Peace Keeping Forces from Darfur, and a four day program in New York, with the UN Secretariat; both groups are focused on Appreciative Leadership Program.
  • Second Truth-About-Life on the Future of Education was held October 22 by Richard West.
  • Gail West participated in the World Wide Open Space on Open Space practitioner’s conference in Chile.
  • Corporate client work for two days at the end of the month
  • Robyn Hutchinson visits for a week on her way back to Australia from a Beijing education conference.
  • Sichuan, China Corporate Responsibility Program Proposal as a follow-up to the earlier series with teachers in elementary school is accepted and dates yet to be confirmed for three trips in 2012.

  • Peer to Peer:
  • Gail graciously hosted by and worked with the ICA Chile team on Style Flex and other in-house training, coaching and marketing.
  • Larry stops in Chicago on way back from New York and met with Terry Bergdall, ICA USA and each shared programmatic strategies for both ICA Taiwan and ICA USA for this year.
  • Larry talked with Richard Alton about the General Assembly preparation meetings at the end of November and the GA meeting scheduled in December.
  • Larry also discussed with Terry and Dick is the next year’s Nepal Conference 2011 last week in October and first week of September.

    Concerns:

  • Facilitation Certification for Taiwan and Greater China bubbles both possibility and questions for everyone working in the region.

    Future:

  • November 4-6 Multi-stake Holder Dialogue Program with Philip Thomas hosted by Yen Foundation.
  • November 11-12 is final FDP course (#6) and completion for several participants.
  • November 12, Truth About Life #3 on Education to be hosted by Jessie Hsiao
  • November 27 ICA Taiwan Annual Thanksgiving Dinner.
  • November 24, 25, 26th will be the dates for the Continental Discussions for ICAs to prepare for GA in December.

    Evelyn Philbrook           

TAIWAN:         October 01 2011

News
Redesigned the Spirit of Facilitation course
Continued coaching and mentoring

Peer to Peer
collaborated with ICA Nepal on doing a PJD taught by Evelyn and Larry
Collaborated with ICA Zimbabwe 30+ people in 3 day train the trainers
including ORID, Workshop, Image Change, Mindstyles, Social styles, Event
design & Orchestration and Open Space plus a 2 day public Group
Facilitation methods course all taught by Evelyn & Larry Philbrook with
Gerald Gomani joining for the GFM

Collaborated with ICA Kenya people in 5 day training including ORID,
Workshop, Image Change, Mindstyles, Social styles, Event design &
Orchestration and Community Development Intensive taught by Evelyn &
Larry Philbrook with3 volunteers from Taiwan - Keke Quie, Peisan Yu, and
Elizabeth Tsai

Concerns
Travelling so much how to make time to sit together and integrate

Next steps
Larry is off again UN training in Uganda and New York
reviewing and revising PJD based on the new reports from Texas and Nepal
Preparing proposals for China and Taiwan community development opportunities

Lawrence Philbrook           www.icatw.com

UNITED STATES:         November 01 2011

ICA-USA has had a full and busy October. Staff member Seva Gandhi spent time in Harare, hosted by ICA-Zimbabwe. ICA-Zimbabwe Staff, Mary Mtambo and Beauty Magere, along with Dr. Robert True and Seva facilitated an HIV/AIDS peer educator training session, with women from several different self-help groups located in and around Harare.

The training was part of a collaboration of Rotary Clubs in Zimbabwe and the U.S., Rotary International, the Mufakose Communities, and ICA-Zimbabwe. The training went well, and the facilitators spent some time afterwards creating an evaluation report of the session.

Seva is now visiting with OPAD in Zambia. ICA-USA and OPAD are looking for meaningful ways to partner together for future projects. After Zambia, Seva will head to Kenya to work with ICA-Kenya on ideas for future projects as well.

Locally, the 50th anniversary celebration planning has been extremely successful with the first event taking place in Binghamton, New York, with the "Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream" symposium. The Broome County Community College hosted 65 people who worked together for more than five hours. The symposium format was developed by the Pachamama Alliance (www.pachamama.org) which has a mission of helping us move "toward a human presence on this planet that is environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just." Work in pairs and small groups alternated with DVD presentations by people such as Desmond Tutu, Thomas Berry, Matthew Fox, Thich Nhat Hanh, Wangari Mathai, and Paul Hawken.

Gina Alicea of Chicago has been selected to create the 50th anniversary artwork that will hang at ICA-USA's headquarters on 4750 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago. Gina has an M.F.A. in textile design and an M.Ed. She currently teaches art at the University of Chicago's Lab School. She will incorporate items created at all of the 50th anniversary events into a single piece.

Institute of Cultural Affairs-USA, with Oklahoma City University's Oikos Scholars Program, was also a sponsor of the "Caring for Our HOME: Educating Moral Leaders for Ecological Sustainability" conference in September. The conference focused on the role of higher education in working with students and communities to create educational programs and community partnerships to care for Planet Earth.

Tom Wray           twray@ica-usa.org