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Global Buzz Report: 2012 07 01

ICAI Leadership Team Report:      July 01 2012

News
General Assembly held with most members present

Agendas
  1. Global news and peer-to-peer sharing – all regions shared highlights
  2. Nepal conference preparation – 30 plus international registered
  3. Elected three new members to the GLT/ Board for the next 4 years - Seva Gandhi – ICA USA, Staci M. Kentish- ICA Canada, Krishna K. Shrestha – ICA Australia
  4. ICAI finance check in and dues report - brief report on finance/budget and state of dues
  5. Launching Strategic Dialogue toward December General Assembly
  • What is the world asking the ICA network to be and to contribute over the next 20 years?
  • What is a new and exciting way to do global conferences- who will take the lead for the next one in 4 years
  • Global ToP structure - ICA Canada, ICA Australia, ICA Taiwan-have requested a conversation about the global ToP structure. What are recommendations for how to proceed? (Standards, Systems, Expansion, etc)
  • Next step: what actions do you intend to take before the GA in December

Concerns
How to help ICAs make sure they attend physically or virtually the dialogue over the next few months on the conference and on ICA Global strategies. Any ICA is welcome to host a conversation

Next steps
Nepal prep
Budget and strategy prep for ICAI 2013-2014

Larry Philbrook           Larry@icatw.com

ICAI Leadership Team Report:      June 01 2012

News
Regional gatherings with all three regions (N/S America, Africa/Middle East/Europe, Asia Pacific) - Topics: Reports, Nepal prep, General Assembly Input, GLT nominees, and ICAI finances Team in Canada prepping for Audit of 2011 (Bill and Daphne)
Winds and waves team is inviting articles on "methods that work"
Nepal working on ICA Book, chapters are being sent in

Concerns
All dues are due by June 30, last year Audit due by June 30 - several deadlines which the GLT can not impact but can feel anxious about
Still missing a 4th nominee
Success of involving more nations in South America raises the question of how we involve developing ICAs.  Same question with our African colleagues, how do we make sure they are connected - in the peer to peer how much are we to depend on ICAs to drive the connection and how much should the GLT reach out

Next steps
JUNE 16 General assembly

Larry Philbrook           Larry@icatw.com

BANGLADESH:         July 01 2012

Ghormara school reopens with new furniture and a new teacher:
Thanks to Manik, Zaki, Aziz and Tapan for contributing to the initial fund for school benches and tables for 50 students. We still need 30,000 taka to pay the bill.

The Phulki street children were taken to the Children's Park (Shishu Park) in Dhaka; this is the first time ever for us to make this recreational tour for these kids. ICA Bangladesh added this component this year to the Phulki educational and life skills training project funded by TUC Japan. Moksud Shaheb organized the 30 kids' visit to let these deprived kids enjoy what other wealthier kids do in the Park. Another significant component added this year to the Phulki project is the sewing machine and rickshaw program, to enable some needy families to keep their kids out of child labour and enable them to focus on education at ICA's Phulki project. We will support the sewing machine program from the TUC fund and the rickshaw program from Working gifts fund.

ICA Bangladesh introduced the Working Gifts Program this year for village and Phulki projects. Under this program we are looking for gifts of items such as rickshaws, sewing machines and tube wells, etc. as these promote activities that generate income. One American Bangladeshi has responded with a Working Gift of a rickshaw for the street children project; this will be provided in August.

We have just received ICA Australia's generous support for 2012. Three ICA Bangladesh members are joining the Nepal conference with the support of ICA Australia. Thanks to Maria and Richard and ICA Australia colleagues for providing the funding. Like last year, we are also grateful for ICA Australia's $2000 support to fund the ICA Bangladesh office and staff for 2012. We have not been able to overcome the deficit budget issue yet. We are also hoping to have long term project funding from ICA Australia.

We had our 5th (2012) Board meeting on June 30th with decisions made regarding the AGM 2012 and the ICA Nepal conference, Also the Action Plan implementation, and some other internal affairs.

Zaki           admin@ica-bangladesh.org

EHIO Tajikistan:         June 01 2012

1. News:
A new project: Theatre For Peace Building and Conflict Prevention has been signed for six months by the British Embassy which is going to be implementing its activities in the Sogd region of North Tajikistan.

2. Challenges:
The situation in Tajikistan has changed over the past few years. A lot of local NGOs in Tajikistan now have a reduced income and they have difficulties with their finances.

3. Coming events:
Three days of training were conducted from the 10th of May to the 12th of May for the project TSEP on the topics of, Starting a business and managing taxes. This was in the Asht district of jamoat Kirkuduk.
Four days of training were conducted from the 14th of May to the 17th of May on the topics, Basic management, Starting a business and managing taxes, for the farmers in Garm and Tavildara of Rasht Valley.
From the 24th to the 26th of May a three day training course was conducted on the topic of, Starting a business and tax management, for youth in the Sahrituz region, jamoat Hudoikulov.

4. On the project for the World Bank:
On the 2nd, 11th, and the 17th of May we conducted training on the topic: Plan for making sustainable use of water, in the Nurmuhammad, Sulaimonhuja, and Holiksarkor districts. And also on the 3rd, 18th and 28th of May we conducted training on the topic: Planting a new garden, and the care for a young garden of apricot, in Nurmuhammad, Sulaimonhuja and Holiksarkor districts. On the 4th, 16th and 22nd of May we conducted training on the topic: Planting of cucumbers under pellicle, and on the 8th, 15th and 23rd of May we conducted training on the topic: The method of getting full value from young cotton varieties.

Nigina Sadikova           nigina7811@rambler.ru

NEPAL:           July 01 2012

The 8th Global Conference on Human Development, 2012 - Preparation

Nepal, a land of natural beauty and cultural diversity is all set to host the 8th Global Conference on Human Development, 2012.

Registration:
With the support of Terry, Tom, Doug and Fara, the conference registration is being conducted through an online page on the ICA-USA website. We have received more than 35 confirmed international registrations so far, and we expect the registrations will pick the pace in the coming days. The website: www.conference.ica-nepal.org now contains the names of confirmed participants listed with their respective theme.

Receiving Support from all over:
Organizations such as Equal Access, Rotary Club of Rudramati, Practical Action, Nepal Tourism Board, Foreign Ministry of Nepal, Home Ministry, Civil Aviation Authority Nepal, the Immigration Department, the Association of INGOs, and the Federation of NGOs, and KIDRRAC, have all shown great interest and support in promoting the conference worldwide. Oxfam, Mission Eas and Room to Read are all interested in participating in pre-conference event-capacity building, training.

We have received more than 30 abstract notes from individuals wanting to participate in the conference and to share their work,such as: Nepali Parma Culture, Chahari Nepal, and the Universal Peace Federation. Educational Institutions; Kathmandu University, Darwin Academy and Glen Buds School are all helping to raise our spirits.

The Nepal Tourism Board is supporting us in welcoming the participants in the airport lobby. ACE Travels Com, as our associate travel partner, is facilitating accommodation and post conference events and travel related activities.

A news conference has been called regarding the 8th Global Conference on Human Development, 2012 for Friday July 6, 2012. The National Advisory Board, National Theme Leaders, and the Working Committees will also attend the program. The invitation is being circulated to all Media and journalists in the country. The first press briefing on the 8th Global Conference on Human Development, 2012, was conducted on September 5, 2011.

Virtual Conference Site:
Nimesh Amatya in coordination with Douglas Druckenmiller, Lloyd, and Danny Mittleman are doing great work in setting up the virtual site. The site will go public during the first week of July.

The conference is being promoted through social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and likened.

Training and Projects:
ICA conducted 10 days residential training on SPSS and Research Methodology, for Ph.D. scholars.

Training on BCC WASH for the staff and community mobilizers of ENPHO was conducted in May. The training ran for 5 days in Nawalparsi district. Training Coordinator, Tej B Karki and Trainer Deepak Timsina facilitated the training.

Other than conference preparation, ICA Nepal is working in the Far-Western Region in capacity building and empowerment projects, supported by Misereor. -

Ishu Subba          ishu@ica-nepal.org

JAPAN:          June 01 2012

This month Shizuyo was asked to participate in three projects, after returning from two others. Thanks to Skype, it seemed to our Japan staff that she never left the office in Japan. A further report will be provided after she returns from the Somalia border with Kenya after putting in place a pipeline, delivering emergency water to those displaced, starving and thirsty people.

Meanwhile most of the staff worked with Chimaki, preparing paperwork in order to become certified to receive donations from large corporations. Motoko and Gaku were recently hired to provide quality assistance and timely information to our funders and the project staff, also to write proposals, reports, update the website, and to maintain a dialogue with the various people in our projects.

Yuichiro continues to work with Americare and is planning an extension of the project of aid to the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami region. This extension will be to provide psychosocial care for families and to engage those people in farming activities, forest care and a variety of other activities.

Our projects continued, near Pune India, and in Vietnam and we began the Bihar India Community Recovery Project with ten villages though there were small hiccups along the way,

Motoko, Wayne, and Jean Watts worked with Catherine Tornbom to write "users stories" for the peace segment of both the virtual and on-site forthcoming global conference. This refreshing method produced the following for the communications team preparation: (Sample only - see the attached file for the full list below)

  • As a content provider I would like my information to be easily shared with both onsite participants and virtual participants.
  • As a theme leader I hope for peace-building actions to be a result of the conference.
  • As a participant at the conference I look forward to integrating the information that will be shared during the virtual meetings prior to the conference.

We experimented with "user stories" for ICA Japan and it opened us up by thinking of our users (stakeholders):

  • As a board member, I would like to know of ICA projects on a timely basis.
  • As a peace mediator, I would like to facilitate group meetings to resolve conflicts.
  • As a staff member, I would like to consolidate ICA work.
  • As a JPF funder, I would like to satisfy our funders by providing timely information, and have peace of mind with ICAJ.
  • As a project partner, we want short process time for report submission so that we will have more time to discuss the next project.
  • As a member of an organization, I would like to seek access to flexible income to run activities better.
  • As a NPO member, I would like to negotiate with government bureaucrats and politicians in the Third World to get their assistance for our activities.
  • As a person in a refugee camp, I would like to have my story broadcast to the people in Japan, enough times to generate compassion and understanding, so that we will become partners.
  • As local ICA staff, I would like to have more flexible money to learn as we work and to run sustainable projects.
  • As a resident in a disaster area of Japan, I would like ICA to accomplish what ICA announced ICA could do.
  • As a youth resident in a slum, I would like to have a better education in order to work for my community.
  • As a web browser, I would like to have interesting and appealing things, such as pictures and media, so that I can tell everyone I know, about ICA's greatness.
  • As a company, I would like ICA to have certification, so that we could make substantial donations.

Please see our website in about a month for a positive update!

Here is the full "user story" conference communications team suggestions attachment:
http://globalbuzz.ica-international.org/attach/user-stories.htm

Staff           staff@icajapan.org

PERU:          July 01 2012

Due to a wave of discontent and conflict across Peru in the past few weeks, we have experienced the postponement of ALL of our programming for the month of July. This has never happened to us before and therefore represents a new type of risk for operating an NGO in Peru. While this action is itself represents no threat to our ongoing work, it is an alert that the stability of society today is not like it was 5 years ago, and we need to take this into account in shaping our services and programs.

These events have given us a new impetus to broaden our program and funding base for the future, and as such we are focusing on the development of a series of micro-industries which will allow us to collaborate with other NGOs to extend our services to the communities where we are already working while providing new opportunities to extend our training to other communities and organizations. So now we have a new focus for our work in July and a new excitement about the potential before us.

Staff           kenh@ica-peru.org

PERU:          June 01 2012

Last Saturday we closed out the second AVANZA PERU 3-week formation program for the Conga Project, and Pedro Aburto and Karina Yachtayo will soon be heading back to Cajamarca for an Implementation program. The company has told us that they want us to be a continuing presence in the communities which will be a new role for the ICA and our staff.

Jesusa Aburto just returned from facilitating a workshop on Project Design for a group of 35 tribal federation leaders meeting in the deep jungle city of Iquitos. Alex Borjas and Fabiola Valdarrago just returned from highly successful recruiting trip to Huanuco where they worked with 14 communities in the very high sierra to bring a group of 30 new leaders to Azpitia on 3 June - they made presentations in communities for 3,500 up to 5,700 meters altitude, which is truly headache country!

Alex and Fabiola will be returning on Friday to bring the 30 participants to Azpitia to begin their 3-weeks of formation training on Sunday. This week Marisol Sanchez has taken on the new responsibility of leading an Implementation Program in Ayacucho with Fredi Gomez which is generating strong results in this old battleground area of the Shining Path. On Friday Gloria Santos and Luis Tarazona head into the mountains of Ancash to do a site visit in 8 communities in preparation for a 6-month program beginning in July.

Informal mining is going on all over Peru and currently employs about 100,000 people directly, and another 400,000 indirectly. This type of artisan mining creates heavy pollution, leaves a devastated landscape behind and operates our side of the laws and control of the government, so it is of huge concern to many people. As an extension of a recent UN study, ICA-Peru is being asked to collaborate in the design and implementation of a demonstration project of leadership training and team formation to move a group of these miners into the formal sector with adequate oversite, where in turn they will gain access to capital for much needed equipment to improve their profits. This is truly a win-win-win situation which is the way we always choose to work.

Ken Hamje           kenh@ica-peru.org

UNITED STATES:         July 01 2012

Gina Alicea Picks Up Materials for 50th Anniversary Art Creation
Chicago artist Gina Alicea stopped by the ICA offices to pick up the cloth strips that will be used in a piece of art commemorating ICA's 50th Anniversary.

Since September 2011, colleagues at events from across the country have been putting their names and writing hopes and dreams on cloth strips. Terry Bergdall, ICA President and CEO, said that the strips include what colleagues would like to see the ICA work toward, hopes for the world, ongoing projects, current colleagues, donors, Human Development Projects and the names of colleagues who have passed away.

On June 18, Gina came to 4750 N. Sheridan Rd. to pick up the strips, which number almost 1,000, and described what she has planned. The cloth will be sewn together, much like a quilt, to become the foundation of the piece of art. The strips will be arranged so that there is a progression from the past to the future.
Full video of her visit at http://www.youtube.com/watch?vPnpusHIlOyE

ICA Receives Grant from Boeing
The ICA is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from The Boeing Company for ICA's Accelerating Green Initiatives in Chicago's 77 Community Areas (Accelerate 77).

"This is a wonderful vote of confidence in Accelerate 77 from Boeing, said Terry Bergdall, President and CEO of ICA. "We are very grateful for their contribution toward bringing together the ambitious sustainable efforts from throughout Chicago.

The goal of the Accelerate 77 project is to increase the role and positive impact of local communities in realizing objectives of the Chicago Climate Action Plan. Its underlying strategy is to identify current sustainability initiatives in all of Chicago's 77 community areas; connect them with one another to inspire new ideas and practices through peer interchange; and engage residents in focused learning, planning, and collective action.

With the support of five Chicago universities, sustainability efforts in 55 of the city's community areas have already been cataloged. ICA will be bringing all 231 project initiatives together at a "Sharing Approaches That Work Conference" on September 15, 2012.

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing is the worlds leading aerospace company with 170,000 employees across the United States and in 70 other countries. The company focuses its community grants in five interdependent areas: environment, education, health and human services, arts and culture and civic engagement.

Accelerate 77 Interns Begin Work
The summer interns have started at the ICA headquarters at 4750 N. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago and are off to an energetic start.

Interns from as far away as New York are participating in all aspects of ICA's Accelerate 77 project. Some of the interns are working on the marketing and event planning aspects of the project and the "Sharing Approaches That Work Conference " (Share Fair) on September 15, 2012. Others are continuing the field work of finding and cataloguing community-driven sustainability and environmental efforts in all of Chicago's 77 community areas.

The internships started in June with a three-week leadership training session. ICA President and CEO Terry Bergdall, volunteer James Addington, and program coordinators Seva Gandhi and Nina Winn guided the intern leaders on ICA's community-building techniques.

A total of 35 interns, joined by experienced colleagues, got down to the day-to-day work of getting ready for the Share Fair in September. Interns are currently working on the details and requirements of the fair, building email lists, planning the launch of the Accelerate 77 website and researching to discover all the environmental efforts in the city.

September Sojourn Planned for Archives
The Global Archives Team is encouraging more people to take part in a 'Global Archives Fall Sojourn' from September 17 through October 19, 2012.

The team is inviting colleagues to come to 4750 N. Sheridan Rd. for the IC's "Sharing Approaches That Work Conference" on September 15. After the conference, people are encouraged to stay and participate in the 'Archives Sojourn.' People can come for a few days of the Sojourn or the whole month.

The priority areas during the Sojourn will be processing Human Development Projects implementation, International Global Community Forums, Academy and Training School Files and the Special Curriculum Areas, along with developing a list of missing Town Meeting 76 reports. Colleagues are also welcome to select other specific research areas of special interest.

Food service will include meals as a team with free time to visit friends or restaurants. Housing on the eighth floor of the ICA building will be at the regular rates. Colleagues can also make arrangements with friends or family.

Email global-archives@ica-usa.org for more information

Tom Wray           twray@ica-usa.org

UNITED STATES:         June 01 2012

CSU Students Contribute to AC77
Students from Chicago State University (CSU) came to the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) building at 4750 N. Sheridan Rd. to give presentations on their participation in ICA's Accelerate 77 (AC77) project. Daniel Block, associate professor of geography at CSU, brought more than a dozen graduate and undergraduate geography students to give their findings, which included PowerPoint presentations and question and answer sessions. Each group of two to three students discussed the two community areas they researched, covering each area's demographics, local issues and community-driven sustainability programs.

The class is one of a number from Chicago area universities that are contributing to Accelerate 77, the effort to find and catalog local sustainable and environmentally supportive efforts in each of the city's 77 community areas. Classes and individual students from DePaul, Northeastern Illinois, Loyola, Roosevelt, and St. Xavier universities have also been active. As of May 10, 2012, 55 community areas have been covered by almost 200 students. The goal of AC77 is to increase the role and positive impact of local communities in realizing objectives of the Chicago Climate Action Plan. The hope is to connect them with one another to inspire new ideas, practices, self-consciousness and motivation through peer interchange, while also engaging residents in systematic learning, planning, and collective action. The project is anticipated to accelerate environmental sustainability in a bottom-up fashion driven by practical action, expanded imagination, and greater organizational capacities among local groups.

Austin ICA Colleagues Gather for a 50th Anniversary Celebration
George and Wanda Holcombe hosted a 50th Anniversary Celebration for colleages in the Austin, TX, area. ICA President and CEO Terry Bergdall joined the festivities. Terry spoke about events in ICA's past, what activities it is currently involved in and future possibilities. The event is actually part of a long-standing series of gatherings of colleagues in the Austin area going back 20 years. In fact, one of the couples has been involved with some of the earliest work with ICA in Chicago. Al and JoAnn Williams, now residents of Austin, were among the first families with children to move into Fifth City in 1963. The event was Terry's first chance to connect with the couple.

Tom Wray           twray@ica-usa.org