AUSTRALIA:

1. Long term friend and supporter of ICA, Stella Cornelius, is now mother and grandmother to the authors of the revised edition of the best seller book on Conflict Resolution, 'Everyone can Win'  by Helena Cornelius, Estella Cornelius and Shoshana Faire. Simon and Schuster...an outstanding book  Several ICA members attended the packed book launch last week.

2. The ICA team of 5 have been in Timor Leste for almost a week now.  Reports on the work to date are good, and they have been safe, in the midst of continued unrest.

Ray Richmond

CANADA:

This week, a new co-ordinator for our YFL programme joined Cara. Her name is Eowynne Feeney. Cara and Eowynne went up to join in a community meeting in Georgina (where the current YFL project is starting) along with the project's researcher, Crystal Mellin, and our partner from Earth Day Canada, Jason Kun.

Cara Naiman

JAPAN:

Location: Japan, Mexico, Indonesia, Philippines

Shizuyo Sato lead an outstanding ICA Japan Annual General Assembly with 35 people attending, including Iwao Masuda and Takashi Kosugi, who are national Diet members and key supporters.

The 2008 Conference committee synchronized the Japanese and the English language brochures, and requested ALL ICAs Worldwide to review the main titles, which are...The 7th Global Conference on Human Development...Seeking Fresh Insights...

Paulo Ito secured a contract with ICA Phoenix to provide training in Chipas state, Mexico.

Mamiko Tanaka and Kasuko sent out materials to Peace Links, whose members are wives of prominent Diet members.

Kaoru Ito presented a dametic slide show about his work in the Philippines to visiting students.

Eiki Kubokawa is finishing  an Earthquake aid activity in Indonesia, and wrote a request for an extension of the severly needed materials including repair of dams for irrigation.

Submitted by Wayne Ellsworth

PERU:

Location: 100 Valleys

Decided to create an ongoing 3 week community leader formation program with the first one scheduled for 21 January, and marketing to be completed by the end of November.  Meanwhile the staff has defined a major research project to document 8 valleys over the next couple of months, which is a major task as the valleys are up to 300 miles long, containing many communities.  The 100 valleys project is heating up.

Ken Hamje

SPAIN:

Location: Madrid

We have given the first session of a course to senior citizens on feeling good with ourselves to be able to help others around us. The acceptance and feed back of the course is encouraging on the importance of such courses to improve communication and relationship via seniors.

Franco Voli

UNITED KINGDOM:

Martin did a lot on finances for our Board meeting this week, Julie continued marketing and scheduling courses for 2007, and Jonathan secured a small facilitation contract for December and met with Fred Simons of ICA Canada.

Jonathan Dudding

UNITED STATES:

This is the first week of a total reorganization of ICA USA. ICA USA has asked all ICA senior staff to start their own business and become part of the ICA network.  The staff are taking the old ICA business with them. The ICA USA organization will service and support this network through research and development. The image is that the ICA USA organization will become a large network of people and organizations who are promoting participatory methods and projects. We are all being forced to think outside the box by being thrown out of the box. Is an exciting time to be alive and part of ICA.

Richard Alton

ICAI SECRETARIAT:

Location: Montreal

ICAI staff has just held its first staff meeting in Montreal. The staff members are Lambert Okrah the Secreatary General and Sarah Miller, Development Officer. The hightlights of the meeting are: the development of a fundraising plan and the transitional operations plan beginning 1st Novermber, 2006 to 1st January, 2007. ICAI has come a long way and we wish to express our sincerest appreciation to all of you for the wonderful work.

Lambert Okrah