ICDP MOZAMBIQUE

The Orphanage in Maputo

According to the reports from Mozambique, there is progress in the ICDP-work in the orphanage. Thanks to the donation from SDI, we can now hire one person to work with the most neglected infants there, her name is D. Guilhermina and she works with the ICDP supervisor from the Ministry, D. Meriamo.

It is so painful to watch particularly the babies in the orphanage, they are mostly abandoned orphans, abandoned because the family cannot cope any longer due to poverty and death connected with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In one case a baby was found sucking on the dead mother's breast. This baby, called Pedro, is screaming when he sees adults approaching, but when he is touched and caressed, even by a stranger, he becomes immediately  peaceful and quite, but he starts screaming again when the contact is stopped (We have all of this on film). It is so obvious that what is needed for most of these children is intimate loving contact with stable caregivers to whom they can restore the broken emotional relationship. This is what ICDP tried to bring to this understaffed institution. (See picture of Pedro below)

Some babies are also abandoned, not only because of poverty, but because of their physical malformations. This is the case with Francisco. He is a twin and when the mother saw his deformation of the mouth/nose after birth she was frightened and refused to take him, and he was sent to the orphanage. His deformation of the mouth/nose is so severe that it is very difficult to feed him and he looses weight. In addition he looks so deformed that adults tend to avoid contact with him. He is therefore deprived both nutritionally and psychologically. In some African contexts such deformations are associated with witchcraft and the impact of evil spirits and for that reason such children tend to be rejected. D. Guilhermina and ICDP international consultant Irina Mendes have been working particularly with this deformed baby ( see picture below of Francisco).

In her recent report Irina writes: "In the afternoon, I went to the Orphanage. Francisco, the baby, was being fed, and again it was so painful to see how difficult and dangerous it is for him to drink. The orthopaedic rubber for his feeding bottle that I asked for from Portugal could not be delivered today. The other children were OK, in their 'normality', and D. Guilhermina made them very happy, singing and dancing with the ones who can already walk. This was filmed for ICDP. Differences are really obvious...

In the afternoon, we went (me and Santana) to the Orphanage, again, we delivered the orthopaedic rubber for his feeding bottle and we filmed Francisco's first smiles. It was very moving and rewarding. D. Guilhermina was active and warm, as usual..."

In order to sustain our work in the orphanage, we need more economical support from donors. And we are thinking particularly of Francisco, if it would be possible to collect enough funds so that we could send him to South Africa for an orthopaedic operation.

This is the reason of this appeal. Donations should be sent to the ICDP headoffice in Oslo: icdp@icdp.no

From the ICDP chairman

 

FEBRUARY

ICDP IN THE NORTH OF NORWAY

Professor Karsten Hundeide visits Karasjok, 3 hours drive from Alta, to start ICDP training of the local professionals, who will later be responsible for spreading the ICDP psychosocial intervention programme to families living in the surrounding communities in this northern area of Norway.

ASUNCION, PARAGUAY: ICDP selected for funding by BID

The application for an ICDP community based project, to be developed in a small town 30 km from Asuncion, has been selected for funding at the recent contest opened by the Education Ministry. The project will be funded by the Inter-American Bank for Development (BID). Click to see project proposal.

NEWS FROM BRAZIL: ICDP project approved

An ICDP project has been approved for funding by the municipalities of Florianopolis, Biguaçu, São José and  Palhoça. It will train 60 facilitators 600 promoters in order to reach 6000 families and 15 000 children in the local communities. Seed funding by SD Britain.

COLOMBIA: THE BOYACA PROJECT

                               Boyaca: Group of local children

On 7 - 9th February ICDP evaluation workshops are taking place in the following towns of Boyaca: Tunja, Soata, Sogamaso, Miraflores y Chiquinquira, Otanche, Duitama, Garagoa y Cocuy.

These workshops will be attended by some members of the evaluation team from the two local universities: UNIBOYACA and UPTC. They will be filming and conducting interviews with trained facilitators.

ACCREDITATION CEREMONY :

The accreditation ceremony is planned to take place simultaneously in all the towns of the Boyaca province. At this event the 900 trained facilitators will receive diplomas and some will give accounts of their experiences in working with ICDP during 2005.

First lady of Boyaca exemplifying ICDP principles

 

MARCH

COLOMBIA

FINAL REPORTS FROM BOYACA   

Boyaca is the Colombian province with the highest percentage of family violence, and this is why UNICEF Colombia, under the leadership of Manuel Manrique, suggested for ICDP to be implemented here, as part of a wider peace promoting strategy. The one year ICDP project, sponsored by UNICEF, FPAA, SD Britain and with financial input from the province itself, has now produced its final report - click to read in Spanish. The results from the evaluation carried out by a research team from 3 local universities are also available - click to read in Spanish. 

Although other large scale projects took place in 5 different areas of Colombia, in the period since ICDP became an allied partner with UNICEF Colombia in 2001, the ICDP Boyaca project was the very first inter-institutional project; up till then ICDP had always worked with one institution only, namely ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar).  The governor of the province of Boyaca took special interest and facilitated ICDP implementation through 3 important networks, namely, Education, Health and Social Services. This work proved to be a reach experience as well as learning for ICDP. In order to facilitate coordination between all the different institutions involved in the Boyaca project, ICDP included in its team an administrator, Oliverio Jimenez.  Training was delivered to over 5000 agents from education, health and social services, and they implemented the ICDP programme in 123 towns, working with 50 000 families linked to their respective networks. Follow up plans include a training programme that will complete the handover  from ICDP to a team of local trainers with the task of supervising future ICDP developments.

The future vision for sustainability of ICDP in Boyaca was the main topic of the recent ICDP meetings with the First Lady of the province and the rest of the team from the Governor's office: as result the Secretariat for Education will include ICDP as a permanent component in the PEI programme for schools; the Institute for social services (ICBF) will have ICDP training as an obligatory component of its own training programme; in the coming year, the secretariat for Human Development plans to reach 20 000 families with ICDP. There was a local television interview about ICDP developments in Boyaca, and this is going to be followed up with a radio programme, over a period of 10 months, on the topic of the 8 guidelines and other key themes of the ICDP programme.

Oliverio, the project administrator and Anisah, one of the ICDP trainers

PHOTOS FROM ICDP TRAINING WORKSHOPS  IN COLOMBIA

ICDP IN BOYACA:

ICDP workshop in Puerto Boyaca

ICDP certification in Otanche, ICDP trainer Patricia, second on the left in second row

COLOMBIA: NEW TRAINING

Several ICDP training workshops were recently held by the ICDP international consultant, Nicoletta Armstrong  in Medellin, (province of Antioquia) and Neiva, (province of Huila). This marked the beginning of 3 new project developments in cooperation with the Medellin municipality, CINDE, UNICEF and the governor's office in Huila.

Following the initiative of UNICEF, Huila is the third province, after Narino and Boyaca, to receive ICDP training as part of a preventive strategy , where ICDP is implemented in every town of the province, by training agents from different local networks working with families and children.

Following the initiative of UNICEF, Huila is the third province, after Narino and Boyaca, to receive ICDP training as part of a preventive strategy , where ICDP is implemented in every single town of the province, by training agents from different local networks working with families and children. ICDP trainers Anisah Andrade, Ilaina Ramirez, Chayatun Valencia and Patricia Garces are now starting with the training in 4 towns: Neiva, Pitalito, La Plata and Garzon.

Group work at ICDP workshop with team from CINDE

Some of the ICDP workshop participants from BUEN COMIENZO

 

APRIL

ICDP MOZAMBIQUE

REPORT FROM FIELD VISIT    

After two weeks of discussions and a number of field visits by the ICDP team working in Mozambique, comprising of Karsten Hundeide, Santana Momade, Pedro and Maria Teresa Mendes, several points emerged as important to focus on at the present time:

The scope of the operation has increased considerably and ICDP Mozambique is now approaching the limits of its present capacity. It is dealing with 11 institutions, and each one is involved with a different project. For this work ICDP has recently received sufficient funding, from NORAD, Swiss Bank USB and REPSSI, and as a consequence, there is a need for higher efficiency in planning in order to fulfil the increased obligations.

A new strategy is currently being put in place, that represents a change from a single focus on intervention inside families, to working on advocacy inside the local community, as well as awareness raising about children’s psychosocial health requirements and their rights as human beings. It was perceived as important to now integrate preventive HIV/health components as part of the existing program, so that it becomes more acceptable to the local communities.

The project is looking at the possibility of recruiting a greater number of qualified Mozambican staff that can take on responsible tasks, both for the work in the field and in the area of administration.

Clear procedures for monitoring, evaluation and follow up in the field are yet to be defined.

 

PHOTOS FROM ICDP FIELD WORK IN WEST BENGAL, INDIA

        

     

 

MAY

ICDP STARTS IN EL SALVADOR

ICDP signed a contract for training with UNICEF El Salvador who sponsored training  workshops which took place during the last two weeks of April. Participants included 90 persons; teachers, volunteers, health nurses, social workers and community leaders.

This workshop will be followed up by a pilot project due to start on the 16th of May in 7 provinces of the country, by implementing the ICDP programme "I am a person too" with vulnerable families and children under protection. The project is led by  Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo Integral de la Niñez y la Adolescencia (ISNA) which is the local Social Services network, and in cooperation with the Education and Health Ministries. In early September the ICDP team will visit the pilot project in the field and then continue the training of the 90 persons who received the initial training workshop.

 

ICDP NORDIC NETWORK MEETING IN SWEDEN

 4-5th of May

Topic: Guiding Interplay and Health (Salutogenes )

The ICDP Nordic Network meeting took place at Gränsö Slott, about 4 km from central Västervik. Västervik is situated on the east coast, 270 km south of Stockholm. It gathered 75 ICDP facilitators/trainers, 25 from each of the 3 countries; Norway, Sweden and Denmark. During two days they ran parallel workshops and worked in small groups in order to exchange the wealth of their practical experiences from the field and afterwards evaluated their work all together in the plenary. All felt the event was an enriching experience. Keynote speakers were:

Welcome speech by Karin Edenhammar, chairwoman of ICDP Sweden  www.icdp.se

Paul Bergman and Annelie Waldau, psychologists and psychoteraphists. ”The village concept and health (salutogenes)”

Henning Rye, professor at Oslo university.”The quality of interaction – neglect and abuse”

Karsten Hundeide, professor at Oslo university. ”Sensitization of the caretaker – free reign or straight guidelines?”

Lene Lindberg,  psychologist and philosophy dr. ”Guiding interaction as a health promoting method – evaluation and continuation”

Lilian Berggren, psychologist ”Guiding Interplay – Effects on the school enviroment and teaching”

Peter Westmark and Jörgen Rondolds, psychologists ”Projektet i Frejlev”

 

COLOMBIA: AFTER FOUR YEARS  ICDP IS STILL GOING STRONG IN IPIALES

Rosalba, Lizeth and Carmen

Four years ago ICDP developed a pilot project in Ipiales, Colombia, with the sponsorship by UNICEF. We trained 3 community mothers Rosalba, Lizeth and Carmen as ICDP promoters/ facilitators.  To our surprise they recently appeared at the office of ICDP Colombia asking us to top up their training - they had come a very long way, 18 hours by bus, wishing to reconnect and receive more information and advice, because after 4 years of trying to receive recognition and funding for their work, they have now finally obtained local funding and are about to start several ICDP initiatives. Up till now they mostly worked on voluntary basis, out of a strong feeling of commitment and love for their community, which in their view benefits from receiving courses in ICDP. Now they told us they have even managed to start up an NGO of their own and to set up their ICDP office in the home of Lizeth. The 5 days we spent with them were very productive as well as enjoyable. We forged close links which no doubt will continue  to develop from now on. Their courage and perseverance paid off and all three left happy and confident in their own abilities. - from the ICDP Colombia team.

 

NEWS FROM ICDP IN BRAZIL

Afonso Eleazar Luft, the ICDP trainer from Santo Angelo, is going this month on a visit to Florianopolis, where he hopes to negotiate with the officials from the municipality the start of the ICDP project which has been delayed due to slow government procedures. During this visit he will present an updated version of the ICDP Manual prepared specifically for the new project.

 

JUNE

A TOAST TO MARK NEW PHASE FOR ICDP 

ICDP headoffice in Oslo goes to new premises set in a pleasantly green surroundings.

   

The toast marks the beginning of a new phase. Due to its expansion in the field ICDP is reorganizing its operational structures by registering ICDP International and ICDP Norway as two separate organisations.       

                                   

Markus Hoff Berge is passing the overall administrative responsibilities to Trine Gerlyn.

Karsten Hundeide is passing chairmanship for ICDP Norway to Ingeborg Egebjerg.

 

 

PROGRESS IN MOZAMBIQUE

Santana Momade, the ICDP administrator gives us an update about the scope of the ICDP activities shown on the table below:

Cooperating project-groups/activities in:

Funding agencies and cooperating organizations:

•         District 4: Reencontro, •         District 4: Rebuilding hope •         District 4: Laulane group •         District 4: Ark of salvation •         District 4: Kinlimuka •         Costa do Sol: Kanimambu       Maputo area: REPSSI (12 organizations in process of training) •         Orphanage – 1st of May •         Coalition of advocacy in psychosocial •         Nampula: CFD – •         Nampula AIDS-project? *   District 4 is a very poor area of Maputo Nampula is in the North of the country

NORAD REPSSI HACI * Reconstructing Hope Kinlimuka Rencontro CFD Religious groups Provincial sections of ministry of women and education…   * Not yet finalized

 

SOUTH AFRICA:

ICDP at the HSRC -UNICEF Meeting in Durban

The Meeting in Durban took place from the 24th till the 26th of May. There were 60 participants who came from many different parts of Southern Africa. They mostly work in projects related to the field of care for vulnerable children in the wake of the HIV-AIDs pandemic. The focus was on an integrated approach that includes preventive health as part of the basic psychosocial care programme. One of the main speakers at this meeting was Karsten Hundeide who presented ICDP. It became clear that the ICDP work has become known and respected inside the child development community in this part of the world. Reports and overheads from this meeting should soon be available on a DVD disc from: LGovender@hsrc.ac.za.

 

JULY

 

ICDP EXPANSION IN WEST BENGAL 

News from Kolkata: The training carried out by Karl-Peter Hubbertz has proved  successful, the feedback and appreciation of the participants was overwhelming. The participants became very motivated to start implementing ICDP.

There are  six organisations which are going to start an ICDP-group in their own field and some already started the work. German organisation "Indienhilfe" is sponsoring each ICDP-group with small funds for materials, working hours and other facilities.

Two regional ICDP-groups were established: the "north-group" and the "south-group".

            Working session of one of the groups

 

The evaluation session of the seminar, working with cards "what I liked and disliked".

 

AUGUST

ICDP IN MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA 

 

  

The above photo was recently sent from the project Acoger by ICDP trainer Carolina Montoya. Carolina has trained the ICDP facilitator Monica Gallego, a professional from the department for Family Development, at the FUNLAM university, who can be seen in the photo conducting an activity  with a group of mothers.

ICDP has a ten years long history of cooperation with the Luis Amigo University (FUNLAM) in Medellin. The university has been developing an integrated project of assistance, called "Acoger" in an attempt to alleviate the lives of some of the many families that are continuously violently displaced due to the guerrilla war in Colombia. Some of these families are now living in temporary settlements up in the mountains surrounding the city of Medellin. During 2005, as part of the Acoger project 150 caregivers received the ICDP programme. During the current semester 120 new mothers will participate in ICDP.

On August 2nd the first group meeting with mothers and children for this semester took place. In parallel with the group meeting with mothers, was also an ICDP meeting with children applying the ICDP concept directly in the interaction with the children. The turnout for the first day this semester was impressive; a total of 17 mothers came to the little square in front of the government building in Altamira, while the other three groups, of children, had approximately 60 children showing up! The Acoger team uses their bus with a private room for individual psychological consultancy, a place to store and hand out small snacks during the meetings and a parasol on each side of the bus which makes the hour long meetings comfortable in the hot sun in the hills of Medellin.

 

SEPTEMBER

ICDP AGM

Oslo, August 30th  –  September 2nd,  2006

The AGM was opened by the Chairman of the ICDP foundation Karsten Hundeide. He stressed that this was an important AGM, which would discuss and decide fundamental changes in the foundation: separation of ICDP International Foundation from ICDP Norway, formation of ICDP Norway as an Association, change of the statutes of the ICDP International foundation in accordance with the new law in Norway, change of the administration of the international foundation, the election of the board for the Norwegian national organisation and election of the board of the international ICDP foundation.

Photo above shows voting by the international board which established the ICDP Norway Association with the following interim board members: Ingeborg Egebjerg, Marianne Fjetland, Tove Jeppson, Hilde Tornes, Mona Hannestad,  Marianne Eriksen and Henning Rye.

There were changes on the international board. Thanks were given to the members who stepped down: Helen Rønnaug Andresen, Wilbert Verheyen, Henning Rye, Markus Hoffberge, Pedro and Maria Teresa Mendes.

More voting took place/ Karsten Hundeide was re-elected as chair, with Santana Momade and Nicoletta Armstrong as board members. Helen Rønnaug Andresen will act as legal advisor. Anneli Waldau is the new representative from Sweden at annual general meetings.

After the more formal parts of the AGM, there were discussions concerning different aspects of ICDP future development, and the topics included, among other, the following:

-  Need for competence building and training: 1. Regular training on international levels - external training and 2. Expert training for existing trainers - internal training

- Integration of other information, such as health components for example, to the current programme.

- Improving fundraising locally and approaching internationally well known donor agencies

- Upgrading, adaptation and marketing of the ICDP concept  

- Relationships, responsibility and juridical aspects between the international ICDP foundation and associated branches or autonomous organizations

- Juridical protection of ICDP as an organization and programme

- It was agreed to change the name from "International Child Development Programmes" to "International Child Development Programme"

During the last two days of the meeting the focus was on sharing about project experience and the ICDP programme material.

 

The ICDP pilot project in the area of child protection:

This was discussed on the third day of the meeting as a new area of experience. This pilot project took place in Oslo, from January till June 2006 and was supported by the Ministry of Children and Family affairs. It was led by Janni Eriksen and Ingeborg Egebjerg in consultation with professor Henning Rye. Ten social workers from 5 offices were selected to be trained as ICDP group leaders applying the programme with groups of mothers. According to what was said in the evaluation sessions by the ICDP trained social workers their own attitudes towards the mothers in the field of child protection changed positively: "it was rewarding and exciting to be allowed to have a positive focus", "the experience created more sympathy and understanding for the situation, as well as a better insight of why things are difficult for these caregivers", "I think that the program gives golden opportunities to come to know the family in a completely different and better way".

 Summary of evaluations:

- This way of working establishes a different kind of contact and a new perspective on the parents.

- The simplicity of the program makes it possible to use it in relation to this group.

- Personal internalizing of the ICDP programme by the social worker was a precondition for establishing a good process in the groups of mothers.

- The mothers expressed how useful they found meeting others in same life situations to share experiences and feelings. Often they requested more meetings after the training.

- The fact that the social worker uses personal experiences as examples promotes a different kind of meeting with Child Protection.

- The mothers expressed that the space they were given to share and work with difficult emotional issues had an impact on the interaction with their children.

- The social workers reported that they have become aware of a new potential in the caregivers, because of focus of the programme on existing resources. They also describe that the mothers have more faith in their own importance and coping abilities.

 Challenges:

- It was felt that there should be 2 promoters in each group, and that the time required for preparation before the meeting and work after the meeting would be a total of 4 to 6 hours.

- Drop out from the group has to be expected and it does not seem to relate to lack of interest.

- The work in the groups has to be sensitive in a way that sustains the structure and at the same time allows for the parents needs to express themselves.

- With reference to selection of families: there should be an offer to participate, but time should be allocated for information sharing some motivational work. The composition of members in the group has to be considered. Differences in culture and age of children does not seem to present an obstacle.

- Since the group experiences involves complex life situations reflected in the group process itself, continuous follow up of the promoters is desirable.

 

OCTOBER

COLOMBIA NETWORK OF TRAINERS

The recently established network of ICDP trainers covers 4 provinces of the country, Quindío, Antioquia, Nariño and Boyaca. Trainers are qualified to set up new projects and to train and supervise the work of ICDP facilitators and promoters. 

 

The photo shows the team of professionals who recently attended a Trainer Level Seminar in Amanecer, near La Tebaida, Quindío, run by the ICDP international consultant for the Colombia. Although not all participants had the same amount of experience of working with ICDP, there was strong, long term commitment from all to continue developing ICDP in their respective provinces. The trainers in Quindío and Antioquia have long been established and they are now joined by new trainers from Nariño, where ICDP has been spreading for several years, through Health and Social services (ICBF) and from Boyaca, where since the implementation of the large project in 2005, ICDP continued to spread through the networks of health, education and social services (ICBF). In Boyaca, the support from the Governor has been very significant not only in promoting ICDP through the media but his wife has been running workshops all over the country in person. Having established a network of trainers, ICDP ends its direct involvement in training in these provinces but the trainers will keep in contact and inform about the future developments. With the help of UNICEF, ICDP hopes to organise yearly meetings of Trainers to exchange and share experiences.

 

ICDP IN ARGENTINA

Report from Mina Clavero

This is a report about our work during the period between June and September 2006.

1. Our ICDP team carried out field visits to preschools in Cura Brochero and San Lorenzo. The ICDP pack of materials, adapted to the local culture for this part of Argentina, was delivered to the committee from the preschools and the two psychologists.

2. We conducted new training in Córdoba in cooperation with the NGO called "La Minga" who are actively working with children of different ages in the poor suburbs of the town. We trained teachers as well as a group of mothers linked to "La Minga", with regular meetings over a period of 5 weeks. Particular emphasis was put on the topic of general concern which in these groups of caregivers was about ways to set limits in a positive way. We compared mother-child with mother-adolescent relationships examining different successful strategies used to set limits. This work opened up a space for interesting exchanges which created in the end fresh and more positive attitudes in most of the participants.

3. There were regular support meetings with the professionals spreading ICDP to families in La Paz. Their ICDP work is part of a breastfeeding and nutrition programme.

4. In early November we plan to organize  the First Meeting for organizations working for the benefit of children in Valle Traslasierra. Our objective is to present ICDP and to create a Forum for discussion about the new National Law on Protection of children and adolescents

 Some of our future plans include the following:

To visit promoters we trained during our second self training projects which took place in Las Calles, as they are now interested in continuing with ICDP and reaching out to more families with the programme .

Before the end of 2006, we hope to finish the production of the musical CD containing local traditional songs we had collected during this year, and to add it to our ICDP pack of materials to be used during 2007.

Our work and our uninterrupted commitment to spreading ICDP has now resulted in several requests for training for the whole community.

At the end of September we will hold a planning meeting with the ICDP trainer Camila Romero in Buenos Aires, in order to establish new goals, activities and methodology.

From the ICDP team of facilitators: Virna Casuccio, Maria del Carmen Vega and Mariela Skverer

 

NEWS FROM PARAGUAY

This year, 2006, we are able to reach out more into the countryside with two projects:

Project 1:

 “Development of Children in their Early Childhood, implementing ICDP” for low income urban and rural families at about 100 km from the capital, in the district of Eusebio Ayala (16.000 inhabitants, Cordillera Department). A small grant from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) made this work possible!

In November 2005 we trained 15 students (future preschool teachers) who in 2006 started to work with  3-5 years old children, as part of their obligatory 6 months practical training. From April 2006, after summer holidays, 13 teacher-students were able to start as supervised ICDP promoters with 4 groups of local families, mothers, very few fathers and grandmothers of children aged 2 to 5. We were surprised by the interest and commitment of rural families. We hope these students will become stable promoters in the future once they have finished their studies in 2008. 

The other surprise was to see mothers and fathers in their new affectionate parenting style, in surroundings where latent violence marks family and institutional atmosphere. A kind of awakening is taking place in one group of parents who until now have always  been living amidst natural resources without really perceiving them, believing that they were poor and powerless. Their material resources are small pieces of land in rural surroundings, a benign climate all year round, sufficient water reserves and markets within reach. Now they have asked us to support small enterprise projects:  to cultivate food plants for their own subsistence and as cash crops, and to undertake small livestock breeding for the market.

NOVEMBER

ICDP WORKSHOP IN DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

This training was offered as a follow-up from an expert meeting on early child development convened by CYFSD in Durban, in May 2006.  The purpose of the meeting was to examine both available materials for promoting the development of young children, and available platforms in which the materials could be inserted with appropriate networking, advocacy and training.  Key issues highlighted included a commitment to developing a greater recognition of the importance of relationships, in particular the caregiver-child relationship.

ICDP training is practical, in addition to underlying theory it has to be put into practice through active participation in sensitization exercises and direct fieldwork in order to become accredited as an ICDP promoter.  The objective of the training is to prepare to implement the ICDP Program in practice in the community.  This means training groups of local caregivers and promoters working with children either in homes or in institutions, with the quality that is essential for the program’s impact and sustainability. 

The training is split into two parts.  The first part took place in Durban from the 24 – 27 October 2006, funded by the International Child Development Programmes (ICDP) and The Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), with technical and financial support from the Child Youth Family and Social Development Programme (CYFSD).   The course was held in English and professionals from southern African countries were invited to participate. As there were a limited number of places available, priority was given to those who represented organizations working with children at disadvantage and to individuals who were both committed to implementing the program in practice, and in training others. 

The training was conducted by Professor Karsten Hundeide (ICDP, Norway) and Irina Mendes (ICDP, Mozambique), and attended by local and national participants, including paediatricians and representatives from Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

   

          Karsten Hundeide                                Irina Mendes

The second part of the training will be an additional two day course in March 2007, where the focus will be on follow-up of fieldwork, training of caregivers and community work with certification, of those who have fulfilled the fieldwork and the required exercises.

ICDP FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN, NORWAY

There are new developments in the town of Bergen related to a pilot project targeting  parents of special needs children, led by Hilde Tornes and Henning Rye. A group of 15 professionals are in process of being trained as ICDP facilitators.  This new group of facilitators is represented by professionals from  the "PPT" language centre,  the "Statped" pedagogy centre and personnel from health stations. They plan to start working with parents in the early months of the coming year, 2007.

In addition, in the Bergen areas training of pre-school teachers started in November. In Ytrebygdahere training developments are planned to take place after the Christmas holidays.

DECEMBER

ICDP GOES TO GUATEMALA

ICDP international consultant Nicoletta Armstrong was recently invited by Wendy de Berger, the First Lady of Guatemala,  to have breakfast with her at the palace and to talk about the work of ICDP and the content of its programme "I am a person too". Present were also key officials from different ministries, as well as the wife of the vice president of the country. The invitation came as result of the initiative by the  representative of UNICEF Guatemala, Manuel Manrique, to introduce ICDP methodology as a strategy that can contribute towards creating better future and conditions for children in the country. After the presentation  and a number of other meetings, it was agreed to incorporate the ICDP psychosocial intervention programme as an integral part of the existing programme called Creciendo bien. Creciendo bien was developed by the First Lady as a nutrition and health programme and is already running in many areas of the country with the purpose of helping mothers combat malnourishment of children which is very widespread. The programme is developed in cooperation with health and education ministries and it also runs preschools for poor children. Plan Internacional has shown interest in participating and cooperating with ICDP with the aim of reaching 600 poor communities all over the country. ICDP work will involve cooperation with nine local  institutions, several NGOs, as well as the Ministry of Education, Health and Social Services and two local universities. The first training workshop is planned to be held in February 2007.

Manuel Manrique at a centre developed by Creciendo Bien.

DEVELOPMENTS IN CHOCÓ, COLOMBIA

An ICDP training project has been developing in cooperation with the UNICEF local office In Quibdo, the capital of the province of Chocó. A group of 25 professionals from local NGOs, the ICBF network and the CINDE foundation recently attended their second ICDP training workshop. They presented their own experiences in implementing the ICDP programme in the period between July and November 2006.  This group of facilitators showed dedication and special commitment managing to train over 200 promoters who will use the ICDP programme in their work with families in different areas of Chocó. It is planned to reach 2000 families during 2007.

Some of the workshop participants in Quibdo, capital of the Chocó province, Colombia.

FROM EL SALVADOR

ICDP is going strong in El Salvador. The project is supported by UNICEF. There are already over 300 promoters and more than 600 families have attended ICDP group meetings over the last 5 months. Particularly active is the social services organization called ISNA, which acts as coordinator for the project and the inter institutional work involving also the health and education sectors. 

At the recent evaluation of the first experiences of implementing ICDP, quite a few of the 25 project leaders expressed that ICDP for them meant starting by working on oneself and on the relationships inside one's families. This was, they said, both a gift and a learning process that enabled them to reach out and inspire others to apply ICDP in practice, particularly emphasising the need for empathy and loving guidance. Some of the teachers felt the importance of introducing ICDP to all their colleagues in the school and did so in their spare time. Most of the key staff of ISNA received training so they could interact better with children in their care and in their opinion ICDP helped them relate better also with their colleagues. Many of the newly trained promoters felt the importance of spreading the positive messages of the programme to wider community and hope to do so in the coming year 2007.

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