International Child Development Programme
REACTIVATING HUMAN CARE
Recent research suggests that normal physical development of the brain depends on proper interaction between a caring adult and the growing child. In normal circumstances such learning happens naturally. But when families are uprooted through social changes, migration, catastrophes, children losing their parents, or having been numbed by severe deprivation and emotional shock, this care often breaks down and has to be reactivated through skilled help. If children do not receive sufficient love and attention while they are young, the problem perpetuates itself because later on many become inadequate parents.
ICDP's focus, therefore, is on trying to break this cycle. It does so by reactivating the existing caring skills and network that have been overlaid by stresses related to extreme poverty, social uprooting, migration, war and disaster.
Professor Karsten Hundeide, ICDP chairman:
"Our work is primarily competence-building and training. When the training is over and the quality of the work is evaluated, we withdraw, having prepared local trainers to take over the organisation and further implementation of our programme. Whenever possible, we try to insert the ICDP Programme into existing institutional structures, government networks, leading NGOs working in the field of care for children, educational institutions, high schools and universities. In this way ICDP training may become an established part of the local institutions responsible for the care of children and for the education of resource-persons in this field."
