COLOMBIA:
ICDP IN CHOCO
ICDP spread to communities in the department of Choco, including to the most remote areas reachable only by river. Adriana Zapata (standing in the photo above) from Unicef explains:
"Our strategy is to start working on consolidating the ICDP trained teams which are working all over Choco and our focus will be on monitoring and evaluation. The ICDP workshop which took place at the end of May, when we were visited by ICDP trainers, started this new phase; the facilitators received monitoring procedures to help them strengthen the field work carried out by promoters. The ICDP developments represent an inter-institutional effort: Unicef, ICBF, CINDE and more recently the local church, are all cooperating very closely which is very significant for us. We managed to accomplish a lot with ICDP; most families have been very receptive to the programme but the needs are extreme. At the moment we are facing a very difficult situation due to renewed armed conflicts, particularly outside the capital of Quibdo. Children are traumatised by continuous violence, I feel so sad to see how fearful they are; each time we arrive to their villages they run and hide as they have become scared of all adults. "
IQUIRA AND RIO NEGRO, HUILA
The name of the local school in Rio Negro is Kue Dsi - an indigenous name, as the school is located in an indigenous community
Some of the pupils from Kue Dsi
Simeon Marinez (far left on photo above), is one of the 1600 facilitators/promoters that ICDP trained in Huila. He explains the snowballing effect of ICDP in Iquira:
" I was trained by ICDP. Then with colleagues from the education, health and social services networks we started implementing ICDP with 10 educators, 24 community mothers, and four health promoters. They worked with families and children in Iquira, each one through their own network, but we kept in touch. We reached 463 families. The results were good. We saw an increase in empathic behaviour towards children, they were treated like 'real people'. So we decided to reach out to Rio Negro, to the indigenous community. One teacher trained 22 teachers of the local school, attended by 600 pupils, and the 22 teachers implemented ICDP with the families of the pupils attending the school. It was a great effort as this ICDP work took place outside their working hours during the evenings for about 3 hours each week. It was worth it, as we noticed that they became more affectionate towards their children. Also, something we did not expect to see, was that parents are now playing with their children - this was completely outside their cultural practices but they decided to change! We are so glad that the Ministry of Education decided to allow teachers to use 3 hours for ICDP implementation every week, so teachers will no longer have to do it after finishing their days work. "
MAY
TANZANIA
A 4 day seminar for candidate trainers took place in Moshi under the leadership of Mai Bente Snipstad and Grete Flakk. The 13 women candidates belong to the Kiwakkuki women's organisation, whose work in the Kilimanjaro region focuses especially on different aspects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Read more.
Group of candidate trainers
Three out of 13 women proudly received their diplomas as ICDP trainers. From the left: Luililiaeli Mfangavo, Egla Matechi and Vernynice Monyo. They will continue to use the ICDP methodology in their work with vulnerable children and their families.
NORWEGIAN PRISONS
The implementation of ICDP in Norwegian prisons has so far been very successful. This was the conclusion of both the facilitators and the parents who benefited from the training. As result ICDP has been integrated as part of the overall training programme for prison staff of the national department Kriminalomsorgens Utdanningssenter (KRUS). Christine Sørøy is the ICDP trainer responsible for future developments at KRUS.
Photo: a group of ICDP facilitators/prison staff.. This group is still in process of training but there are other groups who have already completed their training and will be soon receiving their ICDP diplomas.
APRIL
ANNUAL REPORT 2007 - CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
GUATEMALA SUMMIT
The new government of Guatemala, led by Alvaro Colom, started its administration on the 14 January 2008 emphasising as their priority tackling issues concerning the situation of children and the poor. Guatemala has the highest percentage of malnourished children in Latin America and sixth highest in the world, according to a recent report by Unicef. It is within this context that the Second National Meeting on Early Childhood, ENPI II, took place on 9th and 10th April. It was a joint effort by the government, Plan International and led by Unicef country representative, Manuel Manrique (third from the right on the photo below) and his expert team. It gathered 517 participants, including all the ministries and important national networks and NGOs working for children. A group was also invited to share experiences from Mexico, Colombia, Holland, USA, Nicaragua, Chile, Cuba, and it included Nicoletta Armstrong who presented the work of ICDP. Conference agenda. The president opened the conference and he announced Guatemala in a state of emergency with regards to malnourished children. He and the First Lady, Sandra Torres de Colom (in the centre of the photo below) spoke about the significance of joining efforts and implementing proposals made by the meeting. On the last day they signed the action plan formulated by the meeting as national policy and call for action. Read article by Unicef.
After the conference an ICDP workshop was held for 61 persons from different institutions. Participants included professionals from Plan International, Secretaria de Bienestar Social, SOSEP, Fundazucar and several NGOs.
A project proposal for implementation of ICDP on national scale is currently under preparation in cooperation with Unicef, the government secretariat and Plan International.
ICDP IN SALAZAC, FRANCE
The international training programme for facilitators, which started with a workshop in Oslo in December 2007, was continued in Salazac, France, with a second workshop held from 26th to 28th of March. It took place in the countryside home of Erica Sapir, one of the six participants. Professor Karsten Hundeide, the leader of this training, was unable to attend in person, but his lecture was filmed and watched at the workshop, which tested out in practice this way of working for the first time.
Workshop was attended by:
Luis Pereira (Van Leer Foundation), Erica Sapir and Pilar Romero (Puppeteer without borders - http://www.puppeteerswithoutborders.org/), Ylva Snekkvik and Trine Gerlyng (ICDP), and Michael Hundeide (researcher). All participants are interested to include the ICDP methodology as part of their work.
MARCH
ACTIVITIES IN OSLO
1. An International training workshop took place at ICDP headquarters on February 28, 29 and March 1st. Participants included persons from Australia, Holland, Georgia and Ukraine. Workshop leaders were Nicoletta Armstrong and ICDP chairman professor Karsten Hundeide. On the last day of the workshop plans were outlined for future practical application of the ICDP programme with children and families. A follow up meeting will take place in August.
2. In parallel with the international workshop, Hilde Tornes held a two day course, which was attended by 8 participants, mainly preschool teachers. This activity was part of ICDP developments taking place through pre-schools in the Oslo area. The first part of this training took place in January.
3. A third ICDP workshop took place from 5-7th March. Training was led by Karsten Hundeide (on the far right on the photo above), Mona Hannestad (photo below, on the left) and Dragana Tosinovic (photo below, on the right).
It marked the beginning of a pilot project that will be applying ICDP for the first time with families of asylum seekers. The workshop was attended by staff from centres offering assistance to asylum seekers situated in different parts of Norway. The ICDP programme will be applied in 5 centres. It is planned for the ICDP implementation with families to be carried out by two trained facilitators working together, one will be of minority origin and the other will be Norwegian.
FEBRUARY
ICDP RECEIVES SPECIAL AWARD
ICDP received an award from the Mayor for the best educational and awareness raising effort in Oslo. The award was given to Farahnaz Rastegar and Ellen Tronsmo for their work with ICDP and especially for the ICDP efforts reaching out to the minority population. ICDP is implemented throughout the city through different local networks such as kindergartens, social service groups and health stations.
See photos and article published in Oslo:
http://www.helse-og-velferdsetaten.oslo.kommune.no/article104192-6472.html
NEW BOOK
ICDP has published "Introduction to the ICDP programme" in Norwegian:
Innføring i ICDP (for veiledere) - by Karsten Hundeide
It is to be used by facilitators and for facilitator level training. Available for sale from ICDP: icdp@icdp.no or tel. 21 39 34 16
NEWS FROM PORTUGAL
Penelope Villar
A new ICDP organisation has been registered and set up in Portugal with a strong and enthusiastic team - click here for report from Penelope Villar.
WORKSHOP IN COLOMBIA
During the first week of February an ICDP workshop gathered 72 persons in the capital town of Quibdo, in the Choco department. They came to receive training as ICDP facilitators in order to spread the programme further during 2008. All zones of the department were represented. Participants included agents from the NGO CINDE and ICBF (social services), caregivers from children's centres, local church priests, as well as members from the indigenous Embera community who will adapt the language and the images of the ICDP materials for use with the indigenous population. Each facilitator will train and supervise 10 promoters. Training continues in March with another ICDP workshop, which will be followed by field visits at regular intervals throughout 2008. There was also an additional unexpected development: a young man, who was transporting some of the participants to the workshop on his motorbike, became interested in ICDP. As result of spending one evening in conversation with the ICDP trainers he decided to join the workshop and was given the ICDP pack of materials. He is determined to apply ICDP with young people from his community, in order to prevent them from joining youth gangs.
JANUARY 2008
SUMMARY OF REPORT FROM ARGENTINA
The inhabitants of the region of Traslasierra Cordoba are characterised by their introversion, so we decided to make more use of hands and body in the ICDP meetings. For example, we combined ICDP meetings with rag doll making activities. Besides this, we were inspired by the traditional "Minga" meetings typical for our culture, which are meetings around a common practical task, but where women also share about different topics related to child rearing practices. In Las Calles we have been working for 3 years now with 10 families (each family has between 3 and 5 children). At the same time we have also been applying ICDP in Mina Clavero and Villa Dolores joining the Programmes of the Community Centres of the National Ministry of Social Development. In Villa Dolores, we are in process of training 85 persons as facilitators to work in 8 different zones during 2008. We hope to reach 500 families. The teachers we trained in Cura Brochero continue to work with groups of parents, as well as children. And in general we have noticed that most people who have had contact with the ICDP programme continue to implement it. We consider ourselves as the first beneficiaries of the programme, as we have discovered much over the years. In the Las Calles there were significant improvements in the children's relationship children with their parents and with their own peers. They seem more predisposed to play, to listen and to interact. The scope of their language has widened, and they are more open emotionally. We believe this is the result of being more contained by their family. We have also observed changes especially in the relationships of the women and their husbands. As to whether these changes are good or bad, we see them as very positive, including in the cases where they come to the fore within couples as crisis situations, which were necessary.
ICDP BOARD WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS
At the recent meeting the ICDP International board welcomed 4 new members:
Santana Momade, the representative of ICDP Mozambique, with expertise in the area of strategic planning and management.
Stephan Solat who lives in Ukraine where he works for US AID. He has wide international experience in development and has supported ICDP in the past.
Virginia Thomas has high competence in development, particularly in the area of evaluation. She is the executive director for Susila Dharma International and lives in Canada.
Penelopi Villar, a clinical psychologist, from Portugal. She is trained as ICDP facilitator and has been working closely with ICDP Portugal.
Continuing members include Karsten Hundeide as chairman and Nicoletta Armstrong as board member.
The meeting held a minute of silence paying respect to departed friend and colleague Wilbert Verheyen, whose deep humanity, optimism and enthusiasm shall be missed by all.
Pedro Mendes, Henning Rye, Helen Ronnaug Andresen and Markus Hoff Berge resigned from their positions. The chairman described the deep human engagement and the enormous contribution by Markus Hoff Berge over the 15 years that ICDP was based at Flo-chem office. He emphasised the significance of the professional support and close friendship he felt from Henning Rye and noted the international experience and professional contributions in legal matters from Helen Ronnaug Andresen. The chairman also stressed the importance of Pedro Mendes's commitment from start, close friendship and psychological support during their travels together. The resigning board members ex-officio presence and ongoing support is and will continue to be much appreciated by the chairman. Henning Rye who expressed thanks felt by all to Karsten Hundeide, for his tireless commitment, vision and leadership of ICDP in the world.
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