BANGLADESH:
Location: Dhaka
The First Asia Pacific Regional Conference was held in Dhaka and participated by
ICAs in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Nepal, Taiwan and ICA
International. The two day conference hosted by ICA Bangladesh on 2-3 December
at the Center of Excellence of the University of Dhaka ended with big hopes
concerning regional ICA collaboration, ICAI roles and subcontinental ICA
commitment in human development.
Three ToP training courses - Facilitating
Strategic Processes, Leadership Development in Organizations and Community
Development, Proposal Writing and Fundraising were organized at the Pacific Inn
hotel in Dhaka during 26-28 November, 29-30 November and 4-6 December
respectively facilitated voluntarily by Larry, Evelyn, Tatwa and Shankar and
observed by Maria, Richard and Mohan.
Maria and Richard, Shankar and Sarah
visited ICA Human Development Project Site in Chandpur on 7 December and this
visit and meeting with the Ghoramara Community opened the avenues for working
for upliftment of the poor community. Shankar's long-experienced sharing and
Maria and Richard's 14 December PSP Gramsabha meeting would be a great output of
the visit.
Wayne from Japan shared a possible support for cyclone affected people
in Bangladesh from Tokyo Union of Curches. Hilarious Costa thought of doing
something for parentless youth children who were victimized by cyclone Sidr.
The
4th Annual Sub-Continental ICAs - India, Nepal and Bangladesh unanimously agreed
to work in ToP faculty development, ToP training service for NGOs and police and
joint project addressing poverty, AIDS and also introduced charity
fundraising.
Mohan from Australia has contacted for small support for ICA
Bangladesh and also expressed to support for charity fundraising through ICA
branded poor and disadvantaged women made garments and handicrafts. Sarah from
ICAI, Larry and Evelyn from Taiwan, Tatwa from Nepal supported the idea and
expressed interest how to work together.
ICA Taiwan, Nepal, India, and ICAI
representatives met on 5th December to discuss about how ICA Bangladesh can be
strengthened and proposed some ideas - small scale grant proposal development
for office rent and paid staffs funding, proposal for Chandpur project and
assistance in raising funds through international contacts were major proposals.
They also felt a dire need of small vehicle purchase for ICA Bangladesh
activities. They also expressed to support in developing proposals and
fundraising to strengthen ICA Bangladesh.
ICA Australia donated a laptop to ICA
Bangladesh for office work and Maria and Richard gave office stationaries. Maria
and Richard initiated the fundraising efforts backed in home from Bangladesh in
March 2007. They will be staying in Bangladesh until 23rd December and
supporting the Bangladesh team voluntarily in office management, planning
document preparation, proposal development and Chandpur project plan development
and publications.
Aziz marahman1976@yahoo.com
CANADA:
Location: Canada
Jo Nelson spent the week in Regina, Saskatchewan designing, guiding and
facilitating a public consultation over a highly controversial plan to close
some of the schools in the system.
Bill Staples facilitated a one day workshop
with the Mississauga - Halton Community Care Access Centre.
Duncan Holmes taught
Facilitating Conciliation in Minneapolis.
We met and talked with Elise Packard
who is interested in exploring collaborative pathways to provide services to
children and families in Aboriginal communities.
Wayne Nelson is in the final
seps of a - - Draft Website - - focused on ToP facilitation. We will send you a
url that will allow you to see it and help develop it. We'd like this to be a
collaborative project.
Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca
ICAI:
Location: Montréal See more pictures
Sarah Miller and Katie returned from participating in the Springboard gathering
in NC, where they met some great people and enjoyed thoughtful dialogue about
the history, present and future of ICAI.
In Montréal the office bustled, with
everyone working hard to get the CIDA conference proposal as well as the ToP
trainers and year-end appeal mailings out the door.
Sarah Farina participated in
the Asia-Pacific Regional ICA Meeting hosted by ICA Bangladesh. The meeting gave
everyone a chance to share recent events and future plans for each ICA.
Collaboration between ICAs is already happening and discussions were held to see
how ICAs and ICAI can strengthen the network.
One big item was the conference
in Japan- participants worked through a pre-conference workshop and the gender
balance group challenged the conference to include womens participation and a
discussion of gender as part of all conference themes.
Sarah joined part of the
Community Development and Fundraising Workshop and visited Chandpur, where ICA
Bangladesh is running a school in Ghoramara village, originally a shelter for
landless people.
ICA Bangladesh will soon conduct a workshop with the community
in Ghoramara village, together with Maria and Richard Maguire.
Katie Burke
