IN THE MEDIA

BANGLADESH:

Location: Bagerhat

On 19-22 February, an 8-member team from ICA Bangladesh spent their full time in Bagerhat - the most cyclone Sidr affected district. While traveling with the car along with remains of houses, que of people for relief and uncertainty of life in the area reminded the severity of the sidr that hit the area. Each and every member of ICA Bangladesh felt very bad and shared with local people in different stops on the way knew more about the target children of our project-Aid for parentless children. We were planning to go to two districts but finding hundreds of affected children who lost either father or mother or both in the Bagerhat district, we decided to focus Bagerhat District and Sharonkhola the most affected sub-district. We sent one staff prior to our visit and based on his pre-survey we designed our workshop and community facilitation spots, we found Sharonkhola whole sub-district would be the best place of our intervention considering the severity and need for our aid project.

Although some NGOs along with Government and international agencies are putting lot of aid mostly relief immediat needs, but we found there has not been any long-terms project for educational needs for parentless children devised. We met local admiistration called Upazila Nirbahi Officer - head of sub-district administration, project imlementation officer, education officer followed by meeting with local school taechers, community people, parents and giardians of perentless children and lastly facilitated community workshop at Tafalbari Collegaite School in the morning on 20 February and opening of the project in the evening in the midst of stormy and rainy weather. We distributed educational materials to one school students. We are now working on the tution fee distribution and monitoring mechanism establishment. The community workshop lead us to form a taskforce involving local people, guardians, teachers and ICA staffs for the sidr aid project. Prof. Mahbub, Aziz, Hilarius Costa, Shahin Akhter, Farhida, Tabassum, Indrajit and Delwar were in the team.

Aziz           admin@ica-bangladesh.org

ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)

Location: Canada

This has been a busy month for us. Clients have included Access Alliance -health care, Alberta Education, United Way, Ontario Public Service, Durham public health nurses, Seimens, Edmonton City Council and SIL. Jo Nelson is currently in Thailand doing a training program with a global group from SIL in Chiang Mai. . She stayed with Kevin and Nantiya Balm in Bangkok. They gave her the full tour and she really appreciated the chance to see Thailand through their eyes.

John Miller and Jerry Mings, a new ToP trainer taught -Designing Planning Systems- and -The Organizational Journey- courses. These advanced courses focused on facilitating organizational change are newer to our curriculum and people are finding them helpful.

Duncan Holmes facilitated an event with a group from Seimens. He had done a group facilitation course for managers and senior managers earlier. Throughout the course of the day, managers from several departments approached him with facilitation opportunities and questions about applying the methods in their company.

Bill Staples facilitated a retreat for The Durham Public Health nurses. They were a very stressed group working in an environment that promoted inter-group rivalry and bickering. Bill, in conversation with the group leadership determined that these people really needed a chance to talk with each other at a basic level. They have been through many ICA workshops and training courses so something different was needed. Bill arranged the space to be very close and private. He removed all the tables and chairs. He filled the space with a variety of pillows. The retreat took place on the floor, in conversation about various aspect of their work and relationships. It was an innovative approach to a unique situation. The group found they were able to bridge many differences and build new connections.

Christine Wong has been on medical leave. Justyna Segien is filling in and keeping all of us in order.

Wayne Nelson           wnelson@ica-associates.ca

UNITED KINGDOM:

Location: UK

Our big news this week was we received a new grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support the training of 6 groups of young people to interview women from across the generations in order to build up an archive of women's work in both a physical and virtual archive. This grant, which is for 12 months, will help move us into new arenas and develop new relationships. Well done to Amelia!

Jonathan Dudding           jdudding@ica-uk.org

ICAI:

Location: Montréal

It is tax season and Katie has been busy preparing materials and making sure everything is in order. Were pleased that the financial audit is wrapping up and should be complete for inclusion in the 2007 Annual Report. Katie has also been working on some translating for French-speaking ICAs, and is happy to lend this service to any members in need.

Planning for the Japan conference continues apace, including weekly conference calls between the Secretariat and ICA Japan.  A message is being sent out to help ICA members and friends to plan their participation. If you havent started planning your participation NOW is the time!

Planning for the official office launch with Montréal International moved forward with some exciting commitments being made regarding funding and venue. Michael and Lambert met with the Secretary General of the International Political Science Association IPSA who has considerable personal interest and experience with development issues, including program evaluation, and who has a wide range of research and professional contacts around the world.  He is excited by the work of ICAI and we are both keen to explore ways to work together.

We received further news about the humanitarian emergency in Tajikistan from ICA Director Marina Safarova, and issued an appeal on her behalf to raise funds to purchase a generator to keep the ICA Tajikistan office running and delivering ICA projects. At days end over 650 dollars has already been raised. More is needed to reach our target however, so if you are interested and able to donate you can go online or contact Katie at the address below.

Staff          info@ica-international.org