ICRI Quarterly Newsletter    
2006 Issue No. 1

In This Issue:

AN INSPIRED YEAR AHEAD

Welcome to ICRI's new quarterly newsletter. We anticipate "An Inspired Year Ahead" and set out to share with you the goals, plans and aspirations of our programs around the world and in the US. Read about our new programs in Sri Lanka and Kenya; new initiatives in Zimbabwe; the latest updates from our projects in Ghana and Nepal; and learn about the progress of our programs at work in the US.

2006 is an important year for ICRI, marking our 25th year taking action to support the ability of children and families to survive and thrive. We salute the resilience of children and families the world over as they continue to learn and dream; overcome impossible difficulties, and create humanity in the most difficult of situations.

If you would like to learn more about ICRI and how to participate in or support our projects and programs please contact us. We would love to talk with you.

Warm regards,
Lisa Ruth Shulman, JD, Associate Executive Director lisaruth@icrichild.org
Ken Jaffe, MA, JD, Executive Director ken@icrichild.org

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WORDS ON PAPER LITTLE PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT SETTINGS
Lisa Ruth Shulman, JD, Associate Executive Director

We in the international community have had limited success in protecting children from the ravages of armed conflict despite the existence of significant international human rights Treaties, Conventions and Protocols*. The events of the past ten years -- the genocide in Rwanda; the clan violence in Somalia; the killing and maiming in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the DRC, Sudan and Uganda; the factional fighting in Mozambique; the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia; the conscription of child soldiers by the Maoists in Nepal; the intifadah in Palestine; the war in Iraq; and the suicide attacks in Israel show us the endless suffering and exploitation of children, and how words on paper afford little protection for children facing the hard realities of war and conflict.

What illusion are we allowing ourselves to operate under, when we expect words on paper -- albeit signed, codified or ratified -- to keep order and protect children in circumstances where civil society is in a process of disintegration. These changing security environments by their very nature require a serious rethinking of the 'legal' child protection strategies that we as an international community have used to date. These ground-breaking legal constructs, while an advance toward child protection, have little meaning in implementation. This is likely to continue without the further creation of national (i.e. domestic) laws that support these international ideals; establishment of institutions and capacity for implementation along with mechanisms for enforcement; and the requisite budgetary resources and requirements that child rights perspectives be integrated in policy making at all levels of government.

Dr. W. Andy Knight, McCalla Research Professor, at the University of Alberta, Canada, directs the Children and War project focusing on Impact, Protection, Rehabilitation of children in conflict settings. Dr. Knight proposes that we consider a stratagem rooted in local norms and values. This important conversation was the subject of an international mid-January think tank meeting Protecting Children in Conflict Zones held in Los Angeles, CA and hosted by the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California. Experts from Canada, England, Sierra Leone, and Palestine gathered to address the efficacy of protection mechanisms for children living in theatres of conflict and make concrete recommendations for improvement. These recommendations will be published and another meeting held in Accra, Ghana later this year. For further information contact Dr. Knight at andy.knight@ualberta.ca

There is no evil forest to throw away a bad child. The child has to come back to society. This old African proverb calls to mind the Building Peace and Reconciliation through Early Childhood Education Project, an international team working on another critical piece of the puzzle: making children and communities whole. The Reconciliation Working Team organized by the World Forum Foundation and NIPPA - The Early Years Organization, addresses the impact of conflicts on children, families and communities and the resulting needs of children. Reconciliation programs approaches and strategies within early childhood programs are effective prevention and response mechanisms that benefit children and communities in conflict and post conflict situations. Contact the World Forum Foundation at www.worldforumfoundation.org to learn more.

Needs of children affected by conflict and post conflict settings include:

  • Children need a newly developed understanding of social reciprocation after living in environments without appropriate role models, social interactions or images of effective governance and humanitarian leadership;
  • Environments that promote and encourage healthy attachment, sense of belonging and community especially since in these conflict laden settings culture, language, ability to play, psychosocial development and cultural identity can be lost;
  • Models of non violent relationships with the unfamiliar including diversity acceptance, and conflict resolution; and
  • Safe spaces for and modeling of the healing power of play. Play the most transformative skill is disrupted and forgotten in disrupted and conflict ridden lives.

* Treaties, Conventions and Protocols include: 1949 Geneva Convention and 1977 additional protocols; 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child; 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court making the conscription of children under 15 in hostilities by national armed forces or armed groups a war crime; 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in armed conflict; African Charter on the Rights of the Child.

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BUILDING BRIDGES
By Maggie Kamau-Biruri, MPA, Director, ICRI-Africa, Kenya

The New Year began with exciting prospects for the work ahead at ICRI-Africa. Our role of "building bridges" at the community, national and international levels has clearly unfolded as we engage with diverse groups working with children and families in Kenya. Our work is to support the women and men who have taken the initiative to carryout projects to help children and families. We see the hope for children and families lying in the hands of those who work most closely with the community. Our work is thus, to help grassroots organizations so that they can continue to provide their very important services and to help them improve the quality of their services.

We are convening groups working in the slum areas to address their health issues and together, to begin to develop a strategy to address those issues. We are also pulling together individuals and groups working with children, especially children 0-5, to address the unique needs of children in that age bracket. In Kenya, there is no real focus on the 0-5 age group in spite of their great needs. Our hope is to create a forum that will advocate for children 0-5, provide training to providers and offer a resource center for early childhood providers and to educate and empower parents to speak up on behalf of their children.

We are rescheduling our Traveling Giving Circle (TGC) to March of 2007. The TGC is a partnership between the Clarence Foundation, the Falconer Group and ICRI-Africa. Our goal is to introduce donors to international engaged philanthropy. The TGC will bring donors – especially those who have not given internationally in the past – to Kenya, to meet and engage with grassroots organizations. The TGC will include an educational component that will allow individuals, families and children to learn about the culture of Kenya, the role of grassroots organizations and international philanthropy while enjoying the Kenyan culture, landscape and wildlife. (If you would like to learn more about the TGC, you can contact Maggie at Maggie@icriafrica.org)

ICRI-Africa begins its first year of operation as the International Child Resource Institute approaches its 25th anniversary. The foundation laid, the lessons learned and the vision of the founders of ICRI are the guiding light to the work that we are doing in Kenya and in Africa!!

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CREATING A SAFE PLACE IN A TIME OF TURMOIL
Rufaro Kangai, Administrative Coordinator

This April ICRI will travel to Zimbabwe to review and assess the preschool sites currently operated by the Kapnek Trust, a 50 year old grass roots NGO in Zimbabwe. Working in collaboration, we hope to enhance and support the current efforts serving the children of Zimbabwe through the development and implementation of a national preschool program. ICRI looks forward to meetings with the Ministry of Education and other government officials in Zimbabwe with the goal of beginning discussions that will enable the development of a productive working relationship with the government, develop good sources of funding and improve our understanding on how to support community needs in Zimbabwe as we collaborate on creating locally-driven community based solutions. The desired result of this program is to provide supportive and friendly environments that will bring about stability and create a safe place for children in Zimbabwe in a time of turmoil.

The challenges faced by Zimbabwe have created a need for a program that will provide recourses and support to children. Currently Zimbabwe is faced with high levels of unemployment, inflation and food shortages and in addition is also facing an AIDS crisis. Approximately a quarter of the population is HIV positive and at least 250 people die of AIDS every week. This crisis has left the country with at least 850,000 to 1 million orphans. The part the ICRI will play in working towards providing care to orphans and at risk children as we work in Zimbabwe is implement a nutrition and wellness plan in twenty pre school sites over the next twenty years.

As a result of economic hardships and the AIDS epidemic, children in Zimbabwe lack basic needs such as adequate food and nutrition, basic health and opportunities for creative learning. There are very few programs that provide or meet the needs of preschool aged children in Zimbabwe. Extended family members and siblings are often left with the burden of caring for the children. Children in these types of environment are unable to receive adequate care as their caregivers are overly burdened by the responsibilities and have no resources to offer to the children. Further more children who are HIV positive are often isolated and do not have a supportive environment. This is something I have personally witnessed. I watched the child of a friend who had AIDS sleep in bed all day. By the time she was able to receive treatment her T- Cell count was so low and eventually she passed away. As a Zimbabwean who has seen so many children suffer I am very exited about the activities that lie ahead this year as ICRI takes on the mission restoring hope to the lives of the children in Zimbabwe.

Many NGOs have pulled out of Zimbabwe due to lack of resources, however ICRI as an organization has always been responsive in working in countries where the children are facing adversity and has always had success stories in meeting the needs of children in parts of the world where there seemed to be no hope because of supportive people like yourself who share our vision. We could really use all of your support in improving the lives of children in Zimbabwe. With o donation of $ 3.00 we are giving "It takes a village "bracelets, a fundraising project sponsored by the Lafayette Girl Scout Troop # 2230. With your help we can support children and families at the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. Please contact Rufaro Kangai at 510-644-1000 or Rufaro@ icrichild.org about how you might help support this blossoming initiative.

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VISIONS AND PROGRESS THROUGH VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Hannah Odjenma Botchway, Director. – ICRI GHANA

ICRI Ghana has its main aims, the survival of the child, childcare, child abuse prevention, discrimination against children, advocacy of child rights and responsibilities for young girls' empowerment, vocational skill training to make the girls independent. We take them through health education; including prevention of STD's, HIV AIDS, personal hygiene and reproductive health. The program officially took off on the 14th of January, 2004 with an office at La Ako Adjei, which is at the centre of the community between Teshie and Osu areas. More than 65 girls have completed the program to date with 30 girls and 8 boys doing well and supporting themselves through skills learned from the program trainings.

As we continue with the skill training for the girls, we equally wish to assist the needy children through formal education. Our plan is to promote the child's right and activities such as organizing programs among the schools in the community such as Debate, Drama, Writing competitions, Singing and Poetry recitals. We also intend to undertake Outreach programs like clean-ups, educational tours, games among others.

Another important program we plan to undertake is in the area of early childhood education, such as Day-care centers so that the girls can have their babies taken care of in order that they will be able to concentrate on their training. The Day-care centre will also serve the community as a whole.

We wish to receive volunteers for the program's enhancement. Since more people wish to get on the program but from distance locations, we wish to expand to other areas. We have been given a parcel of land in front of ICRI's office and we intend to use it as a Mini-market so can showcase some of the products made by trainees. We have arranged some shops to buy some of the products of the girls. To learn more about projects and programs in Ghana, contact Hannah Botchway in Ghana icrigh@yahoo.com.

We wish to register our appreciation to the Headquarters and the entire staff. To Maggie Kamau, the newly appointed Director of ICRI Africa, Kenya, we say congratulations. We pray for strength, good health and courage, for, we know that the future is bright.

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GROWING CAPACITY AND STRUCTURES FOR SUCCESS
Dhirendra Lamsal, National Program Director, ICRI Nepal

ICRI-Nepal will continue to support the Network for Children, Prisoners and Dependants (NCPD) activities in the year 2006 with key focus on re-integration of the children back to family/community upon release of their parents from the jails. Prior to developing re-integration model/plan, ICRI-Nepal in collaboration with the NCPD group homes and Department of Prison Management (DoPM) plans to carry out a research to strategize suitable/best alternatives/options or possibilities of reintegration model/plan. Human resource development technical assistance delivery through training, seminars, workshops, orientations, assessments, field assistance will be provided upon the request of the network groups. Similarly, released female prisoners most of whom are innocent and poor will be integrated back to the community with livelihood training and sustainable means of survival.

ICRI-HQ has been supporting a professional counselor to deliver psychosocial services for the traumatized children of prisoners and juvenile delinquents in PA-Nepal, PNH, SETU-NEPAL, VSRP/PFN and UCEP. Out of 319 dependant children of prisoner protected under 7 groups of NCPD homers, about 46 children including 18 Juvenile delinquents of 5 homes have been benefited from this service. The success indicators of this service have been the changes in the lifestyle of those children who were in regular contact/attention of the counselor. Most of the children above the age of 10 seemed to have generalized feeling of fear, which was responded by re-establishing protective measures from the adults in the children homes. The psychosocial counselor is putting her efforts in facilitating communication of children with adults and at the same time focusing on integrating counseling in daily normal life of the children. Since some of the homes have sheltered up to 56 children ages 4-14 years, re-grouping (5-7) of the children of different ages mentored by an older child and supervised by the residential teacher has helped maintain good communication as well as sharing feelings of the most traumatized child. The adults of the NCPD group homes were equally involved in weekly de-briefing sessions where they discuss problems of children with psychosocial disorders at certain length.

There has been a tremendous support received from the community and the school authorities including the older students in each National Center for Learning Resources (NCLR) program school. Community Resource Center for early childhood education will be set-up in partnership with department of education in future. The success of the home-school support program including the NCLR package will be up-scaled & introduced to more public schools in the days to come.

ICRI-Nepals newest venture is the creation of an Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (A-CSR) for the benefits of children and family. The goal of this initiative is to build a sustained social force benefiting children in Nepal & the region through public, private and local partnerships. Under the A-CSR initiatives, ICRI-Nepal has been extensively involved in leveraging resources local non-profits, building infrastructure, creating supportive environment and facilitating coordination/communication amongst prominent business companies for the optimum benefit of children and families. In this regard, ICRI-Nepal has signed voluntary agreements with private corporations, namely the Ariti Strips Pvt. Ltd aiming at delivery of corporate products (Galvanized Corrugated Sheets) for NCPD group homes, the Nepal USA Chamber of Commerce & Industry aimed at abiding the zero tolerance policy for engaging child labor in any form for the purpose of production, the Kagaj Kothi Pvt. Ltd for supply of materials for publication works of NCPD member organizations and the Mulpi International School aimed at providing financial and technical support to public schools, operating a day care center and launching Malpi out reach programs in Nepal. ICRI-Nepal is in process of signing similar voluntary agreements with other viable corporations.

Besides, ICRI-Nepal has set border objectives such as: to distill learning and help spread key strategies that work and the obstacles to avoid in future replication and scaling of activities within Nepal and the south Asia region; to facilitate dialogue between the government and the media partners in order to enable greater impact and tangible results of the voluntary agreements; to initiate a regional network and design programs with the goal of launching a South Asia spread strategy; and to integrate all activities globally in coordination with ICRI-International.

In addition, ICRI-Nepal aims at engaging itself in establishing a National Resource Center that can be a regional platform to respond to various needs of the children with high level of focus on resource identification, procurement, management, and distribution in the years to come. The establishment of a resource center for children in the region will be attained by pursuing the following broad strategies:

  • Partnership with private sector leaders and agencies, the media, and the government entities (interested individuals and agencies.)
  • Branding ICRI in the region as a resource for ideas and resources.
  • Constantly analyzing and setting priority needs.
  • Mobilizing private and public resources and ensuring their efficient use.
  • Investing in capacity to attain goals related to children.

Email: icrinepal@htp.com.np

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MY PEOPLE ARE
Tarah Fleming, MA, Program Director, Multiethnic Education Program

Happy Lunar New Year from the Multiethnic Education Program. The year of the Dog, will be an important one for The ME Program as we prepare to release our new video and DVD for the school age education community entitled; "MY PEOPLE ARE: Youth Pride in Mixed Heritage" The high energy and multi-talented, youth performers featured in this 30 minute educational tool, explore their complex family backgrounds through rap, dance, spoken word and theater. The young crew made up of ages 14-20 come straight to us from Oakland's renowned, anti-violence, performance group Destiny Art's Center and worked closely with the ME Program to develop the script to reflect the experience of youth looking deeper at racial identity. We plan to release this powerful and thought provoking piece in April and will be training young people to use the video and the accompanying talking points Action Booklet. This peer-to-peer training model will create meaningful venues where identity can be discussed; racial pride can be embraced, and new language and concepts can be introduced to encourage all children to identify with pride in their culture and ethnicity. The special focus on the mixed-heritage experience will give voice to people traditionally forced to "choose one box" and expand awareness of what it means to grow up in a multiracial family. The ME Program continues to conduct trainings in the early child hood communities as well as extensive training programs for educators who want to be more skilled at talking about issues of race and ethnicity with children and families. For more information about trainings or our publications please see our new website www.multiethniceducation.org and Good Luck in the New Year!

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GIVING, GOING AND GROWING
Janet Massite, MBA, Finance Manager

International Child Resource Institute will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with an ever increasing hub of activities and programs that are improving the lives of children throughout the world. We are currently running four childcare centers and children's programs locally and internationally in Sweden, Kenya, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Ghana and our anticipated new project in Sri Lanka. ICRI also acts as a fiscal agent to some of our locally funded projects.

The 25th year looks promising and beyond that there is the increasing need to improve the lives of children. ICRI has received numerous grants and contracts from various donors who include but are not limited to funds from the State of California Department of Nutrition that helps in the Low Income Family Daycare Nutrition program, Baxter Family Foundation, Burt Foundation, West Foundation, Patterson Foundation, Alabaster Foundation, MS foundation but just to name a few. Our child care centers generate income from tuition fees and some contributions from the parents. Our consulting generates funds from numerous organizations that include but are not limited to First Five Solano County, Oakland Housing Authority, Genentech, Amgen Corporation, EBALC, Lucasfilm, IBM etc.

With so much to do, funding is critical to the continued support of these programs that enlighten, enrich and improve the lives of the children and the need to continue this legacy that will have a positive impact on the generations to come. Today's non profits face the challenges of having to play the role of sustaining their projects and making sure they are well funded to continue the work they are assigned to perform. With the continued support of generous funders ICRI is able to maintain its tradition of improving the lives of the children. ICRI has selfless, dedicated staff that provides their various expertise, cultural knowledge and background to make this possible. It is such a pleasure to work with all the staff on making sure that these monies are well monitored and distributed amongst the various programs.

Of course all this would not be possible without the generous hearts out there that share our vision and mission to make the world a better place for the children. Please feel free to make the contribution that will keep us going and growing to a better world for the children. We are committed to making the changes that are needed in our communities and in the world. Please feel free to contact Janet Massite at 510 644 1000 or email at janet@icrichild.org to support any of our efforts, projects or programs in our long road to giving, going and growing.

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International Child Resource Institute

Celebrating 25 Years!

ICRI is an international organization operating committed to improving the lives of children and families throughout the world, enabling them to survive and succeed since 1981.

International Child Resource Institute
www.icrichild.org
info@icrichild.org
(+1) 510.644.1000
1581 LeRoy Avenue
Berkeley, CA  94708

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