Author: Nicoletta Armstrong

ICDP progress report by Atnaf Berhanu:

1. Overview of activities following facilitator trainings

After completing two ICDP facilitator trainings in 2025—one in Harar (Eastern Ethiopia) and one in Jimma (Western Ethiopia)—the trained facilitators began implementing parent training sessions in their communities:

• Eastern Region (Harar):
  • Number of Parent Groups: 7
  • Parents Reached: Around 90
  • Children Impacted: 189
  • Several facilitators have already started a second round of parent groups within their congregations after completing the first.
• Western Region (Jimma):
  • Number of Parent Groups: 6
  • Parents Reached: 84
  • Children Impacted: 216
  • Similar to Harar, some facilitators have initiated additional parent groups in their local churches.

2. Ongoing engagement and feedback

Facilitators are consistently sending weekly updates, including videos and testimonies from participants (mainly in Amharic). These testimonies express gratitude, personal transformation, and strengthened parent-child relationships.

3. Reflections and challenges

I am personally inspired by the high level of commitment and initiative shown by the facilitators. Their dedication has become a challenge to me—to continue walking alongside them and supporting this vital work.

4. Future plans

• Field Visit: I plan to travel to Ethiopia in September 2025 to meet with facilitators, monitor progress, and encourage continued implementation.
• New Training: Depending on the economic situation, I aim to conduct four additional facilitator training sessions.
• Vision for 2026: Begin training trainers to ensure sustainable growth and wider outreach on the ICDP program across Ethiopia. 

15^th of August 2025. The ICDP training of a new group of facilitators was announced in the Agence Ivorienne de Press (AIP) – read the article about this training in French

Below is the article translation in English:

Tanda, August 15, 2025 (AIP) – Six social workers and ten community guides from the Gontougo region received their certificates on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, in Tanda, as part of the International Child Development Program (ICDP), implemented in the department as part of the “Child Sensitive Social Protection” (CSSP) project.

The CSSP project, funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is led by Save the Children International, in partnership with the Ivorian NGO Soleil Levant/Éducation. It aims to strengthen positive parenting and access to basic social services for vulnerable families.

The ICDP allows households to express themselves, develop their self-confidence, strengthen family ties, and create a climate of trust with children. Several certified facilitators are now considered local references in positive parenting.

During the ceremony, testimonials highlighted the national and international value of the certificates. “We’ve done the groundwork. Now the hardest part begins: being good facilitators and inspiring other regions,” said Fieni Yao Étienne, a guide in Guiendé.

The director of the Tabagne social center, Bogueu Gnohite, praised the support of the regional director of social protection, Kpla Geores, and the assistance of Save the Children, emphasizing the importance of sustaining the ICDP approach.

For her part, the project coordinator, Boa Syrine, expressed the hope that certified facilitator trainers will emerge in Africa in the coming years to disseminate the approach on a larger scale.

Save the Children’s Advocacy and Behavior Change Technical Advisor Danladi Moussa and the Regional Director of Social Protection praised the motivation of the stakeholders and the positive impact of the CSSP project in the beneficiary communities.

Recommendations for sustainability include expanding the ICDP to other communities, increasing the involvement of community leaders, integrating activities into social centers, creating child protection committees, and organizing community days focused on parenting.

Project coordinator Boa Syrine and her colleague Attoko Ernest were also certified. The ICDP, implemented with the support of administrative, religious, and traditional authorities, aims to be gradually institutionalized at the local and national levels to sustainably strengthen child protection and well-being.

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Link to a testimonial from a mother who received ICDP training: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BNyVWfoac/

The ICDP annual report for the year 2024 is available to read.

On the way to an emotionally healthy daycare centre: The double power of positive interaction with the ICDP training programme
an Online-Talk by Rita Crecelius, ICDP Germany

It was a pleasure for me to present the ICDP program to a large audience (530 participants) on June 4, 2025. The participants included specialists, managers, and specialist advisors from the daycare world, as well as representatives from universities and adult education. They came from all over Germany, but also from Austria and Switzerland.

My presentation was part of a series of lectures put together by NIFBE (Lower Saxony Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development). The reason for this was a survey conducted by NIFBE, in which 1,500 daycare centre managers were questioned about the current stress situation in Lower Saxony daycare centres. The results showed that two-thirds of the managers rate their teams as “highly to very highly stressed.” A significant increase in challenging behaviour among children is cited as the main cause. But daycare professionals also have to cope with other stress factors: staff shortages, increasingly difficult cooperation with parents and inadequate spatial conditions.

In my presentation, I was able to draw attention to the fact that high levels of stress among caregivers cause them to become stuck in “autopilot.” Permanently elevated cortisol levels are detrimental to health. On the other hand, children lack their main (psychological) source of nourishment, namely an emotionally available companion. The result is a gradual attachment deficit. And this, in turn, often leads to behaviour on the part of the children that the caregivers experience as challenging. For professionals, this sets off a vicious circle that leads directly to what the German empathy researcher Tania Singer calls “empathic stress”: They know what the child needs, but are unable to provide it.

My task was to demonstrate that ICDP was created precisely for such stalemate situations, because the training helps us in a very concrete way in everyday life to raise awareness of the dual power of Positive Interaction. By strengthening our attitude through self-awareness and self-regulation, we can use the eight guidelines to safeguard both the foundation of the relationship for the children and the health of the professionals, even under difficult circumstances. As a health psychologist, I was able to demonstrate that positive, co-regulatory interaction is equally important for children and professionals.

The WHO has once stated: “ICDP is food for a healthy brain.” In my presentation, I was able to emphasize that ICDP is food for TWO healthy brains! During my remarks, a positive dialogue developed among the participants in the Zoom chat about the content presented – many now want to learn more about ICDP and contacted me via email. The presentation was recorded and is now available on YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/9mAN24VYvmo

It can be viewed in any language using YouTube’s subtitle function.

ICDP Ukraine has managed to adapt to the difficult war conditions, and ICDP activities are going on in a number of cities by newly trained facilitators, as well as by some of those previously trained. See more details in the presentation from June 2025.

On photo above: The new group of facilitators with Joyce Larnyoh, their ICDP trainer. Luce Manou, coordinator and future ICDP trainer is in the centre. On the far right is their contact at the town hall of the city of Yopougon, the largest municipality in West Africa.

A group of 16 people linked to the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (MELCI) has completed their training and became certified facilitators of the ICDP programme, in May 2025.

The Lutheran Mission is committed to extending the ICDP approach to more organizations,

“The expansion of ICDP will soon be a reality, thanks to the impact of our graduation ceremony for facilitators. The facilitators come from the Organization of Islamic Confessional Educational Establishments (OEECI), the Ivorian Institute for the Promotion of the Blind (INIPA), the Social Center, the Center for the Protection of Early Childhood (CPPE), the Alliance of Religious for Integral Health and the Promotion of the Human Person (ARSIP), the Pastors of the Council of Religious Guides of Yopougon and the MELCI. The ICDP graduation ceremony took place under the patronage of the 1st Deputy Mayor of the Yopougon municipality where ICDP activities are implemented. The Municipality has contributed significantly to the ICDP activity resulting in many doors now being open to us.” – Luce Manou.

Photo above is showing one of the caregivers who attended the ICDP course, who gave an emotional testimony about the impact of the programme on her family.

From 19 to 21st of May 2025, Saija Westerlund-Cook and Petra Zilliacus conducted an ICDP course in Finland. The course was held in English, using ICDP international standard materials.

Twenty-seven youth workers and teachers from seventeen different countries participated in this three-day ICDP course in Pargas.

The event was organized by Pargas City Youth Department in collaboration with the EU SALTO Erasmus+ programme.

“Such a heartwarming, inspiring and adventurous experience, with lots of emotional and comprehensive dialogues around different cultural practices! Proud trainers Saija and Petra (who have previously only taught ICDP in Swedish and Finnish) are thankful for getting to know such magnificent people – and for getting a crash course in ICDP concepts in English.”

 – comment by Petra.

by Sergey Krasin and Anya Trukhan

ICDP is continuing to be active in Ukraine. This year, training was carried out in several cities, such as: Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv.

Two facilitators, a married couple, Nikolai and Galina Khomchenko, conduct parent groups in the territory close to the front line, as part of a humanitarian project. The participants were not only parents, but also grandparents. The program dialogues were discussed at the meetings. Nikolai notes that this group format is very useful, as it provides an opportunity to expand discussions and exchange experiences. It is especially useful for those families in which not only parents, but also the older generation are involved in raising children.

Galina conducts ICDP courses for parents at the Children’s Center for Mental Health. The participants are the parents of children who attend the center. The facilitator notes that her groups were attended only by women, as there are very few young men left in the city now. Before starting with the ICDP program and its dialogues, there are meetings in which a process of psycho-emotional stabilization takes place.

Active work was also carried out by new facilitators who were trained under war conditions. Natasha Vinichenko and Amelia Khomchenko began their work in the Donetsk region. The new facilitators held their groups in one of the city schools, and the participants were parents of first-grade children. A Parents’ Club was created linked to the school. Familiarization with the program took place throughout the year.

ICDP facilitator Olesya Romancha from Krivoy Rog conducts parent groups as part of the “Conscious Parenting” project. The project was created for young parents and young people who are planning to become parents. Olesya receives a lot of positive feedback from the participants of the meetings,

“It was important for me to talk about and see this or that situation. Theory is one thing. And practice is completely different. Although my son is almost an adult, I found useful recommendations for myself for further reflection”

“It’s never too late to learn! I thought that I knew everything about children and their behavior, but when I took the course, I learned a lot of new things. I thought most deeply assessing my actions in relation to the principles of the program”.

Facilitator Liliya Dolgikh was trained by a married couple from Kharkov: regional trainer Victoria Lepekha and facilitator Alexander Lepekha. Liliya recalls that immediately after the training she began to practice the principles of the program at the Church School. Several parent groups were organized at the same time, one of which was held regularly once a week. Three more groups were organized at different times. This was done so that women – parishioners could attend meetings at a time convenient for them. The group participants speak very positively about the meetings and attend them willingly, saying that “they come for knowledge that leads to good changes.” Over two years, more than 160 parents attended parent meetings with Liliya Dolgikh.

Since March 2023, the Norwegian Protestant Mission (MPN) has begun to raise awareness in the community of Kédougou on non-violent education through the application of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP).

The women who met during the various ICDP meetings expressed satisfaction with the content of the programme. The implementation of the 8 guidelines has brought a change in their behaviour towards their children and the atmosphere in the family has changed positively.

Given the enthusiasm of participant women to implement the ICDP program, MPN saw fit to extend the ICDP outreach to other localities. This meant that a new group of facilitators needed to be formed who could provide training to new groups of mothers in different localities.

In order to achieve this objective, they engaged the ICDP trainer, Aubin Sanou, who provided training services covering the following activities:
-Monitoring and evaluation of the current ICDP facilitators
-Refresher course for ICDP facilitators
-Training of new ICDP facilitators
-Exchanges on awareness-raising/sensitization process and monitoring tools

These activities took place from 6th to the 27th of April, 2025 in the community of Kédougou.

Read Aubin’s report that provides an overview of the training. Read the original report in French.

ICDP training of future facilitators started in Baku in October 2024, and it was sponsored by Normisjon. A team from Normisjon had been working on bringing ICDP to the country over several months before the training actually began. The second phase of training took place in December, followed by trainees’ first pilot projects from January to April. The certification workshop was held in early April 2025.

The training of this new group of facilitators was conducted by Magdalena Brännström. Initially there were ten participants, including two psychologists, one doctor, one occupational therapist, and six teachers. At the end, nine became certified as ICDP facilitators at the April workshop.

An important aspect of the ICDP process involves working on the adaptation of the programme and its delivery to the Azerbaijani context. This was tentatively started by local trainee facilitators while they were delivering the programme to local parents/caregivers for the first time. During the period of these first pilot projects groups of parents were invited to join ICDP courses. Most trainee facilitators ran ICDP courses in Azerbaijani, but there were two groups that delivered it in Russian and English respectively.

“In general, the group connected and shared stories all through the training, and everyone related to each other well. It was a really nice experience for me to see how well the facilitators had done their self-training pilot projects with parents/caregivers. This became evident at the final workshop I conducted in Baku, in April 2025. At the end of the training, we also talked about the importance of child protection and that ICDP has zero tolerance when it comes to abuse, so that the ICDP Child Protection Policy will be signed by all facilitators.The future seems very promising for ICDP in Azerbaijan.” – ICDP trainer, Magdalena Brännström. The contact person for ICDP in Azerbaijan is Deborah Williams, from Normisjon.