Author: Nicoletta Armstrong

February 2025: Oksana Isaeva, ICDP trainer and psychology professor at a university in Nizhniy Novgorod, sent us her new book on the ICDP programme. As it could be of interest to those who speak Russian we bring it for you here! Click to download.

First group of facilitators receiving training

The first training to form ICDP facilitators in Germany started with 6 participants in Hannover, during the weekend from 7^th to 9^th of February, 2025.

ICDP trainer, Rita Crecelius, had received support from two organizations which enabled her to start giving training workshops – the Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development in Lower Saxony (nifbe), represented by Merle Drexhage and Gisela Röhling, and the leading Institution for Adult Education in Lower Saxony, AEWB, represented by Christel Wolf.  Rita met these three women in October 2023, and introduced them to the ICDP programme. They immediately recognized that the ICDP approach was strongly needed in context of care and especially in early childhood education in Germany. Consequently, they organized several workshops giving Rita the opportunity to spread the message of ICDP in many parts of the country, in various areas and especially in the Daycares of Lower Saxony. From the many caregivers that had received training from Rita since 2019, some individuals were hoping to get a chance to become facilitators to train new groups of caregivers.

At present, there are 6 participants who are about to become the first ICDP Facilitators in Germany. We see them on the photo above, from left to right in the sitting position: Elisabeth Berg, Jasmin Batel and Ana Vàzquez-Zimmermann. Standing behind, are from left to right: Naira Kocharyan, Inge Wehking, Rita Crecelius (Trainer) and Christel Wolf (AEWB). One more participant, Jörn Blume, is not on the photo. This group of trainees spent three wonderful days in the nice rooms of AEWB in Hannover, exploring the miracle of the 8 ICDP Guidelines of Positive Interaction and getting inspired by the enormous power of the essence of human care. It is a great honour for me, Rita Crecelius, to take the ICDP flame to Germany, which was once ignited by Karsten Hundeide, Henning Rye and Nicoletta Armstrong, ICDP founders. Thank you for all your support and inspiration!

Workshop in Munich

On Saturday, the 22nd of February, about 18 people from different care backgrounds gathered in the Subud house in Munich for a workshop with Rita Crecelius. She introduced them to the ICDP programme with small exercises, video material and stories from her experience as an ICDP facilitator. In summary, most of the participants were amazed to realize what a profound contribution caregivers provide to humanity after becoming aware of their own responsibility as caregivers. In addition, the interconnection between self-care and care for others became obvious; most of the workshop participants were members of the Susila Dharma International organization, leading projects for social support in countries all over the world. Some of them were already in their eighties, but still very present and alive. Thus, it seems to be proved, that conscious caregiving is a way to stay alert and healthy in old age.

ICDP Uzbekistan has been developing through Happy Start preschool in Tashkent, through the work of ICDP trainer, Magdalena Brännström and a local team she had trained.

During 2024, the main activities involved rolling out ICDP courses for caregivers.

Magdalena’s comments:

We held our first facilitator gathering in December 2024, with 9 participants.  It encouraged facilitators to share their experiences and to find ways of continuing the work to reach more people with the programme. Facilitators shared both success stories and challenges. It was a great meeting, a very encouraging gathering. It was wonderful to hear from one facilitator about how they have started to run an ICDP club for parents. In the club, parents continue to meet and talk about issues related to their children and their relationship with them, sharing about their own interactions. This facilitator mentioned a story of a mother, who said that before ICDP she had very high expectations of her daughter to do many things that she was supposed to do. But through the ICDP course, she changed her attitude towards her daughter and is now being far less demanding, letting her daughter just be a child.

One teacher who attended the ICDP course said that it has become easier to work with children by understanding their desires and requirements. The lessons have become more productive. The teacher said: – Having my own child, it helped me to understand and practice ICDР. And as a result, it has become easier for me to work with children.

During spring, Magdalena worked online from Norway and then returned to Uzbekistan in September. She trained one facilitator online, and this facilitator works as a manager in Happy Start preschool, in Tashkent.

About 18 caregivers were fully trained and 11 of them are working in preschools, whereas 7 are parents. All are women, between 20 – 40 years of age.

All together there are 12 facilitators operating in Uzbekistan.

In total 28 people were involved in the work on ICDP in Uzbekistan as participants of different courses, either at facilitator or caregiver level.

In 2024, we have set up a new website for ICDP Uzbekistan:

ICDP Uzbekistan https://www.icdp-uzbekistan.com

An Instagram profile: @icdpuzbekistan (https://www.instagram.com/icdpuzbekistan).

A Telegram channel for facilitators which will encourage collaboration, share course schedules, and allow facilitators to strengthen each other’s sessions.

Future project goals:

We are planning to translate the “ICDP Guide for Facilitators” into the Uzbek language and plan to translate the “ICDP Booklet for Caregivers of Teenagers”.

We have plans to train new facilitators in Tashkent, the main capital but also throughout Uzbekistan in different parts of the country. We are going to train new facilitators in preschools and schools, both private and governmental.

We have plans hosting an ICDP Day, where participants of the caregiver course can connect, learn, and celebrate the program’s values. This would help foster a sense of community and strengthen the program’s impact.

 We will set up Telegram channels for parents and teachers who have completed the caregiver course. These channels would provide updates, encourage sharing, and help keep ICDP principles active in participants’ lives.

Celebrating the Impact of ICDP Training: A Creative Journey to Gratitude and Connection

The completion of an ICDP (International Child Development Programme) training course for caregivers at the end of November 2024, in the Republic of Georgia culminated in a heartwarming celebration, filled with appreciation and acknowledgment. For many participants, the training was a deeply transformative experience, and the event marked not only the end of the course but the beginning of meaningful connections and creative expressions that would resonate long after.

One particularly poignant moment came from Guliko (Gulnara) Merebashvili, a mother of three, clinical psychologist, and behaviour analyst. She shared a deeply personal reflection on how the training, led by Nino Margvelashvili, opened her and her family’s eyes to new perspectives on parenting and caregiving. The impact of the ICDP training was so profound that it sparked an extraordinary creative collaboration between Guliko and her husband, Merab Alanya to express gratitude towards the creators of ICDP and its process.

Together, they embarked on a project to create a wooden ICDP House puzzle, a tactile and symbolic representation of the values and principles Guliko had learned through the course. She expressed how, working on each individual piece of the puzzle, she was reminded of the life-changing values that Nino had helped her rediscover in herself. “Building a colourful ICDP house for the second time was a pleasure for us,” Guliko explained, describing how each piece not only connected physically but emotionally with the values she had learned during the sessions.

Photo above: Nino on far left and Guliko’s family

The most fascinating part of the creative process for Guliko was the engraving of the principles on the wooden pieces. “You see how the thoughts and experiences you shared with the group are turning into letters on the wood, letters turn into phrases and phrases into principles. The principles, in overall, are embodying a well-built, colourful house – a symbol of strong, loving and healthy family.” she remarked. 

The wooden ICDP House puzzle, now a tangible representation of their journey, is a lasting reminder of the personal and familial transformation that comes with embracing the principles of positive interactions between the two. For Guliko, sharing these emotions and reflections with her husband was as gratifying as the creation itself, marking a moment of deep connection not only with her training but with the person she loves most.

The celebration that closed the ICDP course was beautiful, serene and emotional. Even more than that, it was a tribute to the enduring impact of the values it imparts, turning gratitude and growth into a creative, meaningful act that inspires and benefits all of us. 

-Nino Margvelashvili

A small team of professionals linked to Normisjon has been working on bringing ICDP to Azerbaijan for many months. Thanks to their efforts, an ICDP training workshop took place in Baku, 17-19 October 2024. The workshop was the first step that started the process of forming a group to become ICDP facilitators, who would eventually implement the ICDP programme with caregivers/parents.

ICDP trainer, Magdalena Brännström, conducted the workshop. There were ten participants/ trainee facilitators, including two psychologists, one doctor, one occupational therapist, and six teachers. Seven of the participants were mothers.   They spent three days learning and discussing the key content of the ICDP programme, namely the eight ICDP guidelines for good interactions. The group connected well with one another through sharing their stories and experiences. This was the first phase of training.

The second phase of training involved doing another ICDP workshop which was held in December 2024. This initial group of trainee facilitators started doing their primary training through in English but as part of the ICDP process they have been  considering how to adapt the programme and its delivery to the Azerbaijani context.

In January 2025, the trainee facilitators started running their first ICDP caregiver courses for parents/caregivers. Two of the groups are engaged in rolling out the ICDP caregiver course in the Azerbaijani language; one group is doing it in Russian and another in English for expats. Three of the groups are conducting courses for caregivers in Baku and one group is situated in a different town.

Read the full report.

In the town of Gdansk, two ICDP facilitators, Lidia Wąsik and Izabela Wójtowicz, conducted a successful ICDP course for seven professionals at the GOPZiPU institute, (“Gdański Ośrodek Promocji Zdrowia i Profilaktyki Uzależnień” or the Gdansk Centre for Health Promotion and Addiction Prevention). It took place during the period between the 18^th of November 2024 and the 13^th of January 2025. The meetings were held on a weekly basis and lasted two hours each.

This was a pilot project representing the introduction and adaptation of ICDP to Poland. The ICDP materials were translated and adapted by Lidia with some help from professional translators.

Lidia explains: “There was a lot of work on creating the course content, Iza and I had many meetings and consultations to adapt the exercises and prepare powerpoint presentations. We also made outlines for each of the meeting and kept a diary. During the course I talked to my colleagues on an ongoing basis and received feedback on how the group was functioning. After each meeting, Iza and I discussed what had happened in the group and drew conclusions. The hybrid form – Iza appearing online and I being present in person – turned out well, but it was demanding. We maintained contact with the group outside the course meetings, sending emails with summaries and home tasks and other relevant content that, for example, did not have time to be discussed at the meeting. In the meantime, I was involved in promoting the program and recruiting new groups in Gdansk”.

The participants’ evaluations were very positive – click here to read.

Dear ICDP colleagues, friends and supporters,

It is with great sadness that I inform you that our dear friend and ICDP founder, Professor Henning Rye passed away on the 1st of February 2025. 

Henning was a towering figure in ICDP. He brought great insight and subtlety to our work, and was able to enlighten and guide a great many. He had used his professorship position and travel opportunities to spread awareness and promote the development of profoundly inclusive and sensitive approaches to care and education. He touched and inspired many of us in the ICDP world and outside it, introducing many of his students and university colleagues to the principles that are at the core of the ICDP vision.and mission. Karsten and Henning were possessed of a noble desire to translate psychological theories into a useful and meaningful practice that would make a difference to children’s worlds, and this was a sense in which the rest of us founders found resonance and ardent commitment to action worldwide. In my fond memories of Henning I shall always remember two aspects that manifested in our meetings from the very early days onwards, his immense knowledge and his great sense of humour, which brought us inspiration as well as fun and laughter over the years. Thank you Henning!

With kind regards from Nicoletta 

Henning Rye: A Lifelong Dedication to Children’s Psychosocial Development and the Role of Parents

With sorrow, gratitude, and respect, we received the news of Henning Rye’s passing on February 1st. Sorrow because we lost a good colleague, mentor, and friend. Gratitude for everything he taught us, both professionally and personally. Respect for his dedication to children’s psychosocial development.

Henning, born in 1934, started as a teacher before he trained as a psychologist and earned a PhD in clinical child and adolescent psychiatry. He worked as the chief psychologist at Berg gård, became a professor at the Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, and later head of the Section for International Work at the Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo. In 2016, he was awarded the King’s Medal of Merit for his work with children with special needs.

His collaboration with Karsten Hundeide led to the development of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP), a humanistic parenting guidance program that changed the perspective on children’s developmental possibilities. ICDP is used in Norway and over 40 other countries and has improved the quality of care for millions of children. Henning also extended these perspectives to all life stages, with a focus on dignified aging.

He had a long-term collaboration with the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which stands as a monument to his international commitment, also involving countries such as Sweden, Portugal, and Palestine.

Henning and Karsten, along with a small international team, aimed to translate psychological theories into practical applications that could make a difference in children’s lives. This has inspired us who followed. We remember Henning’s warmth, knowledge, and sense of humor, which brought inspiration, laughter, and joy. Thank you, Henning, your life and work will continue to guide us for many years to come.

Ane-Marthe S. Skar and Nicoletta Armstrong, ICDP International, and Heidi W. Steel, ICDP Norway

News update from Finland by Petra Zilliacus:

On a foggy Monday, on 9th of January 2025, a group of nine professionals graduated as ICDP facilitators on the Åland Islands. Eight of the participants came from social services and one was from a local school – see participants on the photo above.

Thefacilitators implemented the ICDP programme with groups of caregivers, and these groups were versatile, including either parents or professionals.

The new group of facilitators was both greatly inspired and greatly inspiring for the proud trainers Klara Schauman-Ahlberg and Petra Zilliacus.

Warm congratulations to the smart and sensitive group facilitators!

ICDP Facilitator Trainings and Outcomes – 2024

In 2024, five facilitator training sessions were initiated, resulting in 129 newly trained facilitators. Additionally, 25 facilitators from 2023 in Wolayta Sodo and Shasheme, completed their certification. These efforts were conducted across five locations: Addis Ababa, Adama, and Bishoftu in the western part of Addis Ababa. The facilitators engaged with 300 parents and 800 children. Some facilitators are continuing their work with parents and will be certified in 2025.

To support the training efforts, the English manual was translated into Amharic, and 1,000 copies were printed, sponsored by the ICDP International Office.

These training sessions were designed to equip facilitators with the skills needed to promote positive child development and strengthen parent-child relationships.

2. Details of the Trainings

Wolayta Sodo and Shashemene

• Groups: 2

• Facilitators Certified: 25

Addis Ababa (Western South Region of EFGC)

• Groups: 1

• Progress: Completed the second part of training. 24

Adama

2 Groups: • Group 1• Location: Amanuel Church• Participants: 30 facilitators• Children Engaged: 78

• Group 2

• Location: Ethiopia Muluwongel Church Adama

• Participants: 24 facilitators

• Children Engaged: 68

Bishoftu

• Location: Ethiopia Muluwongel Church

• Participants: 24 facilitators

• Children Engaged: 64

3. Parent Groups and Community Impact

• Parent Groups Established: 25

• Parents Recruited: 300

• Children Impacted: Approximately 800

Parents reported significant positive changes in their households, including better communication and stronger relationships with their children.

4. Testimonial

Parents shared their experience during group meetings:

One mother shared: “This training helped me and my children to have peace in our house.”

Another parent reflected: “I used to discourage my child from singing, telling her, ‘Don’t sing.’ But after this training, I realized how much I was holding her back. Now, I encourage her to sing and express herself freely. I’ve learned the importance of showing warmth and love in conversations, and I’m committed to creating a better relationship with my children.”

5. Conclusion

The 2024 ICDP facilitator training program has had a transformative impact on facilitators, parents, and children. By empowering facilitators, the program has fostered stronger relationships and created more harmonious households, reflecting its effectiveness and long-term potential to improve child development across communities.

Atnaf Berhanu

8^th of January 2025.