Category: News

A new ICDP project is starting to develop in Tebaida, Quindío, Colombia.

Carmen Lucia Andrade, the leader of ICDP Colombia made a presentation of the ICDP programme to the Association of Agricultural Workers of the Tebaida town who afterwards expressed keen interest to participate in the ICDP training. They felt that the ICDP psychosocial programme could play an important role in their organization by strengthening positive relationships, dialogue and good treatment within the families.

The Association of Agricultural Workers of Tebaida was legally formed in 1964 and it is currently comprised of 300 families. Many of the families live in poverty and are vulnerable, some are displaced and others have experienced violence and abandonment by the state. The objective of the Association is to promote agricultural initiatives and to support actions that benefit the families.  For example, these families are currently attending a SENA course in agricultural production (SENA is a national centre for learning). 

In the ICDP project the leaders of the Association will be receiving training as facilitators and through them the ICDP method will be transferred to parents, to help strengthen their caring skills and their communication with children, and to help create family environments where democratic dialogue and peaceful coexistence are practiced. The ICDP training will be given to as many of the 300 families as possible, trying to eventually reach them all. 

Nino Margvelashvili is a neuropsychologist, based in Tbilisi with a vision to scale up ICDP in the future.

Nino works with children with special needs in an international school, as well as doing assessments and rehabilitation courses concerning different disorders, including epilepsy, specific learning disorder, ADHD and other. On behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science she has been working as a trainer for teachers in different regions of Georgia, covering various aspects of inclusion and specific strategies on how to help students in school.

During July and August 2017, she carried out an ICDP pilot project for parents at the Institute of Neurology and Neuropsychology in Tbilisi and soon after that, in early October, she went to London to attend ICDP training by Nicoletta Armstrong..

Nino intends to start training her colleagues and hopes to encourage other organizations in her country to embrace ICDP – she explains:

“I am keenly interested in collaborating with ICDP. I have two children, my work experience is largely connected to children and I can often notice pitfalls in parents’ existing skill repertoire when interacting with children and dealing with challenging situations. During my studies in Oslo (2010-2012) I was fascinated by the importance and simplicity of positive interaction and the ICDP themes. My thesis was about ICDP, positive interaction between teacher and students of different abilities.

I believe ICDP will give a unique experience and provide skills to parents, focusing on their engagement and personal experience. More than that, in ICDP everything is done through love and acceptance of the caregiver and from my point of view this point makes the whole process worthy and valuable. My long term goal is organizing community based ICDP training in order to empower parents in many different parts of Georgia.

In the report by UNICEF and USAID called “Violence against children in Georgia” there is a section referring to the survey “National Survey about Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices”, which states that:
45% of the Georgian population accepts and regards physical violence and punishment as a discipline against “spoiling” kids.
30% of women and 17% of men said yes when asked if they use physical punishment
60% of population thinks that using punishment methods in children upbringing are more effective than using non-violent methods
Society does not know much about the meaning of psychological violence
Children’s interests are ignored – parents or caregivers deprive children’s physical or emotional needs despite having relevant possibilities, knowledge and access to services.
30% said that their parents used physical violence in their childhood.
14-18 year old youngsters think that the possible abuser of child mostly is a parent.
Society thinks that in-family violence against children is family’s business and are against intervention

However, 82% of Georgian population states that violence is a problem that should be ended This shows that there is a will to overcome this problem in Georgia.

Based on the above data UNICEF made several recommendations to the Georgian government and NGOs, and one of them is to launch special programmes and campaigns to make parents use non-violent discipline, encourage positive parenting and introduce alternative methods to physical disciplining; to raise awareness of parents to develop children’s potential. In line with this, I would like to spread ICDP to parents nation-wide. I feel strongly that it is time to try to change the basis of parenting for children’s happier and healthier future. “

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Comments from participants of ICDP training at the Institute of Neurology and Neuropsychology in Tbilisi:

My child and I became more engaged in our shared activities; communication is now easier and more interesting for both of us.
Our relationships in the family became more peaceful and balanced; we started to find common ground for problem solving and consequently we now dialogue with each other more.
I became more confident, more aware and mindful, paying more attention to each word and gesture. Thank you.
It’s very important to use the guidelines. I will use it more in my life.
I discovered that we are different from our parents’ generation; we express more love, through close dialogue with children.
I follow my child’s initiative, I discovered that I can do it and that it is important – I should not be the leader but follow the child.
I now know how to regulate behaviour through explanations, giving alternatives.
I understand how important it is to pay attention and show love, have close dialogue and not to be afraid to express love and emotions.
I loved role play, analyzing videos and photos.
I discovered how much meaning I can provide to my child through explanations of everyday objects – my interactions can become more educational and I can increase my own knowledge by guiding my child. 
I have to work on how to console my child. I realized the importance of non-verbal ways of showing love and that details are important.

(Photos above and below are from the ICDP training)

Here are some impressions from an ICDP event in 2018.

ICDP trainer, Hitoshi Maeshima explains:

In October, we held a seminar on the ICDP programme. Unfortunately, a typhoon was approaching Japan just at that time, which meant that several people who had planned to attend were unable to come because of strong winds and intense rain. The attendees included seven women and one man; the age group ranged from 23 to 85 years old; there were caregivers of older people, children’s caregivers and a retired kindergarten director.

At the seminar we showed the Unicef promotional video from Colombia (which is on the ICDP webpage:  http://www.icdp.info/var/uploaded/2013/04/2013-04-15_06-57-07_unicef_promotional_video_x264.mp4 ). We have translated the English subtitles that appear on that video and in addition most of the English narrations were also translated into Japanese. We felt that this video transmits in a very compact way all the important aspects and the essence of ICDP .

We are planning to have another meeting for facilitators in January. Here are some comments from the seminar:

I had attended ICDP before so this was not my first experience. However it was very refreshing for me and I received positive inner stimulation.
I felt this time more clearly how important our heart is, rather than our mind or brain, when we are dealing with human relationships.
I had a dilemma, as I felt that my behaviour did not reflect what I knew theoretically about building better human relations with children and others, and in that context ICDP felt like an opportunity to change and as a result I felt I had improved.

Until now, I have been trying to find the answer to child care outside myself, but on the ICDP day, I found that the answer might be inside myself – and this I noticed for the first time in my life.
Also, I had been feeling within myself an invisible obstruction preventing me to extend my thinking, but that day, while we were expressing and hearing each other’s experiences from early years to adult life, I noticed that this obstruction comes unconsciously from the frame of a habit of my heart and a particular way of my own thinking. In the workshop, I felt that I had been freed from the weir of my own thought, and to my surprise there were many unexpected observations and learnings, it was really wonderful time to me.
It was my first participation to ICDP meeting. The day was very significant to me. Thank you.

The ICDP project in Envigado has almost been completed.

During the second half of 2017, an ICDP project took place in the town of Envigado, in the department of Antioquia, Colombia. The support for this ICDP initiative came from the participative funding by the Municipal administration, operated by COMFENALCO. The ICDP Medellin team of facilitators carried out the training, led by trainer Carolina Montoya.  

The training in the ICDP programme was given to forty six people, who were divided in five groups attending separate courses. The principles of the ICDP programme were delivered through a ludic-artistic methodological strategy.

On the 16th, 18th and 19th of November 2017, the ICDP facilitators will be involved in finalizing the ICDP training process in Zone 2 and Zone 10 in Envigado.

Participants were comprised of grandmothers, mothers and their children and also teachers from the urban and rural areas. ICDP was successfully presented for the first time to children and this was done in a playful way through games and narratives – all children participated in a joyful way showing interest in all ICDP topics.

In India, a group of Save the Children staff completed their training to become ICDP facilitators.

Save the Children has been developing projects referred to as Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) in a number of countries. CSSP encompasses child-focused or family-based social programmes that directly or indirectly address children’s needs and rights through a combination of economic support but also complementary interventions with the aim of improving child development and ensuring that social protection is child-sensitive.

In the Dungarpur district, India, an CSSP project has been developing since 2011 and this year ICDP was added to it. One of the key interventions of the project is based around developing improved caregiving skills with families that receive cash support from the government for taking care of orphaned children and ICDP is now being used in this context.

The ICDP training has been ongoing since the beginning of 2017 and on the 26th of October 2017 the first group of twelve facilitators received their ICDP diplomas from Nicoletta Armstrong, their trainer (see photo above).

Most of the facilitators are working with groups of parents in poor villages around Dungarpur (see photo below), and two facilitators have implemented ICDP with their colleagues in the Save the Children office in Delhi. The ICDP work has been showing promising results. Some of the facilitators will continue the ICDP process to reach the ICDP trainer level.

ICDP training for Save the Children staff in Ormoc, Philippines.

Click here to see a photo report.

An ICDP certification workshop and ceremony was held in Panama city.

The event took place at the premises of the NGO “Movimiento Nueva Generacion” in Barraza, Panama city, Panama. For information about Movimiento Nueva Generacion see:  http://www.icdp.info/panama

On the last day, on 24th of November 2017 the first group of eight people (on photo above) received their ICDP diplomas as facilitators. A second group is still engaged in the process of doing their ‘self-training’ projects, to be completed in 2018.

The certification ceremony was attended by Nicoletta Armstrong, who led the training, as well as the NGO director and a representative from UNICEF Panama. It was agreed to expand the work with the ICDP programme by training parents from the neighbouring school and health centre. The ICDP team of facilitators will be coordinated by Antonio Mendoza. Another positive outcome was the commitment to fund the trip of two facilitators from Panama to attend the ICDP Latin America Gathering planned to take place in San Salvador, in October 2018.

Field visit: “I attended an ICDP meeting with parents at one of the centres that belong to the NGO Movimiento Nueva Generacion – the Santa Ana centre. It was parents’ eighth meeting at the end of which they received ICDP certificates of attendance. It was a pleasant event marked by a small ceremony with food and refreshments. Parents were happy to talk about their experiences and were pleased to receive a paper as a reward for their participation in the ICDP course. It was moving to hear one father (sitting on far left on photo below) share about his experience of change. He had been a strict father and used corporal punishment; he seldom talked to his two girls before ICDP, but after participating in the course he found himself talking and even praising his children – and gradually he stopped using corporal punishment. Other participants talked about a misconception, common in their community, concerning the effects of empathy. They explained that it was commonly held that children need strict upbringing in order to cope with the harsh realities of life in these marginalized communities, plagued by crime, drugs and violence. However, they said they realized during the ICDP course that empathy was a better way of building strength and resilience in their children.” – Nicoletta Armstrong.

The big news is the translation of Hundeide’s book into Finnish.

ICDP Finland is happy to announce that after years of struggling with an unfinished manuscript which served as a course book, they have managed to complete the translation into Finnish and have published Karsten Hundeide’s book “The essence of human care: an introduction to the ICDP programme”. All ICDP terms and concepts have  finally been translated and this makes both the understanding and the spreading of the ICDP programme a great deal easier, said the Finnish ICDP trainers.

ICDP Finland also informs that its trainers held training courses in different parts of the country and as a result there are now 22 new facilitators who are working with different groups of caregivers. The facilitators came together to exchange experiences and inspire each other at a meeting in Kotka, held in September 2017.

Through collaboration with different NGOs, ICDP Finland continues to focus on raising public awareness about the ICDP programe and its potential of supporting parents and families.

On photo below: A new group of day care professionals, who have just gone through the ICDP basic training at the family center in Pargas, Southwestern Finland, in October and November. “We had great discussions and many of the participants found that sharing their short videos from work was especially helpful in focusing their attention to all the wonderful details of togetherness and strengthening their professionalism as caregivers.” -Petra Zilliacus, ICDP trainer.

In the search to improve the quality of relationship between adolescents and their families, INPRHU has taken the initiative to institutionalize the ICDP programme.

The Institute for Human Promotion (INPRHU) in Ocotal, Nicaragua, has been developing the ICDP methodology with all the different target groups with which they work, by articulating their efforts with other Institutions such as, the Ministry of Education and the Public Ministry, as well as  withother organizaitons that work with families, children and adolescents.

In 2019, INPRHU leadership made the decision to strengthen the skills of  all its staff through training in the ICDP programme. 

” ICDP emphasises good interactions based on empathy and thorugh ICDP we want to promote comprehensive and loving relationships between adults in the care of adolescents, that would in turn contribute to the process of humanization of our society. 

We provide individualized psychological attention to women, girls and adolescents who have experienced situations of violence. The ICDP principles are being put into practice as a tool that directs this work towards personal empowerment. ICDP helps us to reconstruct their self-esteem and to strengthen their awareness of being people with rights and not objects.

The programme is particularly important for our community work with families in situations of violence –  we conducted sessions based on the content of ICDP, which was a very interesting experience, because it changed the way families perceive their children; it helped them to really see their girls and boys,  to recognize their children’s capacities and their ability to make decisions as persons. 

The ICDP prinicples have also been used as a tool and content of the Inprhu radio programme called Our Voices for Change, a programme that is reaching the entire department of Nueva Segovia. The radio is especially popular and listened to by families living in rural areas – with the ICDP content we feel that we are contributing towards the improvement of relations between adults, mothers, fathers, guardians and their boys and girls.

One of the important exerices that we apply, is the ICDP exercise that asks participants to observe photos of children with different expressions of feelings, such as Sadness, Happiness, Joy, Annoyance, Loneliness – and in this connection many participants remembered and shared  their experiences from when they were children, for example, when they were scolded or hit. They recognized in the photos their own felt sadness. The exercise also helped release feelings of empathy towards the suffering of their own children.” 

– explains director, Aura Estela. 

Mariana Jalba, a child neurologist has been using ICDP with children and parents since 2012.

Mariana and the team of ICDP trainers at the Voinicel Early Intervention Institute in Kishinev put a great deal of effort on promoting ICDP in Moldova throughout 2017. 

“We shared our knowledge with as many people as possible. That’s why we created an informational spot in two languages: Romanian and Russian.

We use it at different events such as conferences and workshops.

 It is available on our Facebook page and web: https://www.facebook.com/pg/centrulvoinicel/videos/?ref=page_internal.

Another way of sharing information about the ICDP programme was by including it in the curricula for specialists in Early Intervention.”