ICDP Finland is proud to present the year of 2022 as one of the most expansive years during our 10 year history.
The Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters in Finland, ETKL, has educated nine new trainers with Nicoletta Armstrong as trainer. All in all, our new and old trainers have completed six Basic Trainings with a total of 66 graduates and two facilitator trainings resulting in 17 new facilitators.
ICDP Finland has also conducted an ICDP bilingual kick-off day for the entire day care personnel in the county of Inkoo.
In the Finnish research field there have been two papers addressing ICDP, one by Melissa Matjus at Novia University of Applied Sciences, addressing ICDP as a programme based on attachment and a Master’s thesis by Katri Kvick at Eastern University in Finland about parents’ perspective on ICDP as a parent support programme.
In addition to the many trainings, the ICDP Finland association has conducted virtual ICDP coffee breaks for members every first Thursday of the month, arranged an ICDP New and Old Educators Day for mutual inspiring, and offered a free “Magical ICDP”- webinar for anyone curious about how ICDP can serve people and organizations in different ways.
The photo shows attendees of a virtual meeting: From the COVID times we learned to meet virtually and the ICDP morning coffee meetings once a month are something we have continued with, even though the restrictions are lifted. This is a great way to check in with old and new members and share the ICDP spirit.
During the last two months of 2022, a group of 6 parents received training in the ICDP programme and completed the course by the end of December.
In December 2022, the teachers in the two Happy Start preschools, in Tashkent, finished their ICDP caregiver courses. A group of 10 new teachers/caregivers were certified and in addition 3 caregivers attended the course a second time. One facilitator from previous training also completed her course as an ICDP facilitator.
In January 2023, Magdalena Brannstrom held a three-day workshop for new facilitatorrs. A group of 7 women who all work in the field of early childhood education embarked on their training to become facilitators. “It is a privilage to train such wonderful people who have big hearts for children and who care for children in their everyday life. These women will become great ICDP facilitators because of their ability to care and have empathy for others.” – says Magdalena, ICDP trainer.
Photo taken at facilitators’ training
Feedback from preschool staff:
After starting with the ICDP course I can see some changes in the children in my class. They try to regulate thier emotions, be patient and listen. And they share or express their feelig. It is now easier to get their attention.
After the course I am more aware of my feelings/emotion, thinking, attitude and behavior around children. I am more patient.
I see the efffect of the course on the children in my class: Children became more open and trusting through my new relationship building.
I see many changes within myself: It has become much easier to build relationships not only with children, but also with loved ones, relatives and friends.
I became more tolerant, began to change my attitude towards people around me.
I have less condemnation and irritation in me. I began to understand children more and ask more questions about their condition.
One discoverry that I made thanks to the ICDP programme is that a teacher should not only give knowledge, but help the child in the development of his or her personality. A teacher can become a very close friend to a child.
I have ceased to be afraid of the unpredictable behaviour of children, because now I have a tool, I know how to react, what needs to be applied so that there are no unpleasant consequences.
I have seen changes in myself – that I became calmer, softer, began to understand children more; I began to see, experience and feel their problems and concerns. I respond to their initiatives more. And also I have seen changes in my class: We began to understand each other; the children tell their secrets, there is a friendly atmosphere in the classroom. While there is no chaos, the children have become more obedient, they remember information better, they develop comprehensively.
I have seen changes in myself: I became interested in the desires of children. I learned how important it is to show your love, emotions and speak encouraging words. I stopped with excessive strictness. I learned that children are individuals and it really became easier to work.
The year 2022 was a busy and very fruitful year for the Danish Centre for ICDP, as their annual report demonstrates. – click here to read it.
From the report:
In the Danish Center for ICDP, we have developed a good new rhythm in the area of management. Anne Linder continues to keep her primary focus in the field of development and provides supervision and support to the 35 active trainees. Jens Linder has settled in well in his new job as manager and ensures the smooth running of the many day-to-day tasks at the Centre. In addition, he is the key person responsible for the development of two new digital platforms; one is designed for courses and the other one is for parents. The development of the digital platforms had taken up a lot of our resources throughout the year. We are proud to have presented our course platform Relatuz in an updated design. Both trainers and users say the platform is easy to access and supports video analysis and other teaching material. In 2022, we have trained 725 persons at ICDP level 1; 68 persons to ICDP level 2 and at level 3, we have 3 new trainers.
Plans for 2023 With the new capacity in the management of ICDP, we can now purposefully focus on new development projects. The goal of all projects is to spread and quality-assure the ICDP mindset. At the beginning of the year 2023 we will continue to work with ICDP parents on the digital platform called, the Danish Center for Relations. On this platform, parents are offered knowledge about interaction – they are shown video sequences, animated films and receive guidance or teaching in groups. Furthermore, we are rounding off the work regarding the Certification of Institutions – where we also expect to provide a financial return to ICDP International. Among are new project developments planned for 2023, we are working on publishing a material case for teachers; the idea is that via ICDP, they can strengthen the community and well-being in the class. During spring 2023, we will be publishing a new book called ICDP and Leadership, as well as a new booklet ICDP and the Children’s Convention.
A post parenting assessment was undertaken for the ICDP parenting programme 2017-21 with the following results:
Caregivers reported that they have learnt “proper parenting methods” since they participated in the ICDP parenting programme.
Children across the project intervention area also reported that their caregivers talk to them kindly, spend more time with them and they have a more open relationship.
Children are reported to be more involved in the household decisions and making rules together with caregivers, giving them a voice in the household.
The qualitative findings were corroborated by quantitative data which indicates that overall, caregivers who received the parenting intervention show an improvement in engaging in activities with their children, such as having meals together, praising the child for good behaviour, showing physical affection, etc. compared to caregivers who received the cash-only intervention.
The ICDP parenting sessions were expanded to an additional district, Berbera, where parenting session were rolled out with caregivers of 150 households.
Mukesh Latth,Senior Social Protection Advisor for Save the Children, explains:
ICDP based parenting programme is being successfully rolled out by Save the Children, under their Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) programme. This work has been evaluated and has continued in 2022, as explained below.
Assessment report
A post parenting assessment was undertaken for the ICDP parenting programme 2019-21 with the following results reported in the 2022 report:
There is a significant overall increase in the parenting/caregivers’ interaction with children.
During the Focus group discussions results such as some changes in beliefs on corporal punishment were attributed to the parenting programme; this is evident by what some interviewed children explained. The children said they had observed changes in their parents and caregivers’ practices and attitudes towards them and their welfare; they said their caregivers showed kin interest.
Generally, the post parenting assessment results show that parents/caregivers benefited from the parenting programme as they became more attentive, patient, caring and responsive to their children’s needs.
The results further indicate that the parenting programme had enlightened them on issues relating to gender roles especially when it comes to the traditional tasks which are given specifically to boys and girls.
Developments in Kalalushi
A Parenting Handbook, based on ICDP parenting (with additional modules on nutrition, budgeting and gender education) was contextualized to the Zambian context. The handbook is being used for scaling up the parenting programme in another district in Zambia, i.e., Kalalushi.
A group of 23 additional animators (9 men and 14 women) including members of the Community Welfare Assistant Committees (CWACs) and staff of the departments of community development and social welfare in Kalalushi district were trained as parenting animators to help roll out the parenting sessions.
A new ICDP project was started in Toronto, Canada, in cooperation with the Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora church members. It was initiated by Atnaf Berhanu ICDP trainer from Norway.
“At the end of September 2022, about 65 Ethiopian and Eritrean parents attended the ICDP parental guidance workshop over a period of seven days. All parents showed a lot of interest and held lively group discussions. At the end of the course, they gave good feedback and unanimously agreed that for them it was important to work on maintaining good quality interactions with their children and that ICDP was therefore of great help to them.
Photo: facilitators during virtual training
Another positive result of this work was that 10 individuals registered themselves for ICDP Facilitator level online training. It was agreed to hold meetings on Zoom once a week, each meeting lasting 3 hours. Due to very different time zone between Canada and Norway, we could not have more than that. So far, they have covered part one of the training. We agreed to continue with the second part of the training after the New year.” – Atnaf Berhanu.
After two years of restrictions due to the pandemic, the developments of ICDP in Ethiopia started again in August 2022. A workshop was given to the board members of the Ethiopian Mulu Wongel Church and to the leaders of the West Arsi and Shashemene Sub-Region Churches. The workshop aimed to raise awareness about the ICDP programme and its significance for Ethiopia.
Photo: A new group of trainee facilitators.
In November 2022, a new group of future facilitators began to receive ICDP training. The first workshop was held in the town of Shashemene, in the south of Ethiopia. Atnaf will continue their training in 2023.
ECEC/ICDP Nepal organized a 3-day conference in Nepal, which took place in Kathmandu, from 9th to the 11th of November 2022. The theme for the conference was, “Reactivating human care and improving lives through ICDP” because this parenting programme has changed individuals, families, and communities through its powerful psycho–emotional tool.
The objective was to network, support each other and share experiences and learnings not just with participants from Nepal but also with neighbouring countries who are implementing this programme. Besides participants from Nepal, the conference was attended by representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Norway and Thailand. The 3-day sessions covered a vast range of topics through special sessions, workshops, panel discussion and keynote speakers.
The first day of the conference was attended by ICDP Facilitators and trainers who came from many different parts of Nepal. The conference was at the same time an annual ICDP network meeting. It was also attended by guests from local areas, as well as from other countries. In all, there were 237 participants. Local and international experts covered the following topics: ICDP in Mental Health; ICDP in Education; ICDP in special need; ICDP in Families.
The last two days were attended by delegates from different organizations in Nepal and by delegates from those regional countries who have been implementing ICDP.
The second day was attended by 79 participants and it started with a keynote speech by Sumnima Tuladhar, (ED from CWIN Nepal) on the 3 Ps of child rights set by the UN. A workshop on ICDP implementation strategies was led by Heidi Steel, chair of ICDP Norway and its main focus was to help take ICDP forward in respective countries.
The keynote speaker on the third day was Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar, researcher and ICDP Foundation board member. She presented a review of the research findings related to ICDP. There were 61 participants on the third day.
The conference was closed with discussions and reflection on learnings from the 3 days. In the afternoon, guests from outside Nepal were given a brief city tour and the closing of the event included a special dinner.
Overall, the conference was successful to meet its objective and all the participants were enthusiastic to take ICDP forward in their respective area of work and countries.
During 2022, our ICDP work in China has been quite challenging. Many planned workshops and trainings had to be postponed or even cancelled because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
To keep the work moving forward, ICDP China first livestreamed on its video account on August 8, 2022, and since then we livestreamed 17 times. The first live broadcast had 640 viewers, whereas the highest number of viewers was 1,296, and the lowest was 70.
As it can be seen from this, ICDP China is gradually increasing its promotion efforts through webcasting. The live webcast keeps the relaxing and natural style of ICDP training. Bullet screen comments are responded to in a timely manner during the live webcast, and there are frequent interactions with viewers.
Some people commented happily on the bullet screen:
“The live webcast is so good, you can watch the playback at home even if you can’t come in person.“
In the El Salvador two versions of the ICDP programme are being used: the original version for parents of young children and the new version for parents of adolescents.
In addition, the material of a third and newest version of the ICDP programme, which is designed for use by adolescents to act as facilitators to other adolescents, i.e., peer-to-peer, was made ready for printing during 2022. The review process of these materials has been completed by the autumn of 2022 and the printing will be completed by the end of the year. The design of the backpack (mochila) which contains the peer-to-peer version of ICDP has also been finalized.
Several young people were involved in the process of formulating and finalizing of the peer-to-peer version. They showed a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about the ICDP process and expressed willingness to become ICDP facilitators to their peers. The newest version of ICDP with its adapted materials will be used in 2023, in a pilot project whose aim is to test out and evaluate the application of the peer-to-peer programme.
Online training
Online training has been used successfully by trainers and facilitators in El Salvador. Face to face and virtual training are combined, with some advantages and disadvantages of each method. Through virtual training a greater number of people is being reached by the programme, whereas face to face training has deeper impact, through sharing, listening, and bonding. In 2022, staff of ISNA has been training with both versions of the ICDP programme (version for parents of younger children and for parents of adolescents) in this way. The aim is to work towards continuity, so parents are given both versions of the ICDP programme as their children grow up. The whole ICDP programme is in a digitalized format and this was mainly produced by ISNA but UNICEF helped to review it. Facilitators and trainers are using the digitalized material in their own training, as well as when training others. The digitalized version of materials contributes to sustainability. Families are given a link to an app with ICDP materials. It is possible that in future ISNA may share this app with others in Latin America.
New law and parenting programme in the country
For over ten year, Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo Integral de la Niñez y la Adolescencia (ISNA) has been the key organization responsible for rolling out the ICDP programme nationwide in El Salvador – and in order to facilitate this process ICDP had become institutionalized by ISNA several years ago. In 2022 a new law was passed by the government regarding children’s rights and one of the repercussions of the new law is that ISNA will cease to exist. From January 2023, a new institution will replace ISNA, although most of the work ISNA has been doing will continue as part of the new institution. During the year, the office of the First Lady has been conducting a survey with parents mapping home practices in order to ascertain how parents interact at home. This was done in view of the government aiming to standardize a parenting programme for the country. UNICEF and ISNA are working on including ICDP as part of the new parenting programme established by the government.
