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.
