On the 11th of October 2024, I had an interesting conversation with Jeed Prakaikaew Phochan and Sara Sarawaree Lie. They both live in Norway, but their native country is Thailand which they visit a couple of times a year. Our conversation was facilitated by Olav Skjerpeour who introduced us and assisted with translations. Sara is leader in the Youth Buddhist Federation, Jeed is Children’s Pastor in the Church of Norway.
Jeed and Sara are currently undergoing training both in Norway and in Thailand to become ICDP certified trainers. They travelled to Thailand to attend workshops organized by ICDP Thailand, whereas their practical projects are currently taking place in Norway among Thais. They are conducting the training in Thai. Jeed and Sara will have become certified ICDP by the end of January 2025. In my conversation with them they expressed keen commitment and desire to take the ICDP programme to others.
As part of their training they are forming new persons to become ICDP facilitators, namely, Mr. Phra, Phichitchai Miphimol, Mrs. Lalita Chumpon and Mrs. Penprapha Skjæret. After attending the ICDP workshops, the trainee facilitators started rolling out the ICDP programme to Thai parents, accompanied by Jeed and Sara. This process is taking place at the Wat Thai Buddhist Temple in Norway and will be completed in November. Mr. Phra is a Buddhist monk, so for the first time we have a Buddhist monk becoming an ICDP Facilitator.
Olav, Jeed and Sara explained how the temple fulfills an important social function, acting as a safe place for fellowship among Thais. When Thai migrants experience challenges in their family lives, they approach the temple, but the temple has few tools to help with when it comes to family life and parent-child-relations. This is where ICDP comes in.
Furthermore, the Buddhist temple feels that ICDP fits in their worldview and there is keen interest to spread ICDP more widely to reach the Thai diaspora in Europe. The abbot at Wat Thai Norway is the President of the Union of Thai Sanghas (Buddhist temples) in Europe and Jeed and Sara were invited to introduce ICDP to Thais living in different parts of Europe. ICDP will sign an agreement with Jeed and Sara once they have completed their training and we will keep in touch and observe future developments with great interest. – Nicoletta Armstrong, ICDP chair.