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.
Based on report from ICDP trainer Magdalena Brännström, February, 2025.
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.
The training process will be concluded at a workshop planned for April 2025. The participants will then be given their ICDP Facilitator level diplomas.
Magdalena commented about the materials and training as follows:
The booklet for parents/caregivers called “I am a person” as well as the handbook “ICDP Guide for Facilitators”, were both translated into Azerbaijani.
The training was done in English, however, my slides were translated into Azerbaijani language, which was helpful. After the workshop, I gave my power point presentations to the group, to facilitate their work with caregivers. There are two sets of slides, one set is for the implementation of the ICDP course through 7 meetings with parents/caregivers, each lasting two hours. The other set is tailored for the implementation of the course through 5 meetings with caregivers, each meeting lasting up to 3 hours.
These trainee facilitators represent an excellent group to work with. They participated very actively and engaged in shared reflections from their own lives and with many examples from their local culture. I have been working with the ICDP programme in Uzbekistan for several years now, and I found that there are similarities between the two cultures when it comes to raising children. I have greatly enjoyed training this group.
Before the second workshop they sent me their videos (of their own interactions with a child), and I provided them with feedback. They shared their videos within the group. It was wonderful to see many different videos, showing interactions with younger children, schoolchildren, 12 year-olds and also 17 and 18 year-olds.