Getting busy

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My goodness where does the time go! I can't believe my last post was on 11 December! Ok, so a quick ten minutes to say a few things:

1) Selene has finished the first few weeks in Amman and is now resting in Thailand before we finalise her next steps. Her experience was the common combination of tough and rewarding as she balanced the realities of working in a very different environment with the undoubted interest of both staff and Iraqis in the benefits of NVC.

2) Sarri's work in Lebanon is developing with more local NGOs requesting further training and support in how to develop and implement NVC in their work.

3) In the UK I am busy coaching managers from Neopost in their use of conflict resolution in the workplace. I am also visiting UK NGOs to 1) develop their teams and 2) look at assisting in their pre-departure training for staff doing international placements. I am engaging in local community mediation, have been asked to train fellow mediators in NVC and also am looking at growing the workplace mediation part of MLCT; to that end I am currently in discussion with other suitably qualified and experienced people. We're excited about the difference we know that transformative mediation can make to relationships in the workplace and want to look at how to grow that part of MLCT>

4) I'm planning to go to Egypt for a month (probably May?) with Tam and Dylan - this would also give a chance to respond to requests for training from 4 different Egypt-based organisations. Funny how these things come together.

5) I'm also going to be trained as a facilitator with an organisation called Khulisa (see http://www.khulisaservices.co.za/). They do restorative justice work based on their model developed in South Africa.

Hiatus

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Tam & Andy are about to have a baby so are on a bit of a hiatus - though we're responding to emails and enquiries.

Most recently, Andy has been doing the following:

• Facilitating a local charity in Brighton to implement a year long organisational review. Outputs to date include the adoption of a new values framework and development and implementation of a revised governance structure. All initiatives have come from the organisation's Trustees, workers and centre users.


• Mediating between neighbours involved in community level disputes in Brighton


• In April 2009 Andy extended the work from Lebanon to Jordan and Syria. This involved training staff from local NGOs and UN agencies in using NVC-based approaches in their work with Iraqi refugees.
  
  It also included specific training for psychologists and psychological counsellors who support Iraqi families and children. A key part of this work is the emphasis on connection with the needs of the beneficiaries, on giving empathy, rather than trying to 'fix the problem'. Time and again people have reported the transformation in relationships and ease that is created when this connection is made. Interestingly, by being aware of their own needs in the situation, those working with Iraqi refugees have been able to move away from their traditional aproaches of 'doing something for' the other. Crucially it this desire to meet our own needs in the only way we know how that often blocks us connecting with, and being led by, the needs of the beneficiaries.