MAY2004

Foundations for Freedom Newsletter 24 Greencoat Place, London., SW1P 1RD, UK tel: 020-7798 6000, www.f-4-f.org, F4F@london.iofc.org Issue 36 May-June 2004 In this issue...

ELW: it’s here!

Regional Meeting 2004 Junior Round Table in Lviv Changing course against corruption in Romania

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Crimean course Agnese Liepina on her trip to England F4F Diary News from the Treasurer

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Ethical Leadership Workshop: it s here!

The Ethical Leadership Workshop (ELW) marks a significant milestone in the life of F4F: a new ‘event’ has been requested, and we have begun developing material to satisfy that request. Perhaps more importantly this process is not happening only within the F4F laboratory, but rather only the initial ideas.

These rough themes and ideas are being refined; only possible with the help of those who might ultimately use the workshop. The first ideas were put together for testing in London over the first weekend in April, and, after amendments, taken to Moldova to be offered to pot e n t i a l facilitators of the future.

They were critical, naturally, perhaps more critical than your average workshop participant, but this is only to be expected if they are going to understand the materials and processes sufficiently to adopt and adapt them for themselves.

F e e d b a c k sheets are currently being

processed to try and move the material forward to the next level of development; targeting the end-beneficiary (likely to be both teachers and NGO leaders) and working the material and process out again for this market. The next phase will be training for those who wish to become ELW facilitators, translation and then application.

There are other good reasons for this new workshop. Not only are ‘ethics’ and ‘ethical leaders’ hot topics and desperately needed around the world, the workshop is a three/ At the workshop

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four day programme of exercises and discussions, which should make it simpler to train facilitators to run it. Ideally, this could not only be a useful short-training process to get new facilitators started, but also a means of earning money if the effects of the workshops (or derivation) have a lasting and meaningful impact on paying participants or organisations.

There are already ideas starting to float about the potential use of this both in and out of Eastern Europe.

The spiritual heart of the material resides in the ‘values’, ‘motives’ and ‘ethics’ sections.

However, the spiritual heart of the workshop resides within those who come on it. Sharing times of quiet and resultant thoughts, as well as the challenge of intimacy concerning unusual topics with new people can be seen as daunting. However, much of the glory of F4F courses in the past depends upon inner R&D (research and development, later reflection and decision). It is here that the true exploration happens, and it here that ethical leaders are found.

Nick Foster (UK)

Regional Meeting 2004

The official RM photo The Foundations for Freedom Regional Meeting is an annual event that takes place somewhere in Eastern Europe. And this year it took place in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, on 10-18 April 2004. This is the time when people involved with F4F/IC in this region come together for sharing and planning different activities. This year there were 32 participants from Moldova, Ukraine (Crimea, Kiev, Lviv), Latvia, Estonia, Russia (Novosibirsk), Romania, Serbia, UK, Canada and Poland.

The first part of the Regional Meeting was dedicated to the Ethical Leadership Workshop, designed by F4F, and that got peo2

ple to define their own notion of leadership, what sort of leader one wants to be, and what people have to change in themselves to become that type of leader. This part was facilitated by the faculty from UK and Canada.

The second part of the Regional Meeting was dedicated to the discussions and planning on the inter-team co-operation, the future of F4F, transfer of the co-ordination role from UK to Eastern Europe, involvement with wider IC community, F4F website and newsletter, ICIC visit to Eastern Europe in October, and other important things including training.

Lviv team hosts the Junior Round Table

Ukraine’s future...

The annual interim meeting of the Junior Round Table entitled “Tourism as a vital factor of region’s economic development” was conducted 1-4 April 2004 in Lviv, Ukraine.

The conference was organized by Lviv Regional Group of Initiatives of Change and Foundation For Freedom.

About 30 young professionals of various occupations and backgrounds from Ukraine, Holland, USA and Egypt gathered together to discuss the subject and to share their ideas and experiences. In order to develop better understanding of the issues, surrounding chosen the topic, the conference drew on the expertise of invited speakers and the combined knowledge of the participants. The sessions moved successively from the development of tourism in the region (speech

by Natalia Hamkalo, deputy head of The Board of Resorts and Tourism of Lviv Oblast State Administration) to ethical aspects which we usually confront when being involved in this domain.

In the course of the meeting the problems of incoming tourism were discussed by by Diana Konareva, Lviv Tourist Board Chief Executive, as well as the aspects of recreational and extreme tourism (Taras Blystiv, the dean of the department of

recreational tourism, Lviv State Institute of Physical Culture), Zinoviy Mazuryk, the deputy head of Lviv Art Gallery, the chief of Museum Association dwelt upon the cultural heritage of the region as a tourism product.

The ecological aspects of tourism were touched upon by Stepan Trokhymchuk (PhD. International economic relations, the vicerector of Galytskyi Institute).

The convenor of the Junior Round Table Hein Bogaard was the facilitator of the meeting and emphasized the high value of business principles and the belief that each of us has a role to play in creating an ethical business environment. The main task of the meeting was to inspire the participants to deliver their own suggestions on projects concerning the improvement of the state of tourism in the region. That is why, for a deeper understanding of the topic, there were organized excursions around the city and a guided tour through the castles of the Lviv region (so-called Golden Horseshoe of Ukraine).

At the last day of the conference there were presented projects, then the participants voted for the best proposal. The ideas of conducting promotional and educational campaigns turned out to be the most popular.

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The participants were divided into two working groups, the first one dealt with promotion and advertisement of Lviv and its region as a tourism product and the second one dwelt upon the necessity of establishing of the Training Centre which would prepare the future professionals of the tourism industry. The ideas sounded fresh, up-to-date and appealing, which encouraged the participants for further meetings on a regular basis to work together on the implementation of the projects.

Yaryna Kutsyna (Ukraine)

Changing Course against corruption in Romania

We write this from Baia Mare, a large mining city in the North/West of Romania, where we have just come back home in the parish house of Milan and Mihaela Balan and their two young children. Milan is the young orthodox priest who together with his colleague Father Dani, invited us to Romania, just as last year. But this year it was more specific. “We must do something against corruption”, they suggested in their invitation.

“Let us have a Changing Course against corruption”. That was the beginning of three consecutive F4F events: A 7-day Changing Course, a 3-day Anti-corruption Seminar and a concluding general meeting/reunion for everybody.

Bixad The course took place in a Romanian Orthodox monastery near the small village of Bixad. We could not have wished a better, the first course in a monastery...

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more hospitable, peaceful and beautiful environment. Besides, we had the best weather ever: sunny, not too warm, but good enough to have most sessions outside and to make a collective walk in the rural and hilly surroundings.

Our faculty consisted of Angela Starovoitova from Crimea (Immediately after the course she returned to Crimea to help facilitate the course there), Vitalie Cracan from Moldova, Flavia Cadar and Diana Barbu from Romania (participants from last year’s course), Marina and me.

This was the first course in a monastery, an environment where it is easy to talk about spiritual matters. Only Scottish dancing in the monastery did not seem a good idea, but the village school hall had been arranged for us.

Halfway through the course a journalist and his photographer came to see what we were doing. He had heard the rumour of an “ecumenical” event in the monastery and wanted to know more about that. We invited him to join the running session, talked to him for half an hour and gave him some information about F4F, IC and Caux.

The following day a good short article appeared plus a photo on a prominent place in his regional newspaper, ending with an invitation to read

Reunion

Re-

the Sunday edition for a longer article. And indeed the following Sunday there was the whole page about the monastery and Changing course.

Anti-corruption Seminar Father Milan Balan, the Mayor, the Bishop and a high official of the district opened the seminar. After that the real work started. Father Milan had a team of some 10 young people from F4F courses to help run the seminar.

We think the anti-corruption seminar has been a great success. Of course we do not know the results, but the open atmosphere, the intense discussions and the encouraging comments at the end made us believe that anyhow the participants have understood what corruption is about, what the consequences are and how important it is to stick together if we want to tackle it in our own environment. Everything went very smoothly and the programme developed quite naturally.

Our Danish friends spoke at the final session of the first day and were able to give a challenging message of hope after the man from Transparency International had given a rather gloomy picture of corruption in Roma-

nia. The following day we continued with drafting a corruption tree with - roots: What are the roots of corruption?

- trunk: Why is corruption happening in our society?

- branches: Why do students, patients, civilians, ... give bribes? Why do teachers, doctors, civil servants, politicians, ..... take bribes?

- fruits: What are the rotten and stinking fruits of corruption?

And the conclusions?! Of course corruption comes from the system with its bad laws, the culture, the poverty and low salaries. But we also came up with a lot of motives connected to morality, such as greed and dishonesty, hunger for power and status, indifference and lack of moral understanding and strength. After that we discussed our own experiences of corruption resulting in 5 sketches, that dealt in a humorist way with corruption in education, customs, police, civil servants, doctors, etc. As a specific F4F contribution we facilitated sessions on “Dynamics out of silence” and “Search for values”.

The concluding General Meeting took place 3 days after the Seminar. It was a won5

derful event. We were more then 50 people from the F4F courses in Ocna Sugatac (May 2003), Bixad and the Seminar. Four or five came purely out of interest without having participated in any of the above events. We started with getting to know each other, after that - R&D time in 8 groups, then impressions from the different events. At the end it was decided to establish an NGO (called “Initiativa Skimbare”) and to meet every two weeks.

Kees and Marina Scheijgrond (Netherlands)

And this is what one of the participants has to say: When I heard about this course I was very sceptical. Changing course?! How could they change me in one week? Why should I change? What is wrong with me for making changes? Now I have the answers. After a week in a very special atmosphere I found out what I could and what I should change. I understood that there is always place for better, that in our lives is place for more morality, for more spirituality, for more understanding for the others. A major change in one week may not be possible, but is enough to be convinced that you should think more often of moral values and you should (or even must) apply them in your life. It’s enough to take the decision to make changes for a different life - more moral, more unselfish. It’s the first step. I understood that if we want to make the world a better one we must begin with ourselves.

After the course I decided to find time more often for thinking and understanding the moral values. I decided to make more room for God in my heart and in my life. I really want to transform the theoretical knowledge that I have into a practical way of life.

In Bixad, in only one week, 22 persons became like a family. We felt the solidarity, the friendship, the understanding between us. We had a very great time and we learnt a lot. I can say this course exceeded my expectations.

As a teacher I found out a lot of methods to transmit in a pleasant way information to the pupils, I learned a lot of games and songs that I can now apply in my work. I 6

made a lot of friends and I really hope that we will meet more often and will not lose the contact.

But the more important thing is the change inside me. I hope that I will be strong of the month! enough to make the changesSmile I decided after the course, that my enthusiasm would not decrease and when I will need it I will find support for remaining strong and determined.

Diana Damsa, teacher of music

Crimean Course May 2004 The first thing we would like to say is “Thank You” to everybody who helped and supported us before and during the last Visiting Course in the Crimea (May 2004). We really appreciate everything that you have done and for your love and trust in us. Thanks a lot to each of you who came to help us and to our international faculty that really worked as a wonderful team, consisted of David and Judith Curtis (UK), Oleg Ermurati (UK/ Moldova), Anna Pozogina (Latvia), Anastasia Clipikova (Moldova), Lena Kashkareva (Crimea), Anna Bondarenko (Crimea).

The idea of this course came to a few people almost at the same time, and that made this course even more significant. It was a course a bit different to those we had before in the Crimea. It was in Russian (Hurray!) and this time we were privileged to have a few Crimean Tatars among participants and this fact made this course more valuable and interesting. You can judge the effectiveness of the course by responses of the participants, faculty and guests: * My attitude towards the Crimean Tatars was changed completely. We should not be disappointed in a nation after meeting one bad representative. * I learnt to talk about things I believe in. * I was surprised that my understanding of fate is the same as in Islam. * Here I found trust and support; I overcame pride, hatred and disbelief in people. There were no limits to what to talk about. * Everything that was discussed about influenced me a lot. We can’t divide love into

categories the same as you can’t divide your motives from your actions. I became much more open to people and learnt to listen. * Before the course I read few books about Islam, but I decided to buy the Koran when I come home. It is obvious that Islam and Christianity have the same base. * We were offered the model of the right relationship between people. * I can’t say that I have changed my worldview.

I always tried to do right things and trust people, but I could not find understanding and I began to doubt. But here I found hope that there are a lot of like-minded people. * At the beginning of the course I was going

to pack my things and go home twice, I think I had my own fears as probably others have.

But I understood one thing there is not enough to have electricity to switch on lights I have to have a desire to switch it on and press the button. * I learnt to admit my mistakes. * I’ve got a shift of my moral values. * We never know how the things we do can influence on other people. * I always struggled, people did not understand me I often closed myself to other people, after a session on honesty I realized that in order to be understood I have to try to understand others.

Agnese Liepina on her trip to England Through the aeroplane window you can see a nice view: pieces of puzzle are making wonderful scenery - chestnut trees are blossoming, houses, chimneys. And there it was – England, fascinating for many people. A land where one can meet the whole world in one place – people from different cultures and religions! Already getting off the plane a strange and indescribable feeling of unreality was around me as if I was in another world. The reality that is so different from my world!

There everything is, was and will be completely different – cars are on the different side of the road, squirrels are running in London parks and squares, even planes are flying very low in the sky. People and their attitude towards each other and towards life and the world, mutual respect, is different as well.

Anywhere I go I meet open and outgoing people.

And finally I had a chance to meet wonderful people, IC and F4F in England. Before my trip to England I have heard about IC and F4F from other experienced people that are connected with IC and I have read about it in IC home pages. Only when in England I got a clear picture of what it is. I had a feeling that this organisation is just like a big family and every person is unique and welcomed. I was surprised that you are accepted the way you are. That is different in Latvian society. It happens very often that being in an everyday routine we do not stop and think what we do and why, and if it is from the bottom of the heart. When I was listening to those people I

started to t h i n k about the values in a h u m a n life. It was like a new revelation – forgotten truth, like love, honesty, purity and unselfishness are the values to be in every human heart.

Only we sometimes f o r g e t about it. I think if every one of us has the values in our hearts nobody can take them away.

This four day trip in myself gave me a take-off that I also want to change some things in my life and share my experience with others through my work, revealing my knowledge and skills. I want to give other people things that they have given to me. It helped to find some answers for me – where and why am I going? Where am I going in my life? What is it I want to do? And now I am not afraid any more of looking inside me be7

cause I know that I will always try to find answers, as I am sure that my friends will help me if I ask them.

I want to thank all the people that were, are and will be together with me. Thank you for your openness and effort to make those four days an unforgettable trip!

News from the Treasurer...

F4F Diary

23 June - F4F UK committee meeting July - August - International Conferences in Caux (Switzerland) 4-11 September - CC in Lviv September - VC2 in Latvia October - ICIC visit to Eastern Europe November - CC & VC 2 in Novosibirsk Dear Reader, We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to making this issue of the F4F Newsletter. If you think that someone else you know should get this newsletter or if you have any suggestions, please contact the editor Oleg Ermurati at oleg@london.iofc.org. Thank you.

Watch out for the next issue in August-September 2004!

In the next issue: Caux 2004 impressions, Action for Life - what our friends have to say, and a lot more!

We are most grateful for the decision of the Karl Popper Foundation in Switzerland to grant 35,000 Swiss Francs (about £15,800) to enable F4F to support people from Central and East Europe participating in Caux this summer. Such a grant not only benefits individuals and builds up teams in the region, but also indirectly supports the Caux conferences themselves, to which Central and Eastern Europeans make such a notable and increasing contribution.

Our warm thanks and appreciation too, to the small group of regular donors in the UK who enable F4F to keep ticking over between the larger grants. For the programme to expand closer to its potential, more people in the UK and elsewhere are needed who could make regular contributions. Just £10 a month adds up to a significant sum in the course of a year, with the tax that is also reclaimable, particularly as IC-UK is still matching all such contributions. In these ways, a gift of £120 per year from a UK tax payer, is actually worth a total of £273.85 to F4F. If you feel you could help in this way, or would like further information, please use the reply slip below, and send it to F4F, 24 Greencoat Place, London SW1P 1RD. Chris Evans

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