24 Greencoat Place, London., SW1P 1RD, UKtel: 020-7798 6000, www.f-4-f.org, F4F@london.iofc.orgIssue 40 September 2005

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In this issue...Another Summer 1 First Challenge of Practice 3 Rejoice of Changes 6... on Caux 2 From Mentors... to Caretakers 3 Romanian Welcome 6The Spirit of Caux 2 The 4th YPF! 4 Moving to Sierra Leone 7Everytime... there’s something new 2 Things I’ve Done & Learned 5 F4F Community News 9

Foundations for Freedom Newsletter

Another great time for some people in Caux.Another hard work put into fundraising and organising forCaux. Another bunch of inspiration, ideas, training, intern

working shifts, knowledge, appreciation, friendships, sharing,speeches and much more what we’ve experienced, receivedand gave to the world that gets together in the MountainHouse.

I was coming to the conference centre in Switzerlandsince 2000, skipping just one year, for extended periods oftime, serving in different areas and fulfilling various tasks.This year was different because I was on the side of thosewho do the main work before the conference centre startsto operate and before people actually appear in Caux. Notan easy work they have, I would say. There are so manydiscussions, thinking, praying, hoping and sacrificinghappening, and that is on top of all the necessarycommunication and paper work that needs to be done.

Being on the F4F co-ordinating side I would like to

express our gratitude for all those people who helped useither by co-ordinating the process in the regions, donatingmoney or praying for it. Some have decided not to go this

summer thus giving this opportunity to others, others wereworking hard for the whole year to get enough money forthe trip.

From the circles of F4F or on F4F invitation wewere able to support 55 people from 6 Eastern and CentralEuropean countries. F4F has spent £19,222 this summerfor Caux. A bit more than half of the money was spent on22 conference participants, who mainly came for “Service,Responsibility and Leadership” and “Heart and Soul ofEurope” conferences.

£6,000 were spent to cover some travel andaccommodation for 7 F4F mentors that were workingalongside with Intern programme as well as conferenceorganisers. Another £3,000 were spent to support Internstravel and not let Caux down by rejecting their call for help

Another summer

F4F Group in Caux

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and Caux’ need for Interns.We managed to raise all necessary funds with

generous support of Oxford Group, Karl Popper Foundationand different individuals. Comparing to the amount spent onCaux previous years, this year more of you in the regioncontributed toward your stay and travel, which much easedthe situation with fundraising. So, I just want to say, ‘Welldone to everyone! Together we make the impossiblepossible!’

And we are all hoping that those who are planningto go to Caux next summer would start thinking about moneyissue already, while there is still the whole year ahead andsome opportunities to earn and save money! I would alsotell the same for those who have experienced Caux and wouldlike to help others to experience it as well by supportingthose who are not able to do that.

Angela Starovoitova (Ukraine/UK)

…on CauxWhen I look back and think about my trip to Caux

I say to myself: “I am lucky I could be there and obtain thatexperience that is unique, as nothing will be as it was before”.This trip was a very special one to me. It was special inmany ways. First of all, “special” refers to people I have metthere and whom I probably would never have met in othercircumstances, because of many reasons, and now I feelthis would make me poorer in some way. It is obvious wecan meet interesting people whom we may find specialeverywhere, its just the open eyes and heart that can acceptnew people, but somehow it was Caux where a miracleoccurred. Caux for me is the people who come there, sharetheir thoughts, accept you and support you - this is how ithappened to me. And I am thankful for that. It is strange, butthe more I try to tell my friends and acquaintances aboutCaux, the more I understand I can not do that. They need tosee it and experience it by themselves: early mornings, gettingup from the bed, drawing curtains aside, going out on thebalcony, looking above, at the sky, then at the sleepy andcalm Geneva lake, Montreaux beneath.It was great.

Eleonora Iatun (Moldova)

The Spirit of Caux?!

This summer was the first time when I was able tovisit Caux, even though I’ve met people from Initiatives ofChange in year 2000. That time I have discovered thatsomebody is still thinking about ethics in politics and business,that for someone - responsibility and calling are still important.

My time in Caux was first of all a hard work, workon inner-self. When in my daily life and work I make

mistakes, quite often I either forget about them or don’teven notice. In Caux they became even brighter; some ofthem appeared as habits and addictions. It was the righttime to look at it from a side.

I saw Caux as a source of inspiration for manypeople. And what created that atmosphere were not onlybeautiful landscapes of mountains and the Lake of Geneva.During the conference, quite often I heard people mentioning“The Spirit of Caux” and I believe that people who comethere created that spirit. Caux is an amazing gathering ofpeople with rich life experience and young people, a rarecase of interaction between life wisdom and youth energy.The spirit of Caux is a communication and dialogue of differentcultures. It was the first time that I’ve met such a greatnumber of representatives from different countries withdifferent mentality, religion, political systems. “Unity inDiversity”, the main principle of our Universe, can be easilyunderstood in Caux.

For me Caux Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, as a person,who is part of Caux community. Whatever one might say,the participants are developing His job, aimed at mutualunderstanding and peace, respect and solidarity, unity andhuman dignity.

I have explored another gap in me – a gap betweenmy inspiration and action, between idea and itsimplementation. But this is another story… May there beCaux. Amen.

Volodumir Krutko(National Youth Democratic League, Ukraine)

Every time …there’s something new

Well there is a lot to talk about... during my timethere I have discovered many amazing things. As a youngacademic in Public Administration and a young politician, Ihave tried to understand the way Europe lives, and most ofthis understanding came from the rest of conferenceparticipants, who appeared to be very interesting people.

Perhaps, like anyone else who was new to Caux, Iwas astonished by the spirit of the place, becoming friendswith people from different countries that I never imagined tomeet. I fell in love with this place and its energy - therearen’t that many places in the world where ‘your soul sleeps’.Though I feel a bit sad - because of the ‘culture shock’ I was

not confident enough to talk to many people, and it makesme feel like I have missed a valuable opportunity.

As a participant of Young Politicians Forum, I haveled the session on “Responsible Leadership” and, hopefully,it has stimulated some thinking about this issue amongst theparticipants.

I have been walking a lot down the Alpes mountain

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paths thinking over the things I had heard and seen, and yet I feel there’s still so much to understand. I will never forget thenight walk with Mike Murphy from Liverpool and sunrise at Rocher du Naye... And every time I think of Caux there’ssomething new that springs to mind.

Oleksandr Bezuglyy (Ukraine)

Foundations for Freedom has launched a newprogramme in Caux – F4F Mentoring programme. It wasdeveloped together with Caux Interns Programme and wasaiming to assist Interns’ Co-ordinators in their duties,providing care and support for young people coming to workin Caux, as well as facilitating the workshops and leadingmentoring sessions with Interns.

Foundations for Freedom has a long history ofdelivering courses and working with young inspired peopleall over Eastern and Central Europe (ECE). Some of theseyoung people have successfully designed and are leadingtheir own initiatives, training programmes or organisations.Some have just started to explore this field. Nevertheless,all of these activities always happened somewhere in ECEcountries.

F4F young people have played a significant role inassisting Caux Summer conferences – being activeparticipants, Caux Interns or conference organisers (as iswith “Service, Responsibility and Leadership” for the lastyears). However we have not yet made a joint input intosupporting Initiatives of Change conferences as aprogramme, offering something particular to the MountainHouse community.

When realising the difficulties and challenges CauxInterns’ programme is dealing with, the idea of providingsupport and taking a part of their duties came quite naturally.This was exactly what we could do as a united force andthis role we, as Foundations for Freedom, could play – wehave skills, knowledge, experience and people to offer andnew skills, knowledge, experience to gain.

Altogether, six young people from Eastern Europewere invited to join this programme. All of them had some

experience of leading workshops and had qualities tosuccessfully fulfill their duties. All of them have gone throughweeklong training led by Gordon Fuller, experienced Mentorand facilitator, before they met their Interns.

Each of them had different experience. Each hadinner and outer challenges they had to work on. We haveheard very positive and some negative comments from CauxInterns and friends about the way this programme was runand heard some very valuable suggestions for improving F4FMentoring programme for the next year. The full assessmentis still to come and if you are interested, please write to us.

This first challenge of practice, applying ourexperience in a totally different (yet similar) environment isover. Some lessons are to be learnt and praises said.

Thus, Foundations for Freedom would like tothank all of our Mentors for their amazing job, their effortsput into this initiative and their evaluation of its outcomes.We would like to thank all our friends for supporting us inthis first trial and supporting F4F financially, which made itpossible for us to do this!

Anna Pozogina (Latvia/UK)*please read the reflections of one of F4F Mentors below

Last year I came to Caux as an Intern. I cannot sayit was an easy experience – there were some difficulties,misunderstandings and questions I had to deal with. So when

I heard about thenew programme ofF4F Mentors I wasvery interested inparticipating there.“There must bemany young peoplewho will come toCaux for the firsttime – I could be ofuse to them and notonly in practicalterms,” I thought tomyself.

And so itwas. When I first

First Challenge of Practice

From Mentors ... to

Caretakers

Some mentors this year

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saw the list of Caux Interns for the first period, whichincluded 28 young people from all over the world – Mexico,Moldova, Latvia, Romania, India, Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria,Ukraine, USA, Netherlands, I got a bit afraid. Most of themwere older than me, and for many this was not their firsttime in Caux. I was thinking I should probably learn fromthem, not the other way around. This idea followed me allthrough the next month.

The first week of training in mentoring gave a lot interms of theory. But the practice of the following four weekscannot be compared to anything. I have defined two mainlearning points out of this time - teamwork with otherMentors and communication with Caux Interns themselves.

We had to build a team of five in the first place andthen move into a team of three and build it (big and friendly)up again with the whole group of Interns. I cannot say wehave constantly worked for this goal and that it all happenedvery naturally. The time of training, preparing for workshops,endless meetings, discussions… this feeling of unity in ourgoals and mission… at the end of the day, all of this gave thefruits.

My communication with Interns, my mentees inparticular, is the most unforgettable part of my experience. Ican say with assurance that I have learnt so much from thesepeople, communication- and understanding-wise. I havelearnt to listen deeply, when there are no disrupting thoughtsin your head, comparisons, evaluation, and your headbecomes empty, free of emotion and ready to perceive. Thismentoring experience has taught me that MY opinion is onlyMINE and there is no need to express it so often. Givinganswers to all questions is not enough for someone’spossibility for growth – all of have to search for the answersourselves, no matter how long it takes. My task was to helpin this search, but it was difficult at times as the desire toshare my opinion and give advice was very strong.

I remember once we had a conversation with oneof the Interns and could not find the answer to the questionbugging her for a long time. I tried to lead her to the answer(which was quite obvious to me) in several ways, but allwith no results. Finally I realised that the person did notaccept more than she is ready to receive and her answershould not correspond with my understanding, nor satisfyme. I also thought of what could happen if I only shared myopinion on this question…The person could just accept itnot really understanding that she has HER OWN answer.This programme was also a step and lesson inunselfishness. I have never been to the place where youcan feel needed and serve people in all meanings of thisword. It is a breathtaking experience when you see aperson who peels potatoes at 8 am – he might be sleepyand tired, but he smiles, shines and feels delighted to dothis work and to have this possibility.

To sum up, I should say that in order to bementor – a friend and a caring person, who helps andsupports – you just have to be, with sincere heart and

aware of what you do.Besides, I would like to thank all those who took

an active part in this programme. Huge thanks to Gordonand to Minna for their wisdom, advice and lessons. Hugethanks to Sasha and Zoryana for their support andunderstanding. Thanks to my mentees also for their honesty,their openness, their love and all they have given to me. (Icould go on and on…)

As for next year, I would probably name thisprogramme differently. The existing name, F4F Mentors,somehow narrows and limits….I would probably call it F4FCare Takers! In this way it would include everything –mentoring, care, assistance, facilitation of workshops, andjust friendship, smiles, understanding and endlessconversations, etc.!

Tatyana (aka Nicole) Minbaeva (Russia)

The 4th

Young Politicians Forum

On July 7-13, 2005 the Centre for PoliticalEducation held the Fourth Young Politicians Forum at theCaux International Conference Centre (Switzerland), whichgathered 24 participants from 14 countries (Ukraine, Brazil,Russia, France, Switzerland, Serbia and Montenegro,Australia, Latvia, Moldova, Burundi, Portugal, UK,Netherlands and Albania).During the sessions participantsdiscussed such issues as youth responsibility in modernsociety, the future of moral values in politics and thedevelopment of political parties to serve citizens, as well asproblems of European identity.

One of the first discussion topics was devoted tothe responsibility of young people in modern society. Theparticipants noted that young leaders are responsible forthe development of foundations for freedom andestablishment of democracies, the rise of awareness andbringing the truth to the new generation, and for sustainabledevelopment and protection of the environment.

Within the session on moral values in politics,participants also discussed the problems and the nature ofinter-ethnic conflicts observed in Crimea (Ukraine), Latviaand Serbia and Montenegro. Young activists summarised

Forum participants

that tolerance, the ability to understand and fortitude indecision-making are the principal features that should berelevant to politicians who are holding the decision-makingpower over complex issues of intercultural dialogue.

Participants had a chance to meet Mr Mario Soares,former President of Portugal, who told his life story of thirtyyears of struggle with the dictatorship regime in his country,twelve times in prison, deportations and banishment. MrSoares shared his vision of values in politics, and emphasisedthat he was always personally convinced that political activitywas not the way to earn money or a possibility for careergrowth. Rather, for him it was an ideal model of unselfishservice in the name of peace, ending the colonial wars,establishing democratic values, integrating Portugal intoEurope and the World, and – above all – strengtheningfreedom. Mr Soares compared the new generations with

wine, which could turn out to be good one year, but the nextyear be awful. Each new generation could reveal itself andmake a breakthrough or could bring nothing useful for socialdevelopment. He said that he looks at young people todaywith hope. He underlined that they could reach self-realisationand make the world better.

One of the Forum discussions was devoted to theissues of the civil responsibility of political parties. Participantsidentified the principles of partnership, transparency,teamwork and civil service as the key components in thedevelopment of responsible parties. Young activists sharedthe experience their countries have achieved in terms of theparticipation of women and youth in public and politicalactivity.

The discussion “Europe: a home we have in common– what does it mean to be a European?” was attended byMr Michel Koechlin, representative of Initiatives of ChangeInternational in the Council of Europe, who gave a shortinput on this topic. Mr Koechlin has dedicated his whole lifeto the building of mutual understanding between theEuropean nations. He shared his impressions about the lastevents around the referendum on the European Constitutionand emphasised that, for him, to be a European means torespect the diversity of European nations, to serve the nationsof Europe and to search for common goals. Michelunderlined that today’s Europe needs fighters, so-called“European kamikazes”, who are ready to devote their life

to the defence of common European values, to a Europeresponsible for its own future and the future of the wholeworld.

At the end, the Forum participants outlined theimportance of the development of dialogue between youngactivists from different countries and expressed their interestin the next year’s Forum meeting.

For the fourth time the Young Politicians Forum hasgathered young people from different countries, who believethat political leadership should be based upon principles oftrust, responsibility, transparency and partnership. The firstForum was held in 2002 with the participation of 20 activistsfrom seven countries; in 2003 and 2004 the Forum meetingsgathered young people from ten countries (seewww.cpe.org.ua for more information).

Foundations for Freedom (www.f-4-f.org), whichassists in the development of the values of democracyand freedom in CEE countries, provided support inarranging the Forum by covering the travels costs andaccommodation fees of representatives from thecountries of Eastern and Central Europe.

Things I’ve done, Things I’ve learned

Imagine that you have to give away all of yoursenses and leave just one. What would you leave?!

The ability to see, to hear or to feel?! Personally, I think I’dkeep memory. (However, it may not be amongst the humansenses.) Why? Most probably, because it’s a certain archive-file of our life, where all gathered information is stored – allthat ever happened to us is there.

It’s raining cats and dogs in Novosibirsk, there isno sun and everything has become dull, but my memory isstormed by sunny summer recollections.

I was lucky enough to visit my friends in Crimeaand Moldova this summer. Such friendly visits are veryhealthy, to my mind. They not only strengthen personalrelationships, but positively influence the whole Network.Personally, I not only had a good rest in the Crimean Summercamp – got to know some new people and re-exploredpeople I met before (in this very personal, leisuredatmosphere), but also managed to take part in the Trainingof Trainers organised for the Moldovan team.

What has this Training given to me? Certainly, it isquite hard to become a professional trainer in these coupleof days. I also believe that the main goal was not to makeprofessional trainers at the end of it, but rather to motivateparticipants and help them to become one. I have realisedthat although the Changing course is quite a specific one, itvery much depends on the team who prepares it.

After seeing the overall picture of the course andunderstanding its structure, I started to look at it not onlyfrom a participant’s point of view (as it was before), but

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Mario Soares speaks at YPF

also as a potential member of junior faculty realising theresponsibility one has towards possible course participants.

Training of Trainers is a very useful and needed event,though it only deals with the theory. Changing Course is thepractice. As to my plans, although I wanted to take part in afaculty before, I was not very confident about my skills and,therefore, kept silent. After Training of Trainers, my self-confidence has grown and I believe that, if I really want to,I can change the situation. Besides, being a part of facultybrings you even more learning!

Anna Bokk (Russia)

Rejoice of Changes

My last two months were filled with joy, happinessand fun. Thanks to my friends I realised and felt once againthat F4F community is more like a family to me.

All of my best friends have F4F background. Oneof them experienced a great change in her life recently - ababy! THE Baby! First IofC child in Ukraine! I felt so excitedand thrilled but at the same time sad and terrified…Nothingwill be the same any more. But isn’t the change a thing weare fighting for?! So, rejoice! And that is something I dowhile looking at a new life in the hands of a friend I love sodearly.

Besides that, some happiness was brought by thevisit of Angela/Anna team to Ukraine and the chance to talkto my best friends and share my birthday with them.

I got a lot of excitement from witnessing how peopleI care about prepare for and start their travelling and learning.I love travelling myself and support it in others in all possibleways. So it was a pleasure to know that some of F4F curiouspeople will join IofC programs all over the world, and togive them spiritual support in some of preparation for thesechanges in their lives.

The rest of my joy comes from two events which Icannot but mention…This is something almost every girl,sooner or later, thinks and dreams of…WEDDING! :) Thisyear was filled with love and affection for many people, butfor some it resulted in a nice party with lots of music, dancing,wine, beauty, fun and something more intangible and sacred,which is called marriage.

Both weddings I have been at were unbelievablybeautiful, unexpectedly well organised, both in Moldova andboth promising to last forever!

And that is not the end. I am getting ready to travelagain, this time to the Western part of my own country, toexperience the change again. Change in my community, myfamily - wedding of my dear friend Ulyana Utrisko. Andagain, as with any change, I feel both sad and happy at thesame time…Nothing will be the same again.

My family is growing and changing. The time hascome when our F4F generation faces new questions and

challenges - not on the global changes world’s scale, but onthe global scale of life changes. And it is not easier, but soexciting!

Sasha Shimina (Ukraine)

Romanian Welcome

In May, 2005 I was meant to go to Baia Mare,Romania to lead a Changing course (the first one to lead onmy own with Kees and Marina Scheijgrond as myoverlooking faculty) as well as to support the team thereand to see my friends. Funny enough (or not funny) none ofthe courses planned from autumn 2004 to spring 2005 (whichwas the time when Anna Pozhogina and myself have becomeF4F co-ordinators) took place in the announced time dueto different reasons. By now most of them have alreadyhappened. The same destiny applied to the Romanian courseas well. So, in the end I went to Romania for two latterreasons, which actually relieved me quite a lot, cause I wastoo scared to lead a course and felt that I wasn’t ready todo it yet. So, God was gracious to me as usually! LenaKashkareva (Crimea, Ukraine) and Sergio Costas(Moldova) have joined me in this trip.

The time was full of meetings, chill-outs,conversations, sharing and learning on both parts. We’vemet a few new people, friends of our F4F friends, had a bigteam meeting.

Most of the conversations that we had were aboutthe course that didn’t happen and the reasons for that. Theteam really needed the course and so many of them puttheir hearts into the preparation, but still the reasons like notenough communication and lack of experience in organizinga Changing Course, not enough explanation documents andhelp provided for that played their part. A learning pointwas to see that even though it was very hard to raise moneyin Romania, the team there is a part of a big network ofpeople with experience, who we hope are ready to helptheir friends in whatever ways possible. Another issue todiscuss was the role of a team in F4F/IofC. Some teams,like Romanian, feel that their team is a very young one thatneeds to learn from others where to go and what shape totake. And even though it is true that there are some ‘older’teams of F4F in the region with a bit more experience, theirexperience is just their experience. The main role of F4F(as it was originally set) was to enable young people tobecome self-starters and initiators of change through coursesand other activities. We don’t have a follow-up programmeworked out and some may see it as a downfall of F4F. Butthat is how we have worked so far, that enabled so manyteams and individuals to find or make an effort in searchingtheir own calling and to follow it the way they believed wasright. Having said that I would encourage each one of us tosee how our knowledge and experience can be helpful to

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different teams and to find ways to share it with them.My time with Romanian team confirmed my own

notion that in F4F we don’t have a hierarchy or age of teams,we have the diversity that allows each team to be a valuableand equal part of a bigger team working for the benefit ofthe whole family.

That is exactly how I felt being looked after by myRomanian friends. There have always been somebody takingcare of us in Baia Mare. The diversity of what we wereable to experience due to it there was also good. We hadsome religious experience: Norbert Goia and Andrei Brebantook us to the monastery on the hill overlooking Baia Mare,then we observed candle making for Orthodox churches inthe basement of Father Milan’s house. Cultural experienceenriched us all the way through thanks to Diana Damsa andAndrei Breban, whose houses we stayed in. A special tourin the museum and parks of Baia Mare was offered byOlympia Pop, who was patiently answering all our questionsabout Romanian culture. We managed to hear stories ofhow our friends, most of whom are teachers in Romanianschools, use experience gained during F4F courses in theirteaching practise, impressing teaching Committees withexercises and heart in what they do.

It was also interesting to do some special shopping(also useful experience) with Diana Barbu, who showed ussome factories producing clothing for foreign designer shopsand famous brands, but obviously the prices there are muchcheaper. So, now I can show off with some designer clothingsold in famous UK shops (where I don’t usually go tobecause they are too expensive for me). Our friends andtheir parents very nicely cooked traditional Romanian foodfor us that provided us with a good mood. The last mealwas barbecue with traditional drink “Zyika”(I’m too weakto drink it J) in Father Milan’s garden.

All that cohesion of cultural experience, food,learning points, discoveries about F4F, support received andprovided, friendships and care made it a worthwhileexperience for all of us. Very grateful to my Romanian friends,who put their heart in hosting us,

Angela Starovoitova (Ukraine/UK)

Moving to SierraLeone

Foundations for Freedom has takenMarina and me to a tropical, warm and humidcountry called Sierra Leone in West Africa, whichis one of the poorest countries in the world. It isonly twice as big as our own country, The Neth-erlands. Five million people live there with 60%Muslims, 10 % Christians and 30 % animistic

religions.For Marina and me it all started in Romania just

over a year ago. We facilitated an anti-corruption seminarin Baia Mare, organized by our Romanian F4F friends. Atthe opening day some senior Danish IC friends fromCopenhagen came as guests. They had heard about F4F,but this was their first introduction. They enjoyed every minuteof it. Shortly afterwards we received a telephone call: “Canyou come to Sierra Leone to help with a training programmefor the entire RSL armed forces and police? The programmewould have the shape of a massive training in the ‘MoralFoundations for Democracy’ for thousands of officers ofthe Sierra Leonean Police and Armed Forces over the nextcouple of years.” A couple of months later we hesitantlydecided to say “yes”.

By now we know much more. It all started with arefugee from Sierra Leone, who had met IC in the asylumseekers centre near Copenhagen. John Bangura is now inhis forties and works as a bus driver in the Danish capital.When he came to Denmark twelve years ago he was a bit-ter, lonely man. Nine members of his family were murderedin the terrible civil war, which was devastating his country.His parents were amongst them. John was filled with hatredand wanted to go back to his country one more time to takerevenge and to kill the people who had killed his family. Itwas during his first visit to Caux that he was challenged:“John, why should you bring more misery to your warn-torn country? Why don’t you use your energy and moneyto do something positive for your country?” A year later hewas invited to attend an IC conference in Tanzania. There ithappened! One morning, when he was sitting under a tree,having a quiet time, he heard this voice: “John, your countryis on fire, your people are dying, you must do somethingabout it!” From that moment John was a different man. Withthe help of his Danish friends, the same ones Marina and Ihad met in Romania, he founded “Hope Sierra Leone”, anorganisation which is now present in the four main cities.During the past three years HSL has initiated several inter-esting peace-building initiatives, such as a tree-planting cer-emony with hundreds of former opponents in the civil war,and a farming project, where former enemies run the farm

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Kees and Marina in Sierra Leone

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jointly.John started to realise that the bad relationships

between the security forces and the complete lack of trustin civil society, which was caused by the atrocities duringthe civil war, were blocking all possibilities of bringing so-cial, political and eventually economic stability back to thecountry. One morning during a visit to Freetown, he got theidea to call a senior police officer, Deputy General OliverSomassa. He told the officer what had happened to himand how his entire outlook on life had changed. Then heinvited him with a small delegation, including some army of-ficers and representatives of Hope Sierra Leone to attendthe “Agenda for Reconciliation” conference in Caux. Thiswas in the summer of 2003.

It was in Caux that Oliver Somassa saw that he wasdriven by feelings of revenge as well. He too became a dif-ferent man. That opened the way to a new challenging idea.Why not offer the entire police force the opportunity for asimilar experience? So the idea of a massive trainingprogramme was born.

When we came on board, the idea had matured,but needed to be worked on still quite a bit. We were re-quested to help with our F4F experience. That led to theoutline of a training programme called “Moral Foundationsfor Democracy, a course for reconciliation and change inSierra Leone”. The syllabus of the MFD course is nowbuilt on four main modules: 1) character building (with allthe main subjects of the F4F Changing Course); 2) Traumahealing and conflict transformation; 3) Teamwork and co-operation; 4) Standing against corruption (STAC).

During the process it also became clear that, as wellas the Army and Police, civil society should be equally rep-resented in the MFD programme. It should be Tripartite.

So in January we had two pilot courses of sevendays each. Courses were a bit different from ChangingCourses with regard to the participants - 36 in each course,slightly older in age, mainly men and all volunteers to be-come trainers themselves. The atmosphere was very much

the same as in Novosibirsk or Rozluch or Bixad, or wher-ever F4F is at work. And as always it is the experience ofR&D time (quiet time) which is appreciated most and makesall the difference.

In the meantime the structure of the entire trainingprogramme had become clear. Our IC role is to train some30 SL trainers, who from 2006 onwards would start anintensive training programme involving some 4,000 partici-pant trainees in five years’ time. Preparing a trainer manualis part of the project, as are follow-up and support visits.For coordination purposes a so-called Tripartite office willbe set up in Freetown. Here all three parties – Police, Mili-tary and Civil Society represented by Hope Sierra Leone -will coordinate the programme with the HSL representativeas chair.

One of the advantages of a clearly structured projectis the possibility of funding. Applications have gone out tothe Dutch development programme, Cordaid. After thor-oughly studying our proposal they have agreed to supportthe present Training of Trainers phase financially. Also a well-known Danish institution is prepared to offer support. Butthat can be only for the beginning. The bulk of theprogramme, which will take place during the next five years,requires much more money. In January we went to see theFreetown UNDP (United Nations DevelopmentProgramme) representative. After we had told him aboutthe programme, he exclaimed: “This is what we have beenlooking for! If nothing is done to address the moral roots ofthe conflict, the chances are great that – once the UN peace-keeping forces have moved out - it will start all over again.”

The project in Sierra Leone is only at the beginning.But it looks as if F4F training and experience, that has beendeveloped over the past years, is showing its full potential inthis West African context.

In September there will be another MFD course inFreetown. It is only a short course of four days. It has beenadded to the programme recently after a request from se-nior representatives of the three parties. “We have heard

about this course from the Janu-ary participants. Now, beforewe get involved in important de-cisions regarding the continua-tion, we want to experience firsthand what it is all about.”

In November/Decem-ber there will be a Training ofTrainers course for some 40potential trainers, who have par-ticipated last January. More tofollow in the next Newsletter!

Keesand Marina Scheijgrond

(The Netherlands)At the pilot course

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F4F Community News“Three Weddings and the Baby”

One said that F4F communityis growing up and you cancertainly feel this. This yearhas blessed F4F commu-nity with three weddings –two in Moldova and one inUkraine. And that’s onlyuntil October’05!

A n a s t a s i aClipicova and AlexeiKulikovsky got married onAugust 13th in Chisinau, fol-lowed by the weeding ofChristina Cojocaru andEric Parsons on September2nd. Ulyana Utrisko andYuriy Fedirishin (in Lviv) have theirwedding on September 24th.

Besides, the F4F community

(particularly, the one in Crimea) has re-ceived another member – he is very littleyet, but highly anticipated one! Hisname is Nikita and he was born onAugust 20th, 2005. The happy parentsAnna Bondarenko and AleksandrPoltorakov thank everybody for thesupport and congratulations they havereceived!

Peter and Rosemary Thwaitesvisit Ukraine

Peter and Rosemary have vis-ited Ukraine and three of its teams – inKiev, Crimea and Lviv. Besides meet-ing with F4F team members, Thwaites’have met with old IofC friends, visiteda number of educational institutions and

organisations. They have come backto UK on September 18th and have

shared their im-pressions withF4F UK Com-mittee.

Training ofTrainers

launched inMoldova

David Curtishas arrived inMoldova at theend of August tolaunch a“ C h a n g i n g

Course” Training of Trainers (ToT) forMoldovan team. The aim of this ToTwas to introduce the participants, whohave had a previous facilitator’s expe-rience, to the main structure and ap-proach of Foundations for Freedomcourse and give them skills to applyduring the next Changing Course tak-ing place in Moldova from September17th- 26th. Moldovan participants werejoined by Anna Bokk fromNovosibirsk (read her article in this is-sue).

F4F Website to be developedFoundations for Freedom have

started to restructure the old website.New F4F website will include moreareas of in-terest forvisitors withupdated in-formationand oppor-tunities forgetting in-volved, aswell asM e m b e rArea, whereF4F Net-work members can download pictures,participate in discussions and get ac-cess to essential documents of Foun-

dations for Freedom. The site will belaunched under the general IofCwebsite “family” with the help of IofCwebteam.

Sheffield Community isorganising the “Garage sale” for

AFL-3 participantsDavid Curtis and Sheffield’s

IofC community this Saturday,September 24th, are organising“Garage sale” to help raise funds forparticipants joining Action for Life -3in India and South-East Asia this year.Altogether, there are 7 people fromEastern Europe joining this programmeand there are more than 30 participantsfrom all over the world. The programmestarts on November 1st in Panchgani,at IofC Centre in India.

F4F Crimean Summer CampThe Annual Crimean Summer

camp took place on August 17th – 30th

in one of Crimean resorts “The QuietBay”. The camp had gathered around25 people from 7 places (Kharkiv,Kiev, Lviv, Crimea, Latvia, Russia andMoldova).

As always – it was a brilliantopportunity for friends to come togetherin an informal setting and to spendfabulous time hiking, swimming, talk-ing, singing, cooking and getting sun tan!

This year camp has welcomedold friends andnew people,who were notrelated to any ofF4F community.We had achance to talkabout Founda-tions for Free-dom and Initia-tives of Change,clean the beachform rubbish (in

the framework of local action campaigninitiated by Lviv girls) and learn moreabout each other through co-living.

Cristina & Erik

Alexei & Anastasia

Nikita & his parents

Summer Camp in Crimea

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Dear Reader, We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to making this issue of theF4F Newsletter. If you think that someone else you know should get this newsletter or if youhave any suggestions, please contact the editors Oleg Ermurati at oleg@blueyonder.co.uk,Angela Starovoitova at angelas@crimeainfo.com or Anna Pozogina at annapozogina@gmail.com.

Thank you.

F4F crowd at Geneva Lake

F4F DiaryCalendar of Events:19-20 October - F4F Committee Meeting in Sheffield21-23 October - IofC European Saeima planningmeeting in Kiev, Ukraine1 November - Action for Life 3 starts in Panchgani, India28 November – 4 December - Changing Course inKharkiv, UkraineDecember 2005 - Changing Course in Chernigiv, Ukraine(to be confirmed)December 2005 - Angela moves from UK to CrimeaJanuary 2006 - Changing Course in Novosibirsk (to beconfirmed)

News from the Treasurer...

Generous gifts, both regular and surprises have been givento us since April for the work of F4F, including £3900 poundsfrom South Africa!! After Caux, and looking forward to thecourses in Kiev and Moldova, and the training trainers inMoldova, we will be about zero pounds by the end of theyear. This is amazing as we continue to some how manageto find the resources for what we need to do. Gratitude andthanks go to all the effort of those who think, pray, and sendus gifts.

Bhavesh Patel & Gordon Fuller