Christmas 2016 Eurasia Foundation and Association Newsletter
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends, members and donors
We are so grateful for your
faithful and generous support, and we try our best to serve our common commitments now and in the years to come
Eurasia Foundation and Association in Vietnam and in Switzerland are diligently and carefully preparing a new
phase of Eurasia in order to sustain the wonderful realizations that we have created together; we want to be aware of, and respond to the needs of our times! In order to do so, we expand our fields of activities and recruit younger people to gradually take
over the leadership of our work.
At the last General Assembly of Eurasia Association we redefined our priorities and made some changes in the Statutes of the Association to reflect these changes:
- Our activities are not limited
to Vietnam anymore
- Beyond the education and integration of children and people living with disabilities; we potentially want to extend our care to other marginalized people of society, such as refugees or other vulnerable groups
- We are including
the Happiness and well being of other species in our Statutes as we are engaged in ecological and environmental projects
- ELI: Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing includes learning programs in education, social work, ecology, Biodynamic
gardening, social entrepreneurship, GNH, Mindfulness, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), in Vietnam and internationally.
A new team
We are grateful and happy to announce that a new young Eurasia Association team is co-shaping
the next steps and tasks for Eurasia together with the founder team:
- Marie Fleur Baeriswyl has been elected President of Eurasia Association
- Arnaud Durand is the new Vice President!
- Jana Castel is the new Secretary
- Nguyen
Chi Thuy Han is the Director of ELI International and is supported in this task by Francie Missbach
- Nguyen Phuoc Hai is the ELI Coordinator in Vietnam
The
Peaceful Bamboo Family and ELI Programs
Tinh Truc Gia, the Peaceful Bamboo Family=TTG, in Hue, Vietnam, is our most accomplished project in Vietnam, a place of innovation, embodying all the expertise, experience and know-how of Eurasia in the fields
of: special education, social therapy, bio-dynamic gardening, SEL (social and emotional learning) Mindfulness in education, Gross National Happiness, caring economy, social entrepreneurship… TTG is also the practical training Center of ELI:
Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing in Vietnam.
Hundreds of children, of young adults and old people living with disabilities are at the heart of the work of Eurasia and a young dynamic network is supporting and collaborating
with us in Vietnam and abroad; we also have to strengthen the international support network in order to continue our innovative work in Vietnam but also develop new activities: ELI trainings, social projects also internationally.
We
started an innovative program in collaboration with several primary schools in Hue to give schoolchildren the opportunity to reconnect with nature and to learn organic gardening. In this program the youngsters with disabilities together with the TTG team,
teach the children ecological life style, biodynamic gardening, community life, SEL, Mindfulness and GNH.
Our next project is to buy a plot of land as a “training garden”, to further expand this out reach program. We already had about 600
schoolchildren joining these programs and we would like to have the possibility to offer this program to more children.
The TTG inclusive Kindergarten also has a “garden program” teaching small children how to take care of a garden and enjoy
and respect nature.
The core team of young adults living with disabilities in TTG, is thus being empowered to becoming trainers and facilitators. This is a major change of paradigm: from seeing the youngsters as beneficiaries of social work to empowering
them to become actors in the social and pedagogical field. Several youngsters will move from apprentice to full fledged workers and receive an ELI diploma as assistant educator and workshop workers next year
ELI: Eurasia Learning
Institute is developing rapidly in Vietnam. After a 3 years training period, Mr Nguyen Phuoc Hai, Eurasia project manager received the first ELI diploma in educational, ecological and social project management.
Next Spring a group of long time
TTG co-workers will receive the first ELI Social therapy diploma.
The first a one-year program Training of Trainers in the field of “Mindfulness Based Happiness and Compassion” organized by ELI in partnership with Hoa Sen University
was completed last October
The adolescent project in TTG is in full development. We now welcome a small group of adolescents with severe developmental and behavioral problems in
the TTG community. We are in the process of building as small adolescent classroom. Dr. Anne Emmanuelle Ambresin will come in April to give a training and guidance in the field adolescent health to our team.
We need your support to:
- Further
develop the Peaceful Bamboo Family as a living example of a sustainable, fair and inclusive community
- To strengthen the ELI programs and reach out to more and more children, adolescents and also to young people searching for a Right Livelihood
- Professionalize our Eurasia and ELI team in Vietnam and internationally, so that we can compensate their work and allow them to fully engage in the service of the most vulnerable ones
Dear members, friends and sponsors, we send you our heartfelt
gratitude for your ongoing support, all these projects that have brought Happiness and Wellbeing to many, and have alleviated much suffering can only happen through your generosity and your support.
In name of the renewed Eurasia team
Tho and Lisi
For your donations:
Association Eurasia
CCP 17-496738-5
Banque Cantonale Vaudoise
Compte 987.86.01
IBAN CH78 0076 7000 A098 7860 1
www.eurasia.org.vn