Eurasia Christmas Newsletter 2018
Thank you to our dear and faithful members and Eurasia friends for their kind and joyful presence
and kindest thoughts and good wishes for the Happiness Fair in Switzerland for the 20 years of
Eurasia.
We celebrated the accomplishments of Eurasia over the past 20 years in the fields of special
education, social therapy, biodynamic agriculture, training and we opened a new chapter full of hope
and
commitment to find creative new solutions for the needs of our time with a young dynamic and
Eurasia/ELI/TTG team.
In order to do this, the Committee of the Association
proposed changes in the statutes of the
Association, which were accepted during the last General Assembly. Indeed, we had the wish to
make the commitment of Eurasia towards vulnerable populations, and thus open our field of action to marginalised
populations such as refugees.
Other suffering populations wishing to move towards a healthier and happier society have also
become our partners such as teachers and company executives. These new changes also include in a more precise
manner the activities of Eurasia Learning Institute - ELI. You can read more about the flourishing activities of ELI below, disseminating hopeful seeds of change! Moreover, these activities are becoming increasingly income-generating for Tinh Truc Gia (TTG)
in Vietnam.
We are happy to share the new Eurasia statutes:
The objectives of the Association are as follows namely:
● To foster the development and the social and economic integration
of vulnerable
populations, particularly disabled individuals, as well as all groups of marginalized
individuals
● To strive for recognition of, and respect for, their dignity and rights.
● To promote Happiness and Wellbeing
for all human beings, for all other species and for all
beings
For such purposes, the Association shall:
● Support the development of curative education and of social therapy
● Seek to promote the creation and development
of pedagogic, educational and therapeutic
institutions adapted to the needs of said vulnerable populations, consistent with the
cultural and spiritual features prevailing in each local community involved;
● Undertake to foster and
ensure proper training for special educators, teachers, therapists
and other professionals in the aforementioned fields of activities;
● Via its program, Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing, undertake the
development
of holistic processes of accompaniment for individuals and organisations as
well as events, which foster a profound personal and collective transformation.
News from Vietnam
to Switzerland
Mrs Trinh , the manager, andpedagogical director of the Peaceful Bamboo Family=TTG, Center for
people living with disabilities, in Hue Vietnam and Mr Khanh representative of Eurasia in Vietnam, both were invited to join
a special education and social therapy conference in Dornach Switzerland .
Mrs Trinh was nominated representative for South East Asiafor the Council of Curative Education and Social Therapy.
Mr Khanh , Eurasia
representative in Vietnam and director of an early detection and parental advice
office in HCM, also did an internship in Geneva University Hospital in the Child Development Unit .
Mr Khanh also joined some ELI trainings and events in Switzerland.
Eurasia and TTG have a lot to celebrate these years°
On the 19 th and 20th April 2019 we will celebrate the 10 years of the
PEACEFUL BAMBOO FAMILY Tinh Truc Gia=TTG. TTG is a vocational training center and living community for young adults living with disabilities, with an inclusive Kindergarten and adolescent sector and the firstbiodynamic garden in Vietnam. You are welcome
to join the festivities!
In TTG, life is always very joyful and animated! The adolescent class project was inaugurated in 2017. We now have about 12 adolescents
in this class.
They have the most beautiful classroom overlooking the biodynamic garden. Their program contains in the mornings: yoga class, mindful walking, moments of mindfulness, artistic activities, reading, writing, counting, living skills, cleaning.
In the afternoons they participate in the vocational training workshops where they can explore different manual activities like lacquer painting, gardening, making cookies or join other vocational workshops. To be integrated in a bigger community and to be
part of a social intergenerational context also allows them to learn many social skills. All receive individual programs and therapies.
School class visits in TTG
Hue
City authorities and education department highly appreciate that TTG welcomes many schoolchildren of Hue City primary school to experience the biodynamic garden and vocational training workshops in the Center.
Yearly we
welcome over 1000 schoolchildren and it is the youngsters living with disabilities who teach the primary school children how to garden, clean and take care of the environment.
We hope we can start phase 2 of
the Empowerment Project, in time for the 10 years of TTG, by
buying a bigger piece of land specially for this purpose! Welcoming so many children and giving them a meaningful introduction to ecology, requires more space and a more appropriate
setting. Having the youngsters living with disabilities train “normal” school children in an ecological lifestyle and community life, truly is a wonderful integration project. We plan to add a sensory educationalplayground on the EMPOWERMENT PHASE 2 land , for the often nature and movement deprived city children, who come to learn from TTG youngsters about a healthy lifestyle. This project is very important to us as it embodies not only the social but also economic
inclusion of TTG youngsters.
This project is linked to the Happy Schools Project , now entering its second year . In April 2018,
we launched this project in the continuation of the
Call 2 Care project 2015-2016 . The programme includes three modules: Care for self, Care for others and society, and Care for the planet .
In April,we began with a first session of training of around 40 trainers , followed in August by a training
course for over 140 teachers from Hue public schools , delivering Modules 1 and 2 over the course of
6 days. Since August, the ELI team in Hue has been supporting teachers to start implementing
Mindfulness, Gratitude and Compassionate Communication
in their classrooms, helping them to
adapt the Happy Schools curriculum to meet the reality of the classroom. In October, TTG hosted the
second session of Training of Trainers, gathering feedback from teachers about in-class
implementation,
offering a space for experience sharing, mutual support and reflection. During the
month of October, Arnaud Durand also came to deliver two refresher courses in Compassionate
Communication in order to support the teachers in developing their
practice, find ways of
implementing in their classrooms, and to offer a space for them to formulate their questions.
ELI activities in Vietnam and in Europe
In October, Vivian Gladwell came to Vietnam again to
give a series of Clowning†workshops†both in TTG and in Saigon. He first gave two clowning
workshops in TTG, one of them a joint Clowning & Compassionate
Communication
workshop , for which Vivian combined efforts with ELI trainer Arnaud Durand. Participants practiced
being vulnerable and bringing their emotions to the work, improvising based on whatever was
present in that moment,
rather than anticipating a
performance. The complementarity of the two approaches, made the experience both rich in insights and in laughs, bringing beautiful and nourishing energy to TTG and ELI
members.
Arnaud also delivered a series
of Compassionate Communication workshops in Vietnam over the months of October and November, both for TTG staff and ELI members, as well as courses for Bitis employees and public courses in Saigon, organised in collaboration
with ELI partners
Authentic Live and Learn (ALL).
“Happy Bitis”
Executives and Ambassadors retreat On the 1st of May 2018, ELI signed a
3-year MOU with Vietnamese leading shoe company Bitis, starting a three year process to bring
Happiness and Wellbeing to the company. This was kickstarted with an executive retreat in August,
followed by a three-day Happy Bitis Ambassadors
retreat with around 40 members of the team. Bitis has been a very generous donor and contributor in the Happy Schools project, participating in the creation of resources and materials in Vietnamese for the project.
Greenpeace International In October, ELI signed a partnership agreement with Greenpeace International. This will begin with a pilot in Japan in February, combining both face-to-face training and an e-learning module for Greenpeace middle
managers.
Public ELI trainings In August,
Eurasia Association President, Marie Fleur Baeriswyl delivered a
two-day workshop for over twenty special educators from Fondation Perceval.
On September 22nd,
the Eurasia/ELI young team gave a one-day training about the triple reconnection: to self, others and
nature in order to raise funds for TTG. This summer, ELI organised two retreats in Le Petit Bochet.
Della Duncan came
to give a Work That Reconnects retreat in August and the young team held a
Youth for Change retreat.
Working with a middle school in Lausanne Some members of the ELI team have been working
over the past year and a half to accompany a core group of teachers from a middle school in
Lausanne, guiding them in a reflection process about What kind of school do we want for tomorrow?
As you can see, after the past twenty years, Eurasia
is entering into a new development phase, with a
new team joining in, and many new projects.
We are very thankful for your faithful support throughout this adventure.
Sending you
our kindest wishes for a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR
In gratitude for your support
Eurasia and ELI team
We have two new websites! Please consult them for more regular updates:
http://eurasia-foundation.org
http://elihw.org