Eurasia news

Eurasia Happiness Fair in Switzerland

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

Commentaires

14.04 | 09:07

Je progresse un peu en anglais et j'ai presque tout compris. Merci Lisy pour ton magnifique engagement dans cette belle réalisation qu'est TTG.

11.04 | 01:36

Looking forward to your next article beeing amongs the friends and development of TTG.THANK YOU And all the best.

08.04 | 08:20

Beautiful Lisa,- yes for sure being among the clouds gives a whole wonderful other dimension, - if we listen into it, as you did. Thank you

08.04 | 07:44

Wonderful blog entry, than k you Lisi