ICO WORLD MAGAZINE

Registered Canadian Charity BN/Registration Number: 871126249RR0001

ICO WORLDIssue 1

Hello from John Mitchell, Chair of the Board: We get things done ICO style The Communications Centre has been work-ing very hard over the last few months to re-focus and energize our communications capabilities. The ICO World Magazine team has worked with a very steep learning curve to understand the operations of ICO to produce our first edition. Sometimes every day appears to be a historic day for us in ICO, as the pace of our growth and development enables us to become more capable. In less than five years we have grown from two active people to over 650 Friends and close to 100 volunteer Team Members with operations in five countries. We are the first in the world, as far as we know, publishing our account balances live; we guar-antee that 100% of donations go to the local people we have the privilege of befriend-ing and serving. Not a penny from donations goes to overhead or administration. Over the last year, more than 60 new volunteer Team Members have joined us. Some weeks 5-7 people apply to volunteer, not to fold envelopes, but to undertake-- with passion and commitment-- a specialist, profes-sional, or “managerial” role. I want to thank the 650 Friends of ICO for your incredible work, whether it is support-ing us, sending a cheque, working behind the scenes in accounts and admin, writing an article, making sure our building is main-tained to the highest standards, or working with our Friends in the field in Guatemala, Colombia, Uganda and Rwanda--all the count-less activities that make ICO what it is today. Thank You! John

WELCOMEIssue 1

Welcome to the ICO Friends Centre!

ICO has 650 Friends of the Foundation, of which 100 are volunteer Team Members. So what do ICO Friends do and who are they? Friends support the Foundation in three ways: they support the ICO objectives and are the foundation of our network; they contribute financially to initiatives in Guatemala, Colombia, Uganda, Rwanda and Canada; and they share their passion and time as Team Members in areas such as administration, field support, development, communications, human resources, research and property management. ICO also has a Friends Centre, which provides support services to our ICO Friends. These services include: 1. Welcoming new people into ICO, providing the information and connections to our networks and services.2. World Desks that connects ICO Friends and Operations 24/7 around the World. Some of those tools include social media— to build and enhance relationships— Skype, Facebook, Google Chat, and the ICO Video-Conferencing System.3. The Friends Centre is also working on a preferred part-nerships program, which will enable all ICO Friends to receive discounts or enhanced services from Accent Inns, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Menno Travel and Desjardins (travel insurance) when they use their ICO Friends Card. Additional partners will be added and the ICO Friends Card will be distributed over the next few months.

BETWEEN FRIENDSAbove all we are friends...

Have anything to share? An event? A fundraiser? A free couch? A photograph? Email [email protected]

Community News

The Community Initiatives Centre organized a workshop in May for all ICO team members involved in community initiatives, to create an information-sharing network to develop clarity about effective teamwork within the ICO structure. They also held a fundraising workshop.

Hello Friends,

Whether you’ve been a friend of the foundation for a short time or a long time, we are grateful to have you sharing your time, energy, and thoughts with us. As ICO is growing daily, with new people and communities, we are developing more and more opportunities for our Friends, like you.

We’d love to have you, your family, and your friends join our family and be apart of our thriving community!

So, don’t delay, join ICO today, and be part of an amazing organization that is focused to making a significant difference in our world, while also developing awesome friendships, and having fun. Membership is free and easy to do, just follow the link below, click “Join ICO”, on the top menu bar, fill in some easy info, and you’re all set!

http://innovativecommunities.org/pages/01.php

As Facilitator Ops for the Friends Centre I am always available to answer questions or listen to any suggestions you may have, with regard to ICO initiatives or events, or improvement in our ser-vices, so please feel free to contact me via email at [email protected]

In friendship,

Jeff VosFacilitator OperationsFriends Centre

Welcome to ICO’s Rwanda initiative!

The project in Rwanda is the brainchild of BC resident John Jordan, who was inspired by a lo-cal newspaper article about a Canadian grad student from Montreal. The student was a native of Rwan-da-- a nation where hundreds of widows and orphans struggle daily to attain the basic necessities of life. Captivated by the desperate circumstances detailed in the narrative, John decided to visit the impoverished nation. In April of 2009, he packed his bags and headed to the village Kibogora, in West-ern Rwanda. Now, just a year later, John and his team have two initiatives in Rwanda. The first ICO pro-gram provides educational support to the commu-nity’s unstable education system, giving orphans the opportunity to attend school. The initiative provides children with access to quality education, school supplies, and safe homes. Advancing education in Rwanda is integral, as it encourages growth and gives children the opportunity to achieve their dreams. It also takes orphans off the streets and helps them become high-functioning members of their community. The second Rwanda initiative focuses on ru-ral women who have been widowed and are left with no support system to help raise their children, and no way to make money for life’s necessities. ICO’s Sustainable Household System provides these women with necessities such as: methods of collecting drinkable water, a secure tarp for their home, anti-malarial bed netting, a blanket and cooking pot and more. John’s initiative is also working on construct-ing over 100 sustainable homes. This project teaches children lifelong construction skills and educates them about sustainability.

John returned from Rwanda last month, and we are proud to announce the team has created 38 sustainable homes thus far. During his recent visit to Rwanda, John documented the team’s sustainable household development, student training, and community development projects. John’s accomplishments in Rwanda are eye-opening. He is also establishing a rabbit breed-ing facility. The revenue from the project allows students to pay for their school fees. John has also been equipping homes with fuel-efficient stoves, and helping students create seed nurseries. The Rwanda initiative is an outstanding example of the power of friendship and teamwork!

100% of Donatations go to Initiavtives. Accounts are 100% Transparent. Dontate now at www.innovativecommunities.org.

ICO RWANDAUpdates from the ground

Welcome to ICO’s Uganda initiative!

In Uganda, ICO is focused on finding innovative ways to engage chil-dren and youth in educational opportu-nities,incorporating music, dance, and art. The initiative targets mainly marginal-ized groups-- children of HIV and AIDS parents, and orphans. An example of how ICO engages these children and youth is through the Niteo Resource Centre, a dance and arts facility. Surrounded by mirrors, and equiped with 16 yoga mats, a CD player, and speakers, the Niteo Centre is a safe place for youth to practice traditional Ugandan dance, breakdance, Capoeira, and yoga. Some of the dance classes are instructed by professional groups like the Ndere Dance Troupe and the Break-dance Project Uganda. Each Saturday youth from Uganda’s biggest slum, Kisenyi, come together with youth living around the Niteo Resource Centre for a full day of traditional dancing and music training. Here they are trained by a local group known as the Bitone Children’s Home and Troupe. Vocal training is also pro-vided by Uganda’s top recording studio, Dreamstudio. The youth from the streets of the Kisenyi slums stay in transition homes, where they’re invited to free dance lessons at the Niteo Resource Centre.

ICO UGANDAUpdates from the ground


Welcome to ICO’s Guatemalainitiative!

ICO has been working with three communities from the Lake Atitlán area in the Guatemalan highlands. The initiative uses a simple grassroots approach; meeting with locals (families, teachers, health clinic work-ers), and structuring projects encompassing their feedback. ICO’s work focuses mainly on improving health, education, and offering general support to those in need. Traditionally, Mayans cook over un-ventilated open hearths (indoors), which cause burns, respiratory and eye problems. Since 2007, ICO has been busy installing “The ONIL Stove” in the San Antonio Palopó community. Developed in Guatemala, this stove is vented, smoke-free and uses 70% less wood. Locals’ health has improved dramatically since the arrival of the ONIL. Other ICO initiatives in San Antonio provide computers for schools, medical equip-ment, nutritional supplements, water purifica-tion systems, support programs for widows, environmental training, improving literacy and more. In Santa Catarina Palopó, ICO has installed ONIL Stoves, and provided water filters to those at risk of catching water-bourn diseases; such as pregnant women and diabet-ics. We’ve also been providing school supplies to families and schools. ICO started working with the San Pedro la Laguna community recently. So far, we’ve provided school supplies for children and paid school fees for those who cannot afford them.

Letters from Susan Gage of the Guatemala initia-tive:

Medicines arrive in San Antonio

How can I describe to you the jubilation on the day Doc-tor Myron and his 3 nurses, plus Elva – the nurse from San Antonio – arrive to take possession of the 3 medical kits that Jacqueline has managed to bring down from Canada? This whole process was a tremendous tour-de-force on the part of Jacqueline, who had to send off notarized letters to the First Lady of Guatemala and jump through all sorts of legalistic hoops, and then carry 3 huge boxes of supplies onto the airplane. It’s a program of Health Part-ners International, through which we can pay $575 Ca-nadian and receive $5,000-worth of medicines. (cont. next pg)

ICO GUATEMALAUpdates from the ground

So here we had $15,000 worth of medicines (which, to tell you the truth, isn’t quite as much as you would think) to give to Dr. Mayron from San Pedro, to be distributed to 6 health clinics around the lake. The health team arrived at the hotel and we opened up one of the boxes so that they could leave half of its contents with our nurse in San Antonio. The team was so, so excited by the sight of all these boxes and bottles of coveted medicines. It turned out that these medicines were all that they expected to receive during the entire year … not nearly enough for the 310,000 people in the region. Next year, we will try to bring twice as much.

Guatemalan Education System

In Guatemala, educators work in difficult circumstances. Schooling, like most social services, is chronically underfunded here. The school supplies promised by the government don’t arrive, and nobody is surprised. School is ready to start, and many teachers have no contract, not having received the pay-raise they were promised last year. Odilio, the principal of one of San Anto-nio’s schools, is paid to work the morning shift, but there’s no money forthcoming for the afternoon shift which he works anyway. Vicente, the principal of the other school, has begged roofing material from a Swiss friend, and when we arrive is supervising con-struction; the government has no money to repair leaky roofs. Both men ask us for help in construct-ing additional classrooms; the schools are filled to bursting. We ask for detailed budgets, and in the meantime work with both principals to draw up a list of essential school supplies. Kathy and I spend a hectic day in the nearby town of Panajachel order-ing school supplies to deliver to both of San Anto-

nio’s schools -- supplies that will ensure that every child arriving at school will have pencils or pens, a notebook, paper and crayons.

100% of Donatations go to Initiavtives. Ac-counts are 100% Transparent. Dontate now at www.innovativecommunities.org.

ICO GUATEMALAUpdates from the ground

Welcome to ICO’s Colombia initiative!

ICO’s Mission and Objectives are undertaken in Colombia on behalf of ICO byOpportunities Colombia. ICO’s Community Ini-tiative Centre, a component of ICO Operations is responsible for the overall management of ICO Initiatives in Colombia.

Opportunities Colombia- Helping People HelpThemselves

Opportunities Colombia is a non- govern-mental, not for profit, based out of Victoria BC and is currently engaged in approved ICO Initiatives in Colombia, in cooperation with Rotary International, Victoria’s local Harbourside Rotary Club, and the Honda Rotary Club in Colombia. Presently our main ICO Initiative is a Bakery in Honda, which currently employs eight extremely hardworking people—four single moth-ers, two bakers, one delivery salesman, and a very dedicated English speaking manager. The Bakery is in its second year of operation and has recently been relocated to a larger prem-ise, to meet a growing demand. The new location has been donated by the Honda Rotary Club and is located in a very poor section of the city. Our most immediate need is funding for mix-ing machines, extractor fans, more effective light fixtures, display cases, shelving, and other equip-ment for the Bakery. Our objective is to train driven, dedicated individuals, and then to provide financing for them to start and operate successful, sustainable busi-nesses—businesses that will allow them to provide for their families.

ICO COLOMBIAUpdates from the ground

ICO is delighted to have reached an agency agreement with Opportunities Colombia, which consists at this time of five dedicated Victorians with a incredible dream and provided thehuman resources and money to make the vision a reality; ICO is now asking for other interested, dedicated volunteers to help us help Colombians and build on this dream.

ICO COLOMBIA

Updates from the groundWe have a number of proposed Initiatives, with which we are looking for assistance:

1. A daycare centre, for which a building hasbeen made available.

ICO COLOMBIAUpdates from the ground

2. A food-fish breeding facility, to providefingerlings to a farm-based growing operation.Infrastructure, including a number of ponds, ismostly in place to make this a great success.

3. An ornamental fish rearing facility to breedKoi and other in-demand fish. Victoria’s WestCoast Koi, a respected supplier of quality Koi, isproviding the breeding stock. The first shipmentof Koi has already arrived at stores in Bogota andwas well received.

Our philosophy is to provide the opportunity forvery poor families to work to improve their life ina part of the world that is emerging from a verydesperate period. We help people help themselves.We would like to hear from anyone interested tohelp with this undertaking.

Contact: Doug WebbTeam Leader, ColombiaCommunity Initiatives CentreICO [email protected]


ICO “Prosperity for All”The Vision of Peter Lukwiya

“Prosperity for all in the peace we desire” 1 The vision of Peter Lukwiya Submitted by: Julie I. Warren Peter Lukwiya, Executive Director and co-founder of the Uganda Peace Foundation, was in Victoria, British Columbia in May of this year to attend a series of meetings with Innovative Com-munities Organization (ICO) in his role as the chair of the ICO council. During his stay Peter was elected as the Community Co-ordinator where he will act as a liaison between impoverished commu-nities in Uganda and the ICO. This was a signifi-cant moment in ICO’s history as the organization moves toward building inter-cultural relationships with people in countries beset by poverty, war and economic injustice. Born and raised in Kitgum district, in north-ern Uganda, Peter has experienced first hand the devastating effects of civil conflict. Coming from a family of three brothers and three sisters, Peter lost two of his brothers and his grandfa-ther during the 23-year war that has laid waste to Uganda and displaced an estimated 869,000 2 citizens. As a young boy, he witnessed the atrocities committed by armed gangs and he lived in fear of rebels who routinely abducted boys to serve as the infamous child soldiers in the war against the gov-ernment. More than once he and his class-mates were panicked into hiding when rebels swarmed into a school or village enclave searching for chil-dren and women they could kidnap. In spite of these hardships Peter somehow found the strength to continue with his education and earned several under-graduate and graduate degrees in public administration, education and

environmental science from Mbarara University in Uganda and Gent University in Belgium. During these years, he was involved with UNESCO and as he says “completely absorbed by UNESCO ideals”. One year, on a vacation from university, he trav-elled back to northern Uganda to talk with students about conflict resolution and how to obtain peace-ful solutions to conflict, believing that if “someone does you wrong, you should not pay them back with wrong”. This would have been an astounding concept to his audience who most likely had wit-nessed the same brutal realities of war as had Peter. The visit to northern Uganda reinforced a growing desire within Peter to concentrate his future work in the areas of peace, conflict resolution and sustain-able development. Among his many accomplishments, Peter co-founded the Uganda Peace Foundation (UPF) in 2005, located in Kitgum district. The Foundation is a community based organization that seeks to foster reconciliation by bringing together communi-ties that have been affected by the conflicts, to help them resolve their differences without violence. The UPF also has another important mandate, to find ways to support the reintegration of former child


soldiers and other children who were abused and orphaned during the years of conflict. In 2007 Peter came up with an idea he was convinced could help women in rural communi-ties recover from the devastation of the wars. Peter explains that in Africa women stay at home and are responsible for the production of food and for feeding their families. They have little access to jobs, which are monopolized by men, and they often lack education. In Uganda, widow-hood is very common due to the ongoing conflict. These women, much like his own mother, face huge obstacles in trying to support their families. They try to survive by selling home-based prod-ucts such as home-made beer or garden vegeta-bles. Peter’s idea was to create a product which they could manufacture at home, didn’t require a lot of capital investment or years of training, and was sustainable over time. He came up with two ideas: raising goats and bee-keeping. After consulting with the women in the first community that agreed to ‘buy-in’ to his proposal, the women chose bee-keeping. With a grant of seed money from the Orskov Foundation in Scotland, Peter launched the bee-keeping initiative, where women could acquire hives, raise bees and sell the honey. He usedthe grant money to buy the apiaries and other equipment and donated them to the group. It wasn’t an easy process. There was a lot of re-sistance to overcome within the test community, primarily because this would not be an overnight solution to their economic problems. However,by offering on-going resources, training and sup-port from experienced bee-keepers, the test proj-ect gained traction. When the community saw that the participating women were actually making

money from their apiaries, it became a lot easier for Peter to recruit members for new groups. The test group which consisted of twenty-five women in 2007 has, in 2010, expanded to seven groups, each with twenty-seven members. In a twist of irony, today there is more demand for access to bee-keep-ing projects than can be accommodated in Kitgum. Peter is also looking at ways to incorporate men into future community projects. Any type of agricultural industry is subject to the whims of Mother Nature. Peter’s next chal-lenge was to come up with a way to help off-set any downturns in honey production that the groups might experience. He decided on the idea of a re-volving loan fund. This would operate more or less like micro-finance in that it would be a small loan with a very low interest rate. In Peter’s scenario, a small loan is earmarked for several groups on the understanding they would share it. The money is loaned to members within one group and after


a relatively short period of time, usually several months, the borrowers have to re-pay it with the interest. As the money keeps growing, the money from the first group can be used to finance a sec-ond group’s project. Each group was responsible for setting up a credit committee to do their own book-keeping, monitor the re-payments and more importantly, recruit new members for the group. In this way a small pool of money is re-used many times to fund multiple bee-keeping initiatives. As members keep borrowing and re-paying, the interest grows along with the available capital, which remains invested at the village level. The Ugandan government has facilitated the development of village banks within rural areas, so the bee-keepers’ capital is not siphoned off to feed a corporate parent. Inter-est rates are kept as low as possible to ensure that poorer community members can participate in rais-ing bees for their livelihood. The bee-keeping initiative meets what Peter calls the ‘bottom-up’ approach in sustainable development. This approach involves the commu-nity in indentifying their own economic problems, supports them in developing solutions that are vi-able and appropriate and gives the community the responsibility of managing and sustaining the eco-nomic initiatives they havechosen. Peter sees this as more effective than the traditional development model where an NGO (non-government organiza-tion) identifies the need and then builds a solution to fit that need. Because ICO shares this same vision of work-ing from the bottom up, Peter is confidentthat in the years ahead they will share a meaning-ful working partnership. ICO can organize and provide resources to community-initiated projects in countries like Uganda, creating a sustainable

and long-lasting improvement to their standard of living. “Prosperity for all” is Peter Lukwiya’s vision for the future of relationships between the industrial-ized nations and those countries who are struggling out of the shadow of poverty and war. In his life and work, Peter has embraced his favorite words by Ghandi: “that if you want a change to happen in the world, you have to be part of the change.”

ICO GOVERNANCERecent Changes in ICO Governance

Governance Changes at ICO

Operational Changes: Mitzi Dean will be taking a leave as Presi-dent ICO World Communities in order to spend time with her new baby, Pandora Jane. Mitzi will be taking time off from both her volunteer and business interests, but will be able to help the association by providing support to our Interna-tional Board of Advisors. Santiago Mascaro will operate as Presi-dent of ICO Operations (this used to be called ICO World Communities), moving from a role of Operations Facilitator, Centre for Peace and Jus-tice and the “oversight” of various ICO Centres in the Development Chaord. Santiago recently moved to Victoria from Argentina & is currently the Business Development Manager for Transla-tion Back Office.

Board of Directors: We are pleased to have the following addi-tions to our Board: Wally Earnerhas 20 years of experience within governments on sustainability, environment and protected area issues in western Canada. He has dealt largely with indigenous peoples and has been involved with ICO for a number of years. John Espley is currently the Business De-velopment Manager of Accent Inns Inc and has worked with the company since 1988 in a variety of positions. John has committed time and energy to a number of volunteer endeavors around Victo-ria, and Accent Inns is a strong partner of ICO. Peter Phillips Lukwiya is the Director of the Uganda Peace Foundation and Kitgum Bee Keeping Initiative and is based in Uganda. Peter has a lot of experience with sustainability and

environmental issues on a local and international level. Peter speaks 4 languages & is also Chair of the Council of ICO Communities where he will represent worldwide Friends of ICO on the Board of the Foundation. For more information, check out: http://innovativecommunities.org/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1274296160&archive=&start_from=&ucat=36&

Other Announcements1) Annual General Meeting June 26th, 2010

2) Thanks to Partners Pemberton Holmes and Friends Partners Accent, Enterprise, and Dejardins Insurance.

3) Congratulations Mitzi and Alan and a Wonder-ful Warm ICO Welcome with many many hugs to newborn baby Pandora Jane.

4) 100% of Donatations go to Initiavtives. Accounts are 100% Transparent. Dontate now at www.innovativecommunities.org.Registered Canadian Charity BN/Registration Number: 871126249RR0001

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ICO WORLD MAGAZINE