(FICE = Fédération Internationale de Communautés Educatives)

REPORTS FROM FICE CONGRESS - BERLIN 2002

FICE Congress Berlin 2002 - General Assembly - Federal Council - FICE Europe
Resolution for Peace - In the Backyard of Metropolis - Burnout and Job Roles
 The Challenge of Integrating Immigrant Youth - North African Migrant Children

FICE Congress Berlin 2002

The Congress was sited in the heart of Berlin at the Humboldt University, whose walls are adorned with an impressive gallery of Nobel Prize winners. It was both the biennial international Congress of the Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE) and the triennial national Congress of the Internationale Gesellschaft fòr erzieherische Hilfen (IGfH), the German National Section of FICE.

It was therefore a very busy event, and the organisers did well to keep everybody fed and appropriately accommodated, let alone provide an excellent programme. Any visitor can only record a few of the key events and a selection of the workshops, but the overall impact was that of an organisation addressing the problems of the present and finding answers for the future. The Congress was sited in the heart of Berlin at the Humboldt University, whose walls are adorned with an impressive gallery of Nobel Prize winners. It was both the biennial international Congress of the Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE) and the triennial national Congress of the Internationale Gesellschaft fòr erzieherische Hilfen (IGfH), the German National Section of FICE.

 

Opening with a Bang

The Congress opened with a multimedia event, introduced by Tambours du Soleil, a band of youthful drummers led by their animator, a tall man from Martinique. Under his direction, they beat hell out of their drums with obvious enthusiasm and a super sense of rhythm. This was followed by a pastiche of films and videos of cities, moving by stages from the glossy tourist image of cities round the world to the seamier side where children live and play on rubbish dumps and overcrowded ghettos.

Hans-Ullrich Krause welcomed the delegates on behalf of IGfH, emphasising the need for peace, and Theo Binnendijk spoke for FICE-International, giving examples of the practical ways in which FICE can bring people together. He quoted a 12-year-old girl at the recent Friendship Camp in Montenegro, who approached him and said, "Please Sir, it would be fantastic if FICE could arrange that we have this wonderful meeting next year again. We had such a good time. We had so many fantastic contacts. So much friendship will stay. Please, Mr Theo, let FICE arrange it for the next year again." This was from an area riven recently by ethnic cleansing and ghastly atrocities. Theo acknowledged that FICE could not change the world and it was only one small example, but organisations like FICE could help peace to grow.

How Cities have Changed

The speakers at the key plenary sessions gave overviews of city life, and how I had developed. It was only a few thousand years ago that the first towns were built, and the large cities of today are for the most part recent. Humankind did not evolve to live in cities, and it is perhaps surprising how well people have adapted to living in close proximity to each other.

 

In mediaeval times, there were no expectations of education and no real concept of childhood. Children tended to roam in cities, learning ways of survival in the street from older children. It is only since the introduction of formal education that there has been the expectation that children should be in school or at home, and that they may be in danger or posing a threat if they are on the loose. Laws to take children into care may be seen as altruistic, seeking the child's best interests, or as controlling and limiting the antisocial behaviour of children.

 
   

The growth of traffic over the last century or so has tended to aid the "controllers", tying children down to playgrounds where they can be safe while vehicles dominate the streets. Streets are seen as dangerous now, and street children are seen as being in danger, a contrast with mediaeval times.

In the city children have wider opportunities for social contacts, independent of adults. They experience more excitement, and the run-down parts of cities offer a wide variety of places to play. By contrast, in the home, children expected to conform are provided with nurseries and sent to their rooms when naughty.

These points were made by Dr Doris Bòhler-Niederberger, who concluded that for the sociologist no place was intrinsically good or bad, and pointed out that children were surprisingly good at adapting to environments deemed to be bad for them.

Her paper was one of a number of plenary papers which threw new light on the nature of cities. They will be worth reading when they are published.

A Varied Programme

In all there must have been more than eighty workshops and other presentations. This provided real choice, especially to German-speakers. Unfortunately the American habit of getting on the programme and not showing appeared to have crept in, and it is to be hoped that it will be stopped before it becomes endemic. However, there remained sufficient choice for the most part, though there were few sessions in French.

A highlight of the programme was a film of a night in the life of groups of Berlin's underclass - a gang of youths, a teenage prostitute, a little boy newly-arrived from Africa and a couple of down-and-outs. It showed the miseries and the satisfactions of their lives, interweaving their stories, and it had deservedly won the Silver Bear at the 2002 Berlinale. While the Congress delegates met at the university, stayed in hotels and visited the tourist sites, the jungle of the city of Berlin was still there, largely unseen, and the film was a graphic reminder.

The programme also included a meeting at the Ministry, visits to local services for children and a social evening with singing, food from four countries and dancing.

As a city, Berlin is a good place for tourists. It has miles of shops in Bismarckstrasse and Unter den Linden. It has parks like the Tiergarten. It has dozens of museums and galleries, including the Pergamonmuseum on Museum Island with its massive reconstructed archaeological relics from Asia Minor and Babylon, the modern Gemldergalerie with a superb selection of paintings and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, covering the period when the city was divided by the Berlin Wall. It has the TV tower, where one can view the whole city from 233 metres up. It has theatres, concert halls and all sorts of other night life.

The city still has traces of its Cold War past. There are still grim buildings in the former Russian Sector, but many of these have been upgraded, and there are cranes at work throughout the city, indicating the prosperity and growth of the German economy, despite the pressures it faces.

There is a lot of new building of excellent quality, and money is also being spent on restorations. The Brandenburg Gate, for example, was shrouded in heavy-duty polythene during the Congress, with only the horses and charioteer sticking out on top to betray the Gate's presence. As a demonstration of German wit, the polythene was decorated to turn the Gate convincingly into a block of flats.

During the Congress there was the build-up to the German elections which Helmut Schroeder won by the narrowest of margins. The actual election took place on the Sunday after the Congress, a day of hard rain, and the Reichstag was surrounded by a marshalling yard of television vans covering the occasion. For the Congress itself, it was FICE weather - mostly sunny and pleasantly autumnal.

Glasgow : FICE 2004

At the end of the Congress there was a rendition of Auld Lang Syne and Hans-Ullrich Krause, the President of IGfH, symbolically handed over the flag of Saint Andrew to Theo Binnendijk, the President of FICE, to remind everyone that the next FICE Congress will be in Scotland.

The Congress will focus on Creating a Place for Children, interpreting the title broadly to cover emotional space, buildings, a place in the life of the community. So looking forward, if you are involved in research or are writing a book due for publication in September 2004, how about offering to give a paper? 7th to 11th September 2004 is the date to put in your diary.

FICE-Scotland will be acting as host, with the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care as the sponsoring body. We have every confidence that they will keep up the standards set by IGfH in Berlin, but it will be a challenge, as IGfH set high standards.

General Assembly : Berlin 2002

The General Assembly was well attended, and among those present were Professor Hashem El-Husseini from Beirut, Malay Dewanji from India and the Secretary General of AIEJI, Lars Steinov, as a token of the intention for the two organisations to work in partnership.

Christine Karner, who has served as one of FICE's interpreters for many years, unhappily could not be present because of an accident, and the meeting sent its best wishes to her.

President's Report
Theo Binnendijk presented a written report, outlining the achievements of the two past years, the problems encountered and his hopes for the next two years, if re-elected.

Finance
Presenting the accounts and budgets for the last time, Richard Joubert was pleased to report that there had been a surplus of income over expenditure for the last two years. There was money in hand for projects and he recommended that subscriptions should remain unchanged. "The organisation is healthy and well", he concluded. It is quite an achievement for a Treasurer to leave an organisation so soundly established.

The Audit Committee reported that they had inspected the accounts and found them to be accurate.

Re-appointment
In the absence of other nominations, Theo Binnendijk was re-elected by acclamation to serve for a further two-year term of office.

There was still no nomination for the post of Secretary General.

New Officers
Daniel Vidaud of France was invited to become Vice President, not only to head up work with Educateurs sans FrontiÀres and francophone North Africa, but also to take on Richard Joubert's responsibilities as FICE representative with UNESCO and the EU.

Anton Tobé of the Netherlands was also selected as a Vice President, to take on some of the Secretary General's duties in supporting new members (in the absence of a Secretary General as such).

Rolf Widmer of Switzerland was elected Treasurer to succeed Richard Joubert, and he was asked to set up a Working Party to examine possible new sources of finance, and to report to the Federal Council in April. He was also asked to investigate the appointment of external auditors to replace the internal Audit Committee, partly because funding bodies might well require such appointments before giving grants.

New Members
FICE-Bulgaria and FICE-South-East Europe were welcomed as Full Members, and FICE-Scotland and FICE-Russia were welcomed as Associate Members.

Peace Resolution
At the end of the meeting Kathleen Lane, of Caring for Children / FICE-England and Wales, proposed a motion to be put to the Secretary General of the United Nations. After debate and some amendment, the motion was carried unanimously. It is included in full.
Click Here
 FICE Federal Council : Berlin 2002

FICE Federal Council : Berlin 2002

Pressure of time meant there was less time for business than usual, but that suited Theo Binnendijk, the President of FICE-International, as he prefers to focus on the professional content of the meetings and limit discussion about business to the necessary minimum. In the event, most of the time was spent discussing the projects in hand and planned.

Educateurs sans Frontières
Despite a number of discussions, for example with the French Minister for External Affairs, no clear progress had been made. Some interest had been shown by training institutions. It was agreed it was still an important subject, and Daniel Vidaud of France, who had played a role earlier in developing the idea, agreed to take over responsibility for the project.

Professional Exchange Programme
Several placements had been made (reported on in Children webmag) but not in large numbers. A separate meeting of PEP Co-ordinators was planned during the Congress to consider how the scheme should be managed in future. Robert Soisson had earlier suggested that the scheme should be open to students and Kathleen Lane reported that applicants often needed to earn money while on placement in order to support themselves. She also noted that there were employers in the United Kingdom who were interested in recruiting from other countries.

Baltic Countries and former USSR
Martti Kemppainen reported on progress in the region. He had been involved in :

a Tacis project called "Partnership in Education, Health Care and Social Welfare in the Russian Federation, concerning children with disabilities or without parents
a Finnish-Karelian project to counter "social orphanage"
reform of child welfare legislation in the Russian federation
participation in the IFCO 2002 Congress at Tampere in Finland
contact with FICE members in Russia and Estonia.

Francophone North Africa
Newly re-elected as Vice President, Daniel Vidaud offered to give a lead in recruiting new members in North Africa. It was intended that the campaign should focus on an issue such as children's rights.

Australia
David Lane reported that interest in joining FICE had been shown in Australia, though there was concern about the level of fees, especially when the body co-ordinating the State associations of workers had relatively few resources. He offered to try to make links with other Commonwealth countries as well.

North America
Jim Anglin reported that Canada was now ready to rejoin and had the resources to pay their fees. More important, a major conference is planned to take place next year in Victoria, and it was hoped that it might be used to make FICE better known in North America. There was discussion also about the United States, where Carol Kelly has acted as ongoing link.

Friendship Camps
Sena Druzic reported on the success of the third Friendship Camp. All six regions of former Yugoslavia had been represented and both staff and children got along well together. At the first camp there had been apprehension, but now they no longer feared each other. The children had been traumatised by war, and were living in countries where there was no social security and there was homelessness and unemployment. However, in the fortnight at the camp they were able to leave that behind, to forget, to play and to make new friendships. Sena thanked Rolf Widmer of Switzerland and Theo Binnendijk for their support. FICE-Switzerland had been particularly supportive, and the targets for the next Camp had already been agreed.

Experts in extra-familial care and education of children
Rolf Widmer, who had introduced the idea of creating a register of experts, suggested that the idea might best be handled in tandem with Educateurs sans FrontiÀres, and Daniel Vidaud was asked to take it on board.

FICE Policies
David Lane had circulated a paper about the collation of existing policies, and asked members to send them in, with a view to FICE-International endorsing them, perhaps after amendment, to create a corpus of thinking about good practice. If debate were needed, the pages of the website could be used.

Publicity
It was agreed that new publicity material was needed by FICE-International. Richard Joubert pointed out that this was of two types - general information about FICE's aims, structure etc. and a separate document about the activities and successes of national members. It was agreed that Famke Schiff should head up this work, as part of the Secretariat's duties. Wim Kok also offered to help gather information about successful projects.

Standards of Practice
Jim Anglin of Canada offered to provide the lead in work to establish international standards of work with children in various settings. These would be useful for international funding bodies in determining whether services were up to standard, and could also help workers in countries without such standards, offering them a template which they could use in drawing up their own standards of practice.

FICE-Inter Website
David Lane reported that the English version of the new website was now active, and that it had been agreed that Christine Karner should be approached to help with translations for the French and German. He answered a number of questions concerning the cost and contents of the website, and the use of the FICE Glossary. Soeren Hegstrup offered to make contact to get the former FICE-Inter website de-activated.

Competence in Secure Care
Andrew Hosie reported that a symposium was planned on the subject in November 2003, and because of concern about the subject in other FICE countries, it was hoped that the event could be used by FICE to address it internationally.

The business of the meeting led to the following decisions :

Next Meetings
After discussion about the options, it was decided to hold the next meeting of the Federal Council as previously planned in Moscow from 27th April to and May 2003 (incorporating May Day!) and to held a special meeting in Copenhagen from 26th to 29th May 2003 in order to meet with the Executives of AIEJI, FESET and EFCW.

Jollities for Joubert
The meeting ended on an extraordinary note. Richard Joubert claimed that he had reached the age of 70 and therefore it was appropriate for him to retire as Treasurer. He was not only given a gift by Theo Binnendijk in appreciation of his years of work looking after FICE's monies, but music was laid on and, together with Dashenka Tashkova of Bulgaria, Richard gave a brief exhibition of his gallic panache in a tango as a farewell performance. His wisdom, balanced judgement, precision, excellent book-keeping, humour, French songs and dancing will all be missed.

A presentation was also made to Kathleen Lane of Caring for Children / FICE-England and Wales, as it was her last appearance at a Federal Council.

 

 
 (FICE = Fédération Internationale de Communautés Educatives)

REPORTS FROM FICE CONGRESS - BERLIN 2002

FICE Congress Berlin 2002 - General Assembly - Federal Council - FICE Europe
Resolution for Peace - In the Backyard of Metropolis - Burnout and Job Roles
 The Challenge of Integrating Immigrant Youth - North African Migrant Children

FICE Congress Berlin 2002

The Congress was sited in the heart of Berlin at the Humboldt University, whose walls are adorned with an impressive gallery of Nobel Prize winners. It was both the biennial international Congress of the Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE) and the triennial national Congress of the Internationale Gesellschaft fòr erzieherische Hilfen (IGfH), the German National Section of FICE.

It was therefore a very busy event, and the organisers did well to keep everybody fed and appropriately accommodated, let alone provide an excellent programme. Any visitor can only record a few of the key events and a selection of the workshops, but the overall impact was that of an organisation addressing the problems of the present and finding answers for the future.

Opening with a Bang

The Congress opened with a multimedia event, introduced by Tambours du Soleil, a band of youthful drummers led by their animator, a tall man from Martinique. Under his direction, they beat hell out of their drums with obvious enthusiasm and a super sense of rhythm. This was followed by a pastiche of films and videos of cities, moving by stages from the glossy tourist image of cities round the world to the seamier side where children live and play on rubbish dumps and overcrowded ghettos.

Hans-Ullrich Krause welcomed the delegates on behalf of IGfH, emphasising the need for peace, and Theo Binnendijk spoke for FICE-International, giving examples of the practical ways in which FICE can bring people together. He quoted a 12-year-old girl at the recent Friendship Camp in Montenegro, who approached him and said, "Please Sir, it would be fantastic if FICE could arrange that we have this wonderful meeting next year again. We had such a good time. We had so many fantastic contacts. So much friendship will stay. Please, Mr Theo, let FICE arrange it for the next year again." This was from an area riven recently by ethnic cleansing and ghastly atrocities. Theo acknowledged that FICE could not change the world and it was only one small example, but organisations like FICE could help peace to grow.

How Cities have Changed

The speakers at the key plenary sessions gave overviews of city life, and how I had developed. It was only a few thousand years ago that the first towns were built, and the large cities of today are for the most part recent. Humankind did not evolve to live in cities, and it is perhaps surprising how well people have adapted to living in close proximity to each other.

In mediaeval times, there were no expectations of education and no real concept of childhood. Children tended to roam in cities, learning ways of survival in the street from older children. It is only since the introduction of formal education that there has been the expectation that children should be in school or at home, and that they may be in danger or posing a threat if they are on the loose. Laws to take children into care may be seen as altruistic, seeking the child's best interests, or as controlling and limiting the antisocial behaviour of children.

The growth of traffic over the last century or so has tended to aid the "controllers", tying children down to playgrounds where they can be safe while vehicles dominate the streets. Streets are seen as dangerous now, and street children are seen as being in danger, a contrast with mediaeval times.

In the city children have wider opportunities for social contacts, independent of adults. They experience more excitement, and the run-down parts of cities offer a wide variety of places to play. By contrast, in the home, children expected to conform are provided with nurseries and sent to their rooms when naughty.

These points were made by Dr Doris Bòhler-Niederberger, who concluded that for the sociologist no place was intrinsically good or bad, and pointed out that children were surprisingly good at adapting to environments deemed to be bad for them.

Her paper was one of a number of plenary papers which threw new light on the nature of cities. They will be worth reading when they are published.

A Varied Programme

In all there must have been more than eighty workshops and other presentations. This provided real choice, especially to German-speakers. Unfortunately the American habit of getting on the programme and not showing appeared to have crept in, and it is to be hoped that it will be stopped before it becomes endemic. However, there remained sufficient choice for the most part, though there were few sessions in French.

A highlight of the programme was a film of a night in the life of groups of Berlin's underclass - a gang of youths, a teenage prostitute, a little boy newly-arrived from Africa and a couple of down-and-outs. It showed the miseries and the satisfactions of their lives, interweaving their stories, and it had deservedly won the Silver Bear at the 2002 Berlinale. While the Congress delegates met at the university, stayed in hotels and visited the tourist sites, the jungle of the city of Berlin was still there, largely unseen, and the film was a graphic reminder.

The programme also included a meeting at the Ministry, visits to local services for children and a social evening with singing, food from four countries and dancing.

Berlin

 

 As a city, Berlin is a good place for tourists. It has miles of shops in Bismarckstrasse and Unter den Linden. It has parks like the Tiergarten. It has dozens of museums and galleries, including the Pergamonmuseum on Museum Island with its massive reconstructed archaeological relics from Asia Minor and Babylon, the modern Gemldergalerie with a superb selection of paintings and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, covering the period when the city was divided by the Berlin Wall. It has the TV tower, where one can view the whole city from 233 metres up. It has theatres, concert halls and all sorts of other night life.

The city still has traces of its Cold War past. There are still grim buildings in the former Russian Sector, but many of these have been upgraded, and there are cranes at work throughout the city, indicating the prosperity and growth of the German economy, despite the pressures it faces.

There is a lot of new building of excellent quality, and money is also being spent on restorations. The Brandenburg Gate, for example, was shrouded in heavy-duty polythene during the Congress, with only the horses and charioteer sticking out on top to betray the Gate's presence. As a demonstration of German wit, the polythene was decorated to turn the Gate convincingly into a block of flats.

During the Congress there was the build-up to the German elections which Helmut Schroeder won by the narrowest of margins. The actual election took place on the Sunday after the Congress, a day of hard rain, and the Reichstag was surrounded by a marshalling yard of television vans covering the occasion. For the Congress itself, it was FICE weather - mostly sunny and pleasantly autumnal.

Glasgow : FICE 2004

At the end of the Congress there was a rendition of Auld Lang Syne and Hans-Ullrich Krause, the President of IGfH, symbolically handed over the flag of Saint Andrew to Theo Binnendijk, the President of FICE, to remind everyone that the next FICE Congress will be in Scotland.

The Congress will focus on Creating a Place for Children, interpreting the title broadly to cover emotional space, buildings, a place in the life of the community. So looking forward, if you are involved in research or are writing a book due for publication in September 2004, how about offering to give a paper? 7th to 11th September 2004 is the date to put in your diary.

FICE-Scotland will be acting as host, with the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care as the sponsoring body. We have every confidence that they will keep up the standards set by IGfH in Berlin, but it will be a challenge, as IGfH set high standards.

General Assembly : Berlin 2002

The General Assembly was well attended, and among those present were Professor Hashem El-Husseini from Beirut, Malay Dewanji from India and the Secretary General of AIEJI, Lars Steinov, as a token of the intention for the two organisations to work in partnership.

Christine Karner, who has served as one of FICE's interpreters for many years, unhappily could not be present because of an accident, and the meeting sent its best wishes to her.

President's Report
Theo Binnendijk presented a written report, outlining the achievements of the two past years, the problems encountered and his hopes for the next two years, if re-elected.

Finance
Presenting the accounts and budgets for the last time, Richard Joubert was pleased to report that there had been a surplus of income over expenditure for the last two years. There was money in hand for projects and he recommended that subscriptions should remain unchanged. "The organisation is healthy and well", he concluded. It is quite an achievement for a Treasurer to leave an organisation so soundly established.

The Audit Committee reported that they had inspected the accounts and found them to be accurate.

Re-appointment
In the absence of other nominations, Theo Binnendijk was re-elected by acclamation to serve for a further two-year term of office.

There was still no nomination for the post of Secretary General.

New Officers
Daniel Vidaud of France was invited to become Vice President, not only to head up work with Educateurs sans FrontiÀres and francophone North Africa, but also to take on Richard Joubert's responsibilities as FICE representative with UNESCO and the EU.

Anton Tobé of the Netherlands was also selected as a Vice President, to take on some of the Secretary General's duties in supporting new members (in the absence of a Secretary General as such).

Rolf Widmer of Switzerland was elected Treasurer to succeed Richard Joubert, and he was asked to set up a Working Party to examine possible new sources of finance, and to report to the Federal Council in April. He was also asked to investigate the appointment of external auditors to replace the internal Audit Committee, partly because funding bodies might well require such appointments before giving grants.

New Members
FICE-Bulgaria and FICE-South-East Europe were welcomed as Full Members, and FICE-Scotland and FICE-Russia were welcomed as Associate Members.

Peace Resolution
At the end of the meeting Kathleen Lane, of Caring for Children / FICE-England and Wales, proposed a motion to be put to the Secretary General of the United Nations. After debate and some amendment, the motion was carried unanimously. It is included in full.
Click Here


 Top

FICE Federal Council : Berlin 2002

FICE Federal Council : Berlin 2002

Pressure of time meant there was less time for business than usual, but that suited Theo Binnendijk, the President of FICE-International, as he prefers to focus on the professional content of the meetings and limit discussion about business to the necessary minimum. In the event, most of the time was spent discussing the projects in hand and planned.

Educateurs sans Frontières
Despite a number of discussions, for example with the French Minister for External Affairs, no clear progress had been made. Some interest had been shown by training institutions. It was agreed it was still an important subject, and Daniel Vidaud of France, who had played a role earlier in developing the idea, agreed to take over responsibility for the project.

Professional Exchange Programme
Several placements had been made (reported on in Children webmag) but not in large numbers. A separate meeting of PEP Co-ordinators was planned during the Congress to consider how the scheme should be managed in future. Robert Soisson had earlier suggested that the scheme should be open to students and Kathleen Lane reported that applicants often needed to earn money while on placement in order to support themselves. She also noted that there were employers in the United Kingdom who were interested in recruiting from other countries.

Baltic Countries and former USSR
Martti Kemppainen reported on progress in the region. He had been involved in :

a Tacis project called "Partnership in Education, Health Care and Social Welfare in the Russian Federation, concerning children with disabilities or without parents
a Finnish-Karelian project to counter "social orphanage"
reform of child welfare legislation in the Russian federation
participation in the IFCO 2002 Congress at Tampere in Finland
contact with FICE members in Russia and Estonia.

Francophone North Africa
Newly re-elected as Vice President, Daniel Vidaud offered to give a lead in recruiting new members in North Africa. It was intended that the campaign should focus on an issue such as children's rights.

Australia
David Lane reported that interest in joining FICE had been shown in Australia, though there was concern about the level of fees, especially when the body co-ordinating the State associations of workers had relatively few resources. He offered to try to make links with other Commonwealth countries as well.

North America
Jim Anglin reported that Canada was now ready to rejoin and had the resources to pay their fees. More important, a major conference is planned to take place next year in Victoria, and it was hoped that it might be used to make FICE better known in North America. There was discussion also about the United States, where Carol Kelly has acted as ongoing link.

Friendship Camps
Sena Druzic reported on the success of the third Friendship Camp. All six regions of former Yugoslavia had been represented and both staff and children got along well together. At the first camp there had been apprehension, but now they no longer feared each other. The children had been traumatised by war, and were living in countries where there was no social security and there was homelessness and unemployment. However, in the fortnight at the camp they were able to leave that behind, to forget, to play and to make new friendships. Sena thanked Rolf Widmer of Switzerland and Theo Binnendijk for their support. FICE-Switzerland had been particularly supportive, and the targets for the next Camp had already been agreed.

Experts in extra-familial care and education of children
Rolf Widmer, who had introduced the idea of creating a register of experts, suggested that the idea might best be handled in tandem with Educateurs sans FrontiÀres, and Daniel Vidaud was asked to take it on board.

FICE Policies
David Lane had circulated a paper about the collation of existing policies, and asked members to send them in, with a view to FICE-International endorsing them, perhaps after amendment, to create a corpus of thinking about good practice. If debate were needed, the pages of the website could be used.

Publicity
It was agreed that new publicity material was needed by FICE-International. Richard Joubert pointed out that this was of two types - general information about FICE's aims, structure etc. and a separate document about the activities and successes of national members. It was agreed that Famke Schiff should head up this work, as part of the Secretariat's duties. Wim Kok also offered to help gather information about successful projects.

Standards of Practice
Jim Anglin of Canada offered to provide the lead in work to establish international standards of work with children in various settings. These would be useful for international funding bodies in determining whether services were up to standard, and could also help workers in countries without such standards, offering them a template which they could use in drawing up their own standards of practice.

FICE-Inter Website
David Lane reported that the English version of the new website was now active, and that it had been agreed that Christine Karner should be approached to help with translations for the French and German. He answered a number of questions concerning the cost and contents of the website, and the use of the FICE Glossary. Soeren Hegstrup offered to make contact to get the former FICE-Inter website de-activated.

Competence in Secure Care
Andrew Hosie reported that a symposium was planned on the subject in November 2003, and because of concern about the subject in other FICE countries, it was hoped that the event could be used by FICE to address it internationally.

The business of the meeting led to the following decisions :

Next Meetings
After discussion about the options, it was decided to hold the next meeting of the Federal Council as previously planned in Moscow from 27th April to and May 2003 (incorporating May Day!) and to held a special meeting in Copenhagen from 26th to 29th May 2003 in order to meet with the Executives of AIEJI, FESET and EFCW.

Jollities for Joubert
The meeting ended on an extraordinary note. Richard Joubert claimed that he had reached the age of 70 and therefore it was appropriate for him to retire as Treasurer. He was not only given a gift by Theo Binnendijk in appreciation of his years of work looking after FICE's monies, but music was laid on and, together with Dashenka Tashkova of Bulgaria, Richard gave a brief exhibition of his gallic panache in a tango as a farewell performance. His wisdom, balanced judgement, precision, excellent book-keeping, humour, French songs and dancing will all be missed.

A presentation was also made to Kathleen Lane of Caring for Children / FICE-England and Wales, as it was her last appearance at a Federal Council.

 Top

FICE-Europe

FICE established a continental structure some years ago, but only FICE-Europe has been active. In accordance with statutes, the General Meeting of FICE-Europe was held in Berlin, just before the General Assembly of FICE-International.

Robert Soisson, as the outgoing President of FICE-Europe, gave a report on activities since the last General Meeting. These included :

EVAS, designed to monitor childcare measures and institutions
a Leonardo da Vinci project
the recruitment of partners for an anti-narcotic project in Romania
tendering for an EU project involving CARE Austria and CARE Romania
a project planned with FICE-Romania to evaluate projects (still under consideration by the Romanian Government)
the Professional Exchange Programme, managed by FICE-Europe for FICE-International
Friendship Camps in South-Eastern Europe.

The European Union had provided a grant to FICE-Europe, and other income had come from membership fees and in kind, in that employers had permitted FICE members to use time and other resources to develop and run the projects. Concern was expressed at the countries which had not contributed.

Robert Soisson was no longer able to be as actively involved as previously on health grounds, and René Bernard of ANCE (France) was elected as President to replace him. Onno von Praag also stood down as Treasurer, and Daniel Colombey of France was elected Treasurer. The renewed involvement of France in the running of FICE-Europe was welcomed, as they had previously played a major part in establishing the EU-funded programme which FICE-Europe inherited when it was established. Other members were added to the Board, and Robert Soisson and Onno von Praag offered to continue their involvement as observers in order to maintain continuity.

A Resolution for Peace

Resolution of the FICE General Assembly, held in Berlin on Tuesday 17th September 2002.

The following resolution was passed unanimously by the General Assembly of the Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE) and endorsed by acclamation at the Congress closing plenary session on Friday 20th September 2002. The Congress was attended by 900 registered delegates from 54 countries.

The Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives (FICE) was set up in 1948 to make a positive stand and provide mutual support in response to the enormous task faced by professionals caring for children and young people across Europe in the aftermath of Word War Two.

In 1987 FICE's role as a Peace Messenger was recognised by the United Nations.

As an organisation deeply concerned for the well-being of children around the world the FICE General Assembly 2002 meeting in Berlin :

1. calls upon members of the United Nations to actively avoid further armed conflicts, which will inevitably result in trauma to the children of any nation involved.

2. requests Kofi Anan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, to restrain more powerful nations from intervening in the affairs of less powerful countries in ways which may harm children.

3. urges most strongly that the rich and the powerful nations pour their energy and resources into working for peaceful resolutions to the many world crises, in order to ensure that all children have the opportunity to live in safety and to realise their full potential.