IFFD Activity Report 2013

Activity Report 2013

General Consultative Status with United Nations

IFFD- Activity Report 2013

Table of contentsLetter from the President

People

IFFD Courses

IFFD around the World

Expansion

Public Affairs

Glossary of Terms

About IFFD

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Angola

Sweden

Dominican Republic

Cameroon

Congo

Ivory Coast

Kenya

Nigeria

South Africa

Uganda

Botswana

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Canada

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

Panama

Peru

Puerto Rico

USA

Uruguay

Venezuela

Trinidad Tobago

China

Israel

Japan

Lebanon

Philippines

Singapore

Austria

Belgium

Croatia

Czech Republic

Estonia

France

Germany

The Netherlands

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Poland

Russia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Switzerland

Portugal

United Kingdom

Australia

New Zealand

Paraguay

Nicaragua

India

Romania

Finland


Dear Members, dear Collaborators, dear Parents:

The year 2013 was a very special year with the preparations for IYF+20 (20th Anniver-sary of the International Year of the Family), which will be celebrated in 2014. IFFD has been able to work closely with the United Nations to organize different events to prepare for this celebration. All the effort that has been made over the previous months can be seen in the website www.family2014.org, which has been set up spe-cifically to inform people about the events being carried out in different countries this special year.

I would like to particularly highlight the Civil Society Declaration which is being pro-moted by IFFD on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family. This declaration has been signed by more than 400 representatives of civil society organizations, academics and politicians from 70 countries, and is su-pported by over 240 organizations around the world.

The first edition of IFFD Briefing took place on February 12, 2013, in the UN head-quarters in New York. This event will be held annually from now on, during the Social Development Commission sessions. During the Briefing, the IFFD Awards were pre-sented, for the first time, to institutions and individuals for their efforts promoting good practices in favor of the family, or for the pro-family approach of their company or job.

As the international community becomes increasingly aware of the importance of having solid and sustainable families, we continue to deliver our Family Enrichment courses across the five continents. We are, once again, delighted and amazed by the incredible dedication of our volunteers. The increase in child-rearing know-how and committed love in marriages is reflected in the renewed optimism felt by people at-tending the courses.

This year, new courses have been launched in Botswana, Angola and Singapore, among others. Nigeria has organized courses in nine towns and cities, and Hong Kong has continued its steady growth with a new Marital Love course. Several coun-tries have organized moderator training sessions in order to be able to offer new courses in their countries, and Poland celebrated 10 years of ‘Akademia Familijna’ with a magnificent International Congress in Warsaw. North and South American countries, such as Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and the United States, continue to consolidate their activities and/or launch new ones.

The different international technical committees have made an incredible effort to review all the courses and make them available to Family Enrichment centers.Thanks to the effort and generosity of everyone – moderators, team leaders, ma-nagement teams and volunteers in the different centers – this year, we have, once again, made an enormous contribution to the family. Thank you to everyone who has helped families improve their child-rearing skills and learn to love more and better.

Warmest regards,

Marina Robben

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Letter from the President


People

ChairmanJim Morgan

Secretary GeneralJavier Vidal-Quadras

PresidentMarina Robben

Treasurer Antonio Tuñón

2014 International Year Project ManagerJavier Romero

IFFD Permanent Delegate in EU BrusselsAntoine Mellado

VicepresidentKarel Phlips

VicepresidentFélix Mabanta

Board memberJosé Miguel CubilloEspaña

Board memberRaymond MuturaKenya

Board memberGuillermo FraileArgentina

Board member José Miguel ReigSpain

Board memberJuan E. ZegersChile

Board memberIgnacio SocíasSpain

Director of Institutional DevelopmentJosé M. Reig

Operations ManagerLeticia Rodríguez

Office managerLorena Fernández

Communication AssistantBelén Rodríguez

Assistant TreasurerNatalia Pérez

Director of Communications and International Relations Ignacio Socías

Families and Societies Project Manager Eloise Leboutte

IFFD Permanent Delegate in UN New YorkCristina Napolitano

Board of Directors

Staff

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IFFD EspañaJosé Miguel & Lola Cubillo

Spain

Vice- Presidencies

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Italy

Austria

PolandInstytut Edykacjii Rodziny Anna & Janusz Wardak

Family First FoundationJoachim & Kan Chu

China (HK)Educhild FoundationFelix & Thelma Mabanta

Philippines

Family Enrichment Toronto OntarioMike & Deedi McKernan

Canada

Instituto de Matrimonio y FamiliaEnrique & Mireya PérezColombia, Ecuador, Peru, Dominican Republic, Venezuela

EcuadorFundación ICEFJuan Antonio & Sonia Godoy

Guatemala

MexicoAsociación LARMario & Viviana ArmellaMexico, Puerto Rico (and US Spanish-Speaking Areas)

Family Enrichment USA Joe & Lorelei Itchon

USA

CongoAssociation pour la famillieRené & Marie José Lumu

Program for Family DevelopmentRaymond & Evelyn Mutura

Kenya

Family Education AustraliaMaurice & Jane Watson

Australia

Asociación Familias Formado FamiliasGuillermo & Mara FraileArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

Argentina

Karel PhlipsBelgium

Gesellschaft für Familienorientierung,GFOMarkus & Alexandra Schwarz

Sistema Famiglia: Conferenza Permanente dei centri di Orientamento FamiliareGiorgio Tarassi & Carmen Pontieri

Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland

Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Lebanon

Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, RussiaItaly, Slovenia, India

Spain, Portugal, Israel Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa

Ivory Coast, D.R. Congo, Cameroon Australia, New Zealand

USA, Trinidad & TobagoCanada

China, Japan, SingaporePhilippines

Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama


About IFFD

1. We are a Federation of non-governmental, non-denominational, non-profit, independent and private Family Enrichment centers.

2. We work in 64 countries on the 5 continents (1 new in 2013).

3. Our mission is to help families around the world; we do not discrimi-nate by race, color, religion, gender, or country of origin.

4. We firmly believe that raising children is an unavoidable task for pa-rents and deserves support from society.

5. In order to achieve this task into practice, it is not enough to simply to want to do it; we also need to learn how to do it.

6. Our programs use the ‘case method’, which promotes dialogue about real situations without imposing our own ideas or dismissing other people’s.

7. The moderators are not teachers, but parents who are experts at fa-cilitating and guiding these debates in small groups.

8. The courses are aimed at groups of parents with children who are the same age, and are focused on acquiring appropriate skills for that stage of development.

9. It is important for both parents to be involved in the programs in order to ensure that each one makes their own contribution at an indi-vidual, marital and family level.

10. We organize regional and worldwide congresses, which reinforce our identity and help us to share knowledge and best practices.

Family Enrichment activity began in the mid-sixties with the development of support programs for parents based on the case method: a useful way of promoting dialogue about real situations which avoids imposing our own ideas or dismissing other people’s. After more than 30 years experience of carrying out these courses, the Inter-national Federation for Family Development was founded in Orlando (Florida), as a union of non-denominational, non-profit, independent and private Family Enrichment Centers. The headquarters is in Spain, which is where the first courses started.

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In order to be successful in educating children, it is not only essential to want to educate them correctly, but also to know how to do it. Just as men and women receive training in order to ad-vance their careers, they also need to receive training as parents. This training must involve both parents and be ongoing, adapting to the specific needs of each stage of child develop-ment.

The education of children is an unavoidable task for parents, and it must have the recognition and support of institutions and social partners.

Mission

Vision

The primary mission of IFFD is to support pa-rents in their child-rearing work, helping them develop their full potential as main educators for their children. Other goals of the organiza-tion are to provide expertise and knowledge regarding the family in national and interna-tional forums; to promote research studies; and to organize world congresses that focus on the needs of the family, in order to make these needs known to different social partners.

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IFFD courses

Our training programs employ the same methodology used by some of the most presti-gious business schools around the world, known as the ‘case method’. This method has been properly adapted to our courses and helps transmit to parents the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to be able to execute their roles as parents. The flexibility of this methodology allows us to adapt our training courses to different cultures and the varying circumstances of each place and time.

The programs have varying number of sessions –between 5 and 10– and each session is made up of four parts:

1. INDIVIDUAL READING OF THE CASE STUDY: The cases describe real-life situa-tions, which any family may experience, and about which the participating parents then form their own individual ideas.

2. JOINT READING OF THE CASE STUDY BY COUPLES: This promotes communi-cation and helps couples achieve a level of consensus about the rearing of their children.

3. SMALL GROUP SESSION: The case is discussed with other couples in order to com-pare different points of view.

4. LARGE GROUP SESSION: Led by an expert moderator.

Individual reading of the case study Joint reading of the case study by couples

Small group session Large group session

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IFFD also offers one program aimed at improving communication and streng-thening couples’ re-lationships:

MATRIMONIAL LOVE A program for married couples of all ages.

IFFD also has training programs aimed at other members of the family. One of them is aimed at young people who are at the stage of making de-cisions about their future, and the other is aimed at grandparents who play an active role in the rearing of their grandchildren:

PERSONAL PROJECTProgram for young people from 25 to 35 years.

GRANDPARENTSProgram for active grandparents.

IFFD currently offers five training programs for child develo-pment, each one relating to a different developmental stage:

FIRST STEPSA program for parents with children from 0 to 3 years old and/or young couples planning to become parents.

FIRST LETTERSA program for parents with children from 4 to 7 years.

FIRST DECISIONSA program for parents with children from 8 to 11 years.

PRE-ADOLESCENTSA program for parents with children from 11 to 14 years.

ADOLESCENTSA program for parents with children from 14 to 16 years.

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IFFD around the world

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Some cities where courses were held in 2013

Botswana

India

RussiaFinland

The Netherlands

Panama and Nicaragua

Member countries Countries which joined in 2011 Countries which joined in 2012

Sweeden

Dominican Rep.

China (continental)

New countries

Countries which joined in 2013

Angola

AbidjanAbujaAguascalientesAlabangAlmatyAntipoloArequipaAsuncionAuckland BarcelonaBariBarranquillaBelfastBeyrouthBilbaoBogotaBolognaBordeauxBostonBrasiliaBratislavaBrusselsBucaramangaBuenos AiresCagayan de OroCagliariCaliCaracasCartagena (Colombia)CataniaCebuChihuahuaCordova (Argentina)Cordova (Spain)

CuliacanDoualaDublinEnuguFaenzaFlumsFukuokaGabaroneGdanskGenevaGenoaGuadalajaraGuatemalaGuayaquilHamilton HelsinkiHermosilloHong KongHoustonHuelvaIbarraJaenJerusalemJohannesburgKatowiceKaunas KinshasaKlaipeda KohilaKrakowKromerizLa PazLagosLima

San Luis (Argentina)San Luis PotosiSan Pedro SulaSan SalvadorSanta CruzSantiagoSanto DomingoSao PauloŠiauliai SingaporeSplitStockholmSydneyTallinnTegucigalpaTokyoTolucaTorontoToulouseTrebicTrevisoValenciaVancouverVeronaVersaillesVictoriaVienaVilnius Warsaw Washington DCWroclawYaoundeZagrebZurich

LisbonLongueilLos AngelesLos MochisLuandaLuccaLugano LyonMadridMakatiMalagaManaguaMayaguezMedellinMelbourneMendozaMexicaliMexico MiamiMilanoModenaMonterreyMontevideoMontrealNagasakiNairobiNapoliNassNazarethNew JerseyNew YorkOlomoucOtawaOviedo

OwerriPalermoPalma de MallorcaPamplonaPanamaPanevezys ParisPasigPiuraPort of SpainPoznanPretoriaPueblaPurleyQuerétaroQuezon CityQuitoRennesRibeirão PretoRijekaRio de JaneiroRomeS.María Capua VetereSacramentoSaint-PetersburgSalernoSaltaSalzburgoSan AntonioSan Fernando (Chile)San FranciscoSan Jose (Costa Rica)San JuanSan Juan (Argentina)


1,728Family Enrichment

moderators

629Family Enrichment courses

22,950

4,403Family Enrichment cases

64Countries where IFFD is

2013 in figures

Participants in Family Enrichment courses

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Expansion

Africa

CAMEROON

Clovis Metang, coordinator of Family En-richment courses in Cameroon, has infor-med us that the moderator training cour-se, held in May 2012, is already paying off. Family training was re-started with a First Steps course in Yaoundé, which 17 couples attended. Afterwards, participants said that they found the course to be interes-ting, useful and enjoyable.

NIGERIA

On February 22, Mike Ijeh, Secretary-Ge-neral of the Nigerian Association for the Development of the Family (NAFAD), and Ike Nnaedozie, traveled to the eastern Ni-gerian city of Owerri to lend their support to a training course and the setting up of a First Steps course, in which 12 couples participated, some of whom were from the cities of Enugu and Aba. In Lagos, the Personal Project program has been laun-ched with a course which 32 young people attended.

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BOTSWANA & SOUTH AFRICA

The participation of moderators in recent training courses in Johannesburg, along with the support of moderators from neighbouring South Africa, made it possible to launch two courses in Gabarone in February 2013: Marital Love and First Steps. The South African Ins-titute for Family – SAIF – has organized two Marital Love courses: one in Pretoria and the other in Johannesburg.

ANGOLA

With the support of Portuguese expert moderators, the first moderator training session has been held, which will make it possible to set up IFFD courses in the country. In the coming years, local moderators will have the support of IFFD expert moderators to conso-lidate their training and to help support program promotion. The first program to be set up is First Steps.

Leaflets promoting courses in Botswana

The coodinator couple in Cameroun with Antonio and Tere Batlle, flying moderators from Spain

Participants in the First Steps course in Owerri, Nigeria


HONG KONG

On March 14, the first Marital Love program took place in Hong Kong. The first session was held in the home of the Chu family – managers of the Family First Foundation – with the participation of 16 couples from different countries: China, Europe, South America, North America, Korea, etc. Attendees actively participated in the course, sharing and discussing experiences. Family Enrichment is enjoying steady growth in this country, as can be seen in the progress made in recent years.

Asia

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ISRAEL

Spanish trainers travelled to Israel for the second time on February 7-10. Following the training course held in May 2012, the Board pledged to offer seve-ral sessions to promote the First Steps course which would begin when the moderator training program finished in February 2013. Seven such sessions were organized from May 2012 through January of this year.

The objective of this second visit was mainly to teach moderation techniques to seven people, who had amply demonstrated their readiness to moderate courses.

Following this trip, First Steps will begin in Nazareth, and the Personal Project course will begin in Jeru-salem. Both courses will be led by local moderators.


JAPAN

In Japan, several Family Enrichment courses have been held this year, the first of which was a First Steps course in Tokyo, the capital, in June. In Nagasaki, Takafumi Mori, who is in charge of the “Seido Parenting Association”, gave the same course to 7 couples, and in November, travelled to Fukuoka to coordinate and deliver the same course there. Another First Steps course was held in June in the Nagasaki Seido School.

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SINGAPORE

IFFD moderators travelled to Singapore at the beginning of March, at the invitation of Emilio and Valentina Klapenbach, IFFD program coordinators for this country. During their stay, they gave a talk presenting IFFD and Family Enrichment, which approximately 60 peo-ple attended.

As well as this talk, they were also responsible for holding a moderator training course, which 30 people actively participated in; 10 of the participants moderated the practical ses-sions. Seven new First Steps moderators were trained during this course and another seven at a later date.

In April, the first session of the First Steps program took place, with the participation of 20 couples, half of whom were from Singapore, and the rest from countries as diverse as the Philipines, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand and India.

In previous months, the Klapenbachs set up the Management Committee, which is respon-sible for promoting courses and training new moderators.

THE PHILIPPINES

An IFFD specialist moderator travelled to Manila on August 6-13 to carry out a refresher course for moderators. The training course included practical sessions, opportunities to exchange good practices for setting up and coordinating Family Enrichment courses, and talks on fundamental elements of family education.

Educhild Foundation coordinates Family Enrichment courses in different cities, including Quezon City, Alabang, Pasig, Makati, Cebu, Antipolo and Cagayan de Oro.


America

BRAZIL

Sidney Melo, moderator and head of the Family Enrichment center in Belo Horizonte, Bra-zil (part of the ‘Instituto Brasileiro da Família’), sent news of the first session of the fourth Marital Love course in this city of more than two million inhabitants.

Fifteen local couples participated in this first session, and it was clear how much both the participants and the organizers enjoyed it. In the breaks between sessions, participants made the most of the opportunity to get to know each other and share their thoughts and experiences.

COLOMBIA

On February 23, a national meeting of the directors of the FAMOF (Families which help other families) Foundation was held in Bogotá, Colombia. One of the main objectives, in addition to sharing thoughts and experiences, was to bolster the growth of Family Enri-chment which has been increasing in recent years. The Secretary-General of IFFD, Javier Vidal-Quadras, sent a message of support, in which he emphasized his joy at the holding of this meeting, “because it demonstrates not only your great commitment to the Family Enrichment ‘project’, but also your desire to make it grow.”

About 30 couples from seven cities – Bogotá, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Buca-ramanga, and Manizales – participated in the event.

In 2013, 9 moderator training courses were held in different cities (Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Campinas, Curitiba, Londrina, Ribeirão Preto, São José dos Campos and São Paulo), and 13 Family Enrichment courses took place: Marital Love en Belo Horizonte (2), Campinas, Londrina, and Sao Paulo (2); and First Steps in Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Campinas, Curiti-ba, Ribeirão Preto and Rio de Janeiro (2).

In the same year, 19 new moderators were trained, which makes a total of 53 active mode-rators in the country.

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ECUADOR

On September 14, the 3rd Moderator Refresher Program was held in the headquarters of IMF-Quito, in prepara-tion for the Family Enrichment courses which will take place during the 2013-2014 academic year.

As well as advanced techniques for moderators and team leaders and practical workshops, the video “Inspired to love” was shown and the first “Anthropology” class was given, which helped renew interest in work aimed at strengthening the family institution in Ecuador. It was an intense day with a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In January 2013, the first Family Enrichment course was held in the Dominican Republic. The Marital Love cour-se was organized by ‘Circuito Familiar’ – “an initiative set up by a group of couples interested in improving our first and most important responsibility: the family.”It took place in the prestigious Barna Business School with the participation of around 30 couples. The general session, in which the case is discussed with all the cour-se participants, was held on February 25, with a high le-vel of participation and involvement by all couples.

Leaflets promoting courses in Dominican Republic

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MEXICO

From May 17-19, the 6th National Convention of Family Enrichment Centers was held in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, organized by the LAR association, with the title “Modern Family, New Challenges”.

Almost 90 couples attended the event, including the Reig-Teetors (Spanish moderators), and Ricardo Murcio, Di-rector of the Human Factor and Business and Family Departments of the Pan-American Institute of Higher Mana-gement (IPADE). The lectures focused on different topics, such as teaching affectivity, raising adolescents, what is expected of parents, Family Enrichment around the world, and work and family reconciliation.

Marcelo Lopez, Secretary of the Department of Sustainable Development of the Government of Querétaro, atten-ded the closing dinner and ceremony, which were held in the former convent of Santa Rosa de Viterbo.

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EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS, GUATEMALA & PANAMA

Intensive moderator training days were held in Guatemala, on No-vember 9, and in El Salvador on November 10, with the participa-tion and support of José Miguel Cubillo, president of IFFD Spain and specialist moderator trainer. These training courses will make it possible to launch new programs in Guatemala and expand the group of moderators who give courses in El Salvador, where all the Family Enrichment courses are offered.

‘Fundación para la Familia’, in Honduras, and ‘Fundación Exce-lencia Educativa’, in Panama, set up First Steps programs in 2013. Both countries already offer Marital Love courses, and, in Teguci-galpa, the Adolescents program is also available.

First Steps course in Tegucigalpa


On October 26, the 2nd Moderator Training Program was held in the ‘Los Arcos de Caracas’ school in Venezuela in preparation for the start of Family Enrichment courses in the 2013-2014 academic year. Another moderator training session was held in the ‘Los Robles’ school in Maracaibo on November 30, which will make it possible for Family Enrichment courses to be set up in this city.

In Caracas, a Marital Love course was also held, with the lively participation of 29 couples, who all really enjoyed the course, and finished it full of energy to continue to learn more in future courses and to encourage other cou-ples to join the programs.

VENEZUELA

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UNITED STATES

Every year, ‘The Leadership Initiative for Family Enrichment’ (LIFE) holds an intensive one-day workshop to keep moderators and team leaders up to date with the latest practices. In 2013, this session was held on September 28 in IESE Business School in Manhattan, with the participation of 55 moderators and team leaders from New York, Boston and Washington. On the West Coast, another training course for moderators took place on July 27 in Los Angeles. In 2013, courses were held in San Francisco, Sa-cramento, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, Washington DC, Boston, Miami, New Jersey and New York.

During one of the sessionsIsabel and Matt Maloney, Ruben Avila , Vickie Reig and Cristina Napolitano.


Europe

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CROATIA

In 2013, IFFD supported two moderator training courses organized by ‘Obiteljsko Obogacivanje’, the Croatian Fa-mily Enrichment Center. The first training session took place on June 28-30 in Sipan (Dubrovnik), and the second on October 18-20 in Zagreb. The aim of both of these courses was to consolidate the training of existing modera-tors and give them the skills they need to be able to train their own moderators in the future.

FINLANDBelgian moderators travelled to Helsinki on the wee-kend of March 15-17 to moderate a case related to affectivity in adolescents and train several modera-tors.A few months later, they supported local moderators giving a First Steps course.

FRANCE

The Annual National Meeting of French Family Enrichment moderators took place in Versailles, France, on the weekend of May 18 & 19. Fifteen couples took part in the event, travelling together to this location 30 minutes outside of Paris.

On the Saturday, psychotherapist Virginie Tesson gave a talk on happiness in marriage, with the aim of training couples in preparation for the start of the first Marital Love course (October 2013). Following this talk, couples participated in workshops to learn more about the role of team leaders. At the end of the day, Leticia Rodríguez de Santiago, responsible for IFFD expansion, gave a presentation about IFFD.

On the Sunday, the General Assembly of IPEF (Institut pour l´education dans la famille) was held, in which all the progress made with Family Enrichment in the country was reviewed, and two cases were moderated by two of the participants.


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POLAND

The International Congress “Families, it’s your time” was held on November 9-10 at “Strumienie” School in Joze-fow near Warsaw, Poland, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Family Enrichment in the country. During the two days, more than 300 people, representing around 10 different countries, participated in the open sessions, and more than 150 took part in workshops aimed at Family Enrichment experts. Lectures and workshops were held on both days of the congress.

Pawel Wolinski, president of the ‘Mother and Father Foundation’ presented the results of a study which shows parents’ thoughts about raising their children. Karel Phlips, Vice-President of IFFD for Europe, encouraged people attending his lecture to “invest” in their marriages as the foundation of each family.The event also included different wor-kshops for more than 60 moderators, led by José María Postigo, meetings with the coordinators of Family Enrich-ment courses in Poland, held by Karel and Marina Phlips, president of IFFD, as well as a discussion about different ways of promoting the courses in diffe-rent countries.

The congress concluded with a roun-dtable discussion in which the leaders of Family Enrichment in Poland shared their memories of the last 10 years of courses in this country.

ITALY

On May 11, the general assembly of ‘Sistema Famiglia - Conferenza permanente dei Centri di Orientamento fa-miliare’ was held in Rome. During the event an overview was given of the activities carried out during 2012 and the representatives of the 21 associations which make up the organization discussed their experiences. During the year, 57 courses were given in 21 Italian towns and cities. Italian moderators also supported a First Decisions program in Lugano (Switzerland) and a moderator training conference in Potsdam, Germany.


PORTUGAL

More than twenty couples belonging to CENOFA (Portuguese Family Enrichment Center) met in Sintra, a Portu-guese town situated about 30 kilometers outside of Lisbon, on April 19-21.

As well as making the most of this opportunity to carry out some fun family-oriented activities and trips, on Sun-day, they took part in a moderator training session, led by experts who travelled there from Barcelona, Spain. In this session, participants, along with guest moderators, discussed common issues related to the functioning of Family Enrichment centers (administration, organization, and promotion), as well as the selection and functions of head coordinators: equipment, participant tracking, etc. Laura Sánchez, a Spanish moderator, also gave a talk entitled, “Parents as a model of love,” in which she spoke about the possible difficulties that couples face today, the complementarity between men and women, and the role of parents. She ended with an explanation of what Family Enrichment offers to each family: training, friendship, strength, and trust. All the participants and their families enjoyed the weekend very much and are already starting to think about the next one.

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SPAIN

On January 25 & 26, an international moderator training course was held in Barcelona, attended by couples from Croatia and Brazil, as well as from the provinces of Barcelona and Lleida. The sessions were held by local expert moderators.

On May 4, the Second Conference of Presidents of Family Enrichment Centers took place in Madrid. During the event, the new branding for IFFD Spain was presented in a session by José Miguel Cubillo entitled “Towards a new brand architecture”; the General Assembly was held; and a status report was given about the work being carried out by the different Technical Committees (Spanish, French, German), who are reviewing and updating all current course materials.


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SLOVAKIA

In Bratislava, a second Marital Love course was held in the country, finishing on April 28. Sixteen couples, including everything from young married couples to grandparents, took part in the course. It was an interesting program for all participants, and many of them plan to attend another course next year.

IFFD member ‘Zdruzenie pre Rozvoj Rodiny’ took part in the country’s second regional con-ference, focusing on work and family life reconciliation, which was held in Casta Papiernic-ka, near Bratislava. This international meeting was organized by the Slovak National Asso-ciation for the Family and the Social Affairs Committee of the National Parliament of the Slovak Republic. The main speaker was IESE Business School professor Nuria Chinchilla. MEP Anna Zaborska, Renata Kaczmarska-Photakis, head of the family department for the United Nations, and IFFD were the main sponsors of this event. Family organizations which took part in the conference also joined the Civil Society Declaration on the occasion of the Twentieth Anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

SWEDEN

Javier and Inma Reguart, IFFD experts moderators, travelled to Stockholm on September 27-29 to train new moderators. Around 15 young couples attended the course. There was a high level of participation in the discussion of the case. This year, 3 new moderators have been trained in the country.

UNITED KINGDOM

Spanish Family Enrichment moderators travelled to Purley, United Kingdom, on the wee-kend of November 23, to give the second part of a moderator training course which started in October. Fifteen couples took part in the course, including the members of the Board.


Public Affairs

The year 2013 was the year of preparation for the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family. Therefore, in addition to many other activities, a series of preparatory events were organized. This anniversary (IYF) offers an opportunity to reshape the role of families in development, take stock of recent trends in the deve-lopment of family policy, share best practices in family policies, and review the challenges facing families world-wide and recommend solutions. Due to rapid socio-economic and demographic changes, families are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their responsibilities.

They are also finding it harder to reconcile work and family lives and maintain intergenerational ties. In response to these trends, the preparations for the twentieth anniversary of the IYF have focused on family-oriented policies and strategies aimed primarily at combating family poverty, ensuring work / family life balance, demonstrating its relevance to global development efforts, and drawing attention to the role of different stakeholders in achieving these goals.

General Introduction

On February 12, 2013 was held at the UN headquarters in New York the first edition of IFFD Briefing to be held every year from now during the session of the Commission for Social Development, drawing the participation of delegates and the presence of envoys from many governments around the world.

The event was chaired by the Program Coordinator of the United Nations family, Renata Kaczmarska (who praised the work of IFFD worldwide and urged all present to join in the preparations for the celebration) and also featured speeches by Marina Robben, President of the International Federation for Family Development, and Cristina Na-politano, Delegate IFFD in New York.

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Jim Morgan, Marina Robben and Ignacio Socías with Renata Kaczmarska and representatives from other organizations during the conclusion of the Briefing.

IFFD BRIEFING. PRESENTATION OF THE EXPERTS BOOK AND CIVIL SOCIETY DECLARATION


The event began with a presentation by Marina Robben, president of the IFFD, of the results and recommenda-tions from the European Experts Meeting held in Brussels in June 2012, which have been compiled in a book.

This publication includes nine best practices for family policy from different European countries, including impor-tant initiatives such as practical help for children between 8 and 15 years old who are at risk of social exclusion in Stockholm; an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at single-parent families in Dublin; and the prevention of domestic violence through the implementation of a family services system in Rotterdam, among others.

Ignacio Socías, director of International Relations for IFFD, presented the Civil Society Declaration, promoted by IFFD on the occasion of the twen-tieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family (2014), and which dozens of organizations worldwide have joined.

Cristina Napolitano, IFFD delegate to the United Nations (New York), explained the contribution that the Federation has made this year to the Commission for Social Development, in particu-lar the extension of the concept of empowerment to families as an essential prerequisite for perso-nal empowerment and social improvement.

This was followed by the presentation of the IFFD Awards, which were presented, in this first edition, to Michael Flaherty – producer of the film “The Chronicles of Narnia”, among many others – the Regional Council of Veneto, for promoting pro-family policies in this Italian region, and the Madrid Vivo Foundation (which due to a scheduling conflict was presented to Juan Miguel Villar-Mir, vice-president of the entity, in Madrid).

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Eloise Leboutte and Cristina Napolitano, IFFD delegates to the United Nations


PREPARATORY EVENTS FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE FAMILY

WARSAW

On April 3 & 4, Akademia Familijna, an associate member of IFFD, organized a conference to raise awareness of the twentieth anniversary of the In-ternational Year of the Family (2014), with the title “Challenges for families in the twenty-first century”. The conference was chaired by Minister Irena Wóy-cicka, representing the President of the Republic, and Renata Kaczmarska and other recognized ex-perts from Poland, such as the economist Dariusz Winek, professor Lukasz Hardt, the director of In-ternational Relations of IFFD and other academics, participated as speakers.

During the event, 22 Polish family organizations par-ticipated in a meeting to set up a strategic alliance for the preparation and celebration of IYF 2014 and joined the Civil Society Declaration.

BRUSSELS

On May 15, the International Day of Families was held in the European Parliament. Organized by IFFD with the help of 11 other entities, over 160 MEPs, academics and representatives of NGOs attended the event, which inclu-ded talks by ten experts on work and family life reconciliation (including the president of Eurofound, the founder of Betreut, the Veneto region delegate, and the Austrian MEP Heinz K. Becker, among others) and the Commissio-ner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor.

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The Polish Government also requested the collaboration of IFFD as experts on the family, and expressed their willingness to support the International Year of the Family in Poland and the improvement of family policies in this country.

Due to the worrying decline in birth rate, which, at present, is 1.36 children per couple, the government wants to implement measures to promote motherhood.

The Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and InclusionDuring the speech of Lazslo Andor


NEW YORK

On May 16, the International Day of Families was held at the UN headquarters in New York with the title “Advan-cing social integration and intergenerational solidarity”. This event included a roundtable involving, among other, Carlos Enrique Garcia Gonzales, Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United Nations, and Ms. Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United.To mark this celebration, the UN Secretary-General issued a message urging “governments , civil society, families and individuals to support initiatives that bring people from different generations together with the aim of crea-ting a healthier world for all”.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE

On August 26, a seminar organized by “Fundación Hacer Familia”, an IFFD member, was held as part of the prepa-rations for the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family (2014), titled “The sustainable family: key to development”. The event was attended by Renata Kaczmarska, Focal Point United Nations Programmeon the Family, and Oleg Serezhin, head of the Technical Cooperation Unit of the Division for Social Policy and De-velopment of the UN, as well as the Undersecretary for the Chilean Ministry of Social Development, Soledad Arellano, the rector of the University of San Sebastián Santiago, Ri-cardo Riesco, and Sergio Urzua, professor at the University of Maryland and economist for the Center for Public Stu-dies of Chile.

Prior to the seminar, a lunch with more than a hundred politicians, academics and other representatives of civil society was held. Renata Kaczmarska said a few words at the beginning of the meal to explain that the celebration of this anniversary will serve “to highlight the role of the family as a basic social unit and to emphasize the need to pay adequate attention to all aspects related to family de-velopment.”

LAGOS

The Nigerian Family Enrichment Association (NAFAD) or-ganized a conference on “Progress in social integration and intergenerational solidarity for Nigerian families through education and poverty-reduction programs” on September 25. Renata Kaczmarska, who was represented by the Mana-ger and Head of the United Nations Information Center in Lagos, Oluseyi Soremekun, spoke about the urgent need to promote social and economic policies designed to address the needs both of families and of individual family mem-bers, especially the most needy and vulnerable, paying spe-cial attention to children. He added that civil society organizations will have the task of working together to ensure equal opportunities for all and to understand and communicate their social responsi-bility.

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Families and Societies Project

“Families and Societies” is the most important research project on the family being carried out within the fra-mework of the European Union. The project, funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the EU, has the support of 25 academic institutions in 15 countries. Its civil society representative is IFFD.

With the presence of officials from the European Commission, including the Director General of Research and In-novation, Robert Burmanjer, and leading experts in Sociology, Demography and Law, the “Families And Societies Project - Changing families and sustainable societies: Policy contexts and diversity over the life course and across generations” was officially launched on March 8 with a meeting in Stockholm of all its members. Stockholm Uni-versity is responsible for coordinating the 25 universities and 3 transnational entities who will participate during the 4 years of the project. The main objective is to reach a deep understanding of the reality of the family in Europe today in order to be able to offer recommendations to governments for the implementation of social policies that promote wellness, inclusion and sustainable development of European families.

The role of IFFD in this project is to coordinate civil society entities, as well as to design a survey to enrich the results of the study and contribute to the communication strategy of the results. Pablo Ruíz García, Professor of Sociology at the University of Zaragoza, will be responsible for leading the team who will carry out the scientific part of IFFD’s involvement in this project.

A session to present the IFFD Family Enrichment Courses was held in the European Parliament in early March. The event was organized by the European Alliance for Children, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of children in the European Union.

Other events

Ignacio Socías, director of IFFD International Relations, with Livia Oláh, project coordinator

Marina Robben, president of IFFD, gave a presentation of IFFD programs in a special session to various organizations in the European Parliament.

Ignacio Socías during his speech

PRESENTATION OF FAMILY ENRICHMENT COURSES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT


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PARTICIPATION IN THE PREPARATORY MEETING OF EXPERTS FOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CAIRO CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT TO BE HELD IN 2014

The director of international relations for IFFD took part in a preparatory meeting of experts, held in Bucharest on April 25 & 26, ahead of the main event which will take place in 2014 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Cairo Conference on Population and Development, organized by the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. In his presentation, he focused on personal freedom as a universal va-lue in opposition to preconceptions and dogmas, and the family as a fundamental and essential area of education.

We have been invited to many other events, such as the World Family Summit (Berlin), the Emerging Leaders Con-ference (Brussels), the European Demography Forum (Brussels), the Conference on Household Services (Brussels), the Conference on Family Policy (Montebelluna), the Assembly of Family Justice Centers (Derry), the debate on the future of the family (Zabrze), the Assembly of the Elisan Network (Brussels), and the ELFAC (Budapest).

IFFD attended several meetings of special importance, which took place during the opening session # 68 of the General Assembly of the United Nations, from September 20 to 27, aimed at defining the next set of Development Goals, which will take over from the Millennium Develop-ment Goals and which will be in force from 2015, in addi-tion to attending various events to which the Federation had been invited.

IFFD IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Unicef presented at its headquarters in New York a new partnership aimed at preventing and combating violence against children in homes, schools and com-munities. To this end, Unicef invited various acade-mic institutions and organizations, such as the Qatar Foundation and the popular Sesame Street interna-tional television channel, and other representatives of civil society to form a consortium that IFFD will also be part of.

NEW ALLIANCE LED BY UNICEF

The Fourth Annual Lecture on the Family was held on October 24, and was attended by Daniel Molinuevo, Research Officer of Eurofound, the European agency for improving working and living conditions which acts as an advisory body for trade unions, employers and governments of the Member States. During his presentation, Molinuevo presented the results of the report “Support programs for parenting in the Euro-pean Union.”

IV ANNUAL LECTURE ON THE FAMILY

AT THE UNITED NATIONS, GENEVA, JULY 2013

During the first week of July, three delegates from the International Federation for Family Development (Ignacio Socías, Javier Romero and Eloïse Leboutte) took part in two important UN meetings in Geneva, aimed at defining the next set of Millennium Development Goals and the preparation of the Summit on Population and Development which is to be held in 2014, twenty years after the original event which took place in Cairo in 1994. These meetings were the High Level Economic and Social Council of the UN, and the preparation for the Cairo +20 summit.

As well as attending both events, the Director of International Relations for IFFD was invited to speak at each of them, making an oral statement on the role of the family in development and its importance to the future of society. In his statement, Ignacio Socías reminded participants that “most of the Millennium Development Goals are difficult to achieve if the strategies to achieve them do not focus on the family, especially with regard to the reduction of poverty, child education and a decrease in child mortality.”

Cristina Napolitano and Ignacio Socías at the UN


Glosary

Family Enrichment program:

The combination of people and material aimed at providing parents with pedagogi-cal ideas and guides for educating their children at different ages. There is a specific program for each stage of child development, and for the different training needs of other members of the family.

Program director:

A moderator who is specialized in a particular Family Enrichment program, and who is responsible for (a) coordinating courses related to this program, (b) training the mo-derators who give the program, and (c) collecting suggestions from moderators and participants in order to pass them on to the Technical Committee.

Family Enrichment center:

These are generally set up as associations with Boards of Directors, made up of at least three couples. Their function is to promote, gain finance for, and coordinate Fa-mily Enrichment courses within their geographic areas, with the support of team lea-ders and moderators who are experts in the case study methodology.

Family Enrichment course:

This is the application of a training program to a particular group of parents. Partici-pation in the course requires parents to make a personal effort, attending small group and general meetings in which real cases are discussed.

Case method:

This is a particularly participative methodology, which has proven to be very effective in fields of knowledge and human activity where subjectivity guides our actions. It is widely used in business schools for executive education, and its educational value in the field of family education lies in the fact that parents become active participants in the training process, learning in a very practical way how to recognize and analyze problems, to increase the level of communication with their partner to reach a deci-sion on what measures to take, and how to apply these measures to resolve different situations that arise as part of family life.

Course coordination couple:

This is the couple who, when participating in a Family Enrichment course, is responsi-ble for coordinating the general sessions of the course. They are in constant commu-nication with the team leaders and collect participants’ evaluations and suggestions to be passed on to the Family Enrichment center.

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Family system:

This is the name used for the application of the case method to family training, giving it unique aspects. In addition to the traditional three stages of the case me-thod, which are (1) , (2) discussion of the case in small groups, and (3) general dis-cussion, we add an intermediary stage: the discussion of the case by the couple. This means that the family system is made up of a total of four stages: (1) personal study, (2) discussion as a couple, (3) team meeting, and (4) general session, led by an expert. The family system is more focused on the couple than on the subject.

1. Personal study: Each participant goes through the technical notes and the case individually. This stage, in which husbands and wives study and start to try to resol-ve the case on their own, sends a very important message: “You are responsible for your own learning; don’t expect to be given all the answers.” In this way, as well as acquiring theoretical knowledge, they start to use their initiative.

2. Discussion as a couple: In a separate session, couples work on the case together. One of the biggest problems in child-rearing is the lack of a united front, norma-lly due to insufficient communication between parents. Discussing a case which doesn’t relate to the couple personally really helps them to talk about it objecti-vely. During the discussion of the case, the husband and wife start to reconnect and talk about things of great importance without getting defensive. This, in turn, helps them get to know each other better, realize that they are able to face problems together in an effective way, learn to be objective when faced with real situations, define problems more accurately, and be creative when looking for solutions.

3. Team meeting: Five couples meet up, on another day, to discuss the case in one of the couples’ homes. One of the couples acts as team leaders, their main role being to help friendships form among the members of the group. The discussion takes place in a safe and supportive environment, thanks to both the size of the group and the physical environment, someone’s home, and this allows participants to openly discuss their views with other couples. During this session, people start to open up and get inspired as they discover a much wider range of solutions than what they have been able to come up with on their own or in couples. At the same time, couples get to know each other while talking about important things, which really helps to create and strengthen friendships.

4. General session: A moderator leads a discussion of the case with all the couples participating in the course in another session which is very different to the team meetings. It is very important to leave a bit of time between each stage, in order to give couples time to think about and discuss what they have learned. This also helps to increase opportunities for communication between husbands and wives. The role of the moderator in the general sessions is that of a father or mother who has experience with this type of case. They do not assume the role of experts telling the other parents what they have to do. The moderator has to be capable of ensu-ring that it is the other participants who, following the method (facts, problems, solutions and criteria), come up with possible ways to resolve the case.

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Moderator:

This is a mother or father who, having been trained in discussion group moderation techniques and specialized in a particular area of family training, leads a general session of a Family Enrichment course. This individual’s role is to achieve the hi-ghest possible level of participation from the parents attending the session, hel-ping them define the problems presented in the case to ensure that they learn as much as possible during the session.

Team leader:

This function is carried out by one of the couples participating in a program. Their role is to help the other couples get to know each other and guide the small group sessions in which they participate.

Moderator training course:

IFFD has developed its own training courses in which people who would like to start moderating Family Enrichment courses acquire the necessary skills and knowle-dge. IFFD also provides refresher courses for moderators who have already been trained but wish to update their skills.

Technical notes:

This is the theoretical exposition, with scientific rigor, of aspects related to the to-pic to be discussed in the Family Enrichment session, and is intended to help parti-cipants as they analyze cases and make decisions.

Technical Committee:

This is an international team of moderators who are experts in Family Enrichment and who are responsible for supervising the quality of the cases and technical notes for the courses, as well as updating or creating new cases or courses to comple-ment the current range.

Case:

This is the presentation of a real-life family story which contains elements related to the topic to be discussed in the Family Enrichment session.


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The Family Watch:

This is an observatory, or “think tank”, dedicated to analyzing the social reality of the family from an interdisciplinary perspective that prepares studies, proposals, and initia-tives that help family issues to become better known. The Family Watch was inspired by IFFD and its role is to coordinate all the institutional relations on behalf of IFFD.

General Consultative Status:

The ECOSOC is the organ through which civil society, represented by non-governmen-tal organizations, has a formal role in the deliberations of the United Nations.By granting consultative status, the ECOSOC accredits organizations which it consi-ders to be technically capable of dealing with matters within their area of competence, advising the Council, and participating actively in the actions it carries out. NGOs give their advice by participating as observers in meetings of the Council and its subsidiary bodies, as well as in sessions of other United Nations bodies. They are authorized to make written declarations and oral interventions, and provide reports.

The ECOSOC grants special consultative status to NGOs which have special compe-tence in, and are concerned specifically with, only a few of the fields of activity covered by the ECOSOC. General consultative status is reserved for large international NGOs whose area of work covers most of the issues on the agenda of ECOSOC and its sub-sidiary bodies. Currently, only 5% of the NGOs present in the ECOSOC have general consultative status.

C/ Artistas nº 2, 2º 28020- Madrid (Spain)t +34 91 726 02 93

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General Consultative Status with the United Nations

Documents

IFFD Activity Report 2013