Indian wedding

The team witnessed a colourful wedding and the various tradition followed . this was a first experience  for the team to witness a wedding.

Inauguration of Skill training Center in Juveniles center

Open Skill training Center

Roland ingaurated a skill training center at Juvenile home where convicts under 18 of age are kept and supervised in an institute and center for rehabilitation. It is here the YMCA Salem inaugurated a life-skill training center, where the inmates are taught computer education both as information and also as data entry operation which will offer stability at work and self-sufficiency, the two volunteers from Germany, Martin and Sebastian, agreed to work on sports to bring out their inborn and innate gift and skills and nurture the same in a conducive learning environment. The center provides new hope for the children assuring the bad moments experienced could turn a new w possibility to change and redirect the course of action.

Inauguration of Counseling Center at YMCA Salem.

Presents

With growing need for counseling and guidance for youth and students. The YMCA today inaugurated a center with a motive to offer special counseling for the needy students. The center was inaugurated by Roland and Marianne for the benefit of the students and wider community at large.

Connecting to new frontiers (4th day)

After many attempts Roland Werner met with Rev. Sam Stephens at Salem. The brief discussion helped to relate the mission concern for YMCA. The discussion  priorized on the forth coming mission conference in India  and also on the task of worships at the next YMCA World council meetings at Colorado, 1214, for which Roland Werner has graciously consented to the request of the Secretary General of the World Alliance.

Meeingpartner

Meeting and welcome evening at YMCA New Delhi with the National Council of YMCAs of India and also the president and leadership of YMCA New Delhi. The evening brought also some of the YMCA leaders of the YMCA North India offering richness of a wider and ecumenical fellowship. The German leadership was welcomed with traditional way of shawling the guests. The president Roland Williams, president of the YMCA S of India welcomed and greeted the visiting Germany team and honored. Roland Werner brought greetings and a message of peace to the Indian movement, and appreciated their partnership the YMCA Germany and India share for over 50 years of time.

Berthold Messinger

The evening followed with many informal and side meetings of interest with Berthold Messinger on projects and Roland. The next day the leadership of National council including the National president Roland Williams, National General Secretary of YCA India, John Varghese and many other fraternal leaders like Daniel Ravikumar and department staff.

The sharing was based on knowing each other mission strength and challenge of both the movements and see the possibility of further connectivity in mission in the days to come.

Both Roland and Berthold shared their experiences in India and also appraised the long partnership with the Indian Movement and German movement. The meeting was productive and proactively looked into future initiatives. As the teams travel round India to various partners in teams of three, will come back to reflect on all the experiences gained in the visit.

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Group in Africa.

A group of 12 people drawn from YMCA, both executive and volunteers, came together from 12-15 November in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss the possibility of establishing African Renaissance University. The meeting began with Barbara Schellhammer, who dwelt on the background of the University initiative. Barbara also provided the essence of the research she and her husband (Erich Schellhammer) were engaged in, on behalf of Royal Roads University (Canada) in May 2011, at Togo, which serves as  a base document.

The group consented to work on two important aspects of the ARU:

• To work on a curriculum for the leadership Institute for Africa Alliance, for staff / executive and volunteers capacity building and
• Business plan for the Africa Renaissance University

Carlos Sanvee, African Alliance of YMCAs, gave a brief scan on the interest for starting a university that emanates the African history, renaissance of culture and distinctive African context.

Dr. Helmut Danner

There was a special presentation by Dr. Helmut Danner, the author of the book, ‘The end of Arrogance’ who has lived in Kenya for decades. He shared an input on how to evolve a relevant and contextual curriculum, which was followed by an interesting critical and reflective discussion.

Wolfgang Neuser

As part of the second session Dr. Wolfgang Neuser presented a session on ‘Goal Setting’, exploring the vision and mission for such an university exploration. He divided the group into four to discuss SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threats), to discuss the leadership institute and also ARU. The group-after discussion culminated into a plenary sharing the view points and writing down the list on the above.

The day was very productive, leading into the next day which will indulge in further discussion on designing a curriculum for the leadership Institute for staff and executive training and volunteers.

The staff of Africa Alliance of YMCAs participated in the forenoon and it is noteworthy to mention one of the staff is Gunter Ozdyk, who was a former volunteer in Sierra Leone, who now serves as staff, networking on IT provision for the Africa movement.

Dr. Wolfgang Neuser about Goal setting

He spoke about Goal setting in life and inspired the group to understand SMART goals, which is Sizable, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound or framed. Allowing the group to discuss this smaller groups he encouraged them to develop a project for their organization keeping a clear mission in focus and draw implementable goals using SMART. The groups presented a very realistic project proposals which affirmed the digestion of the concept shared.

Wolfgang encouraged participatory recognition of the Goal setting process and ended the session with a strong note on achievements. He said the results are very imperative and he also explained that Goals  cab be changed , the results have to be evaluated and he further said after the achievements of  goals , its time to party. Celebration included part of the process of goal setting. He finally spoke on functions of goals, both ultimate and relative and added the following points. Goals help to decide, Goals motivate and direct activities, Goals build and keep identity, Goals help to review the work, Goals help to solve conflicts. He engaged in a consistent dialogue with the team and encouraged them to share and dialogue on various points with one another. Was a productive time of reflection and learning?

All in traditional clothes

The BA HuD face to face residency had a special International evening where the participants displayed their national costumes and also cultural symbols in order to share the intercultural leanings. The group demonstrated their respective language pronunciation and greeted the members of the team with signs and words in their respective mother tongues.

Solomom cooked

This evening also brought greater learning on other cultures and respected the expression of greetings and welcoming others. The traditions displayed brought strong bonding and closeness with one another. Of course the evening ended with a special Indian dinner prepared for the participants by Solomon which included, Lemon rice, chicken curry, potato fry, mixed vegetables, chicken fry and  a desert, which the participants thoroughly enjoyed … A wonderful evening of learning and sharing intercultural expressions and competences.

Coaching Session with Niki Kux-Kardos from Canada.

The second week of the residency began with Niki Fritz as she calls herself. Niki  is a professional coach from Canada and delivered to us a strong and dialogical session on coaching. She dealt vividly on the power of coaching, various models of coaching and carried her session with many small group exercises to gain insights into the content of the course.

The small groups played roles as Coach, Coachee and Observer in order to gain practical engagement and learning outcomes from participatory process.

All together (with the national flag of Ghana)

She further dwelt on communication and inter-cultural perspectives  as to how  some of the simple communications are viewed from many respective cultural contexts. The small groups also exercised on paraphrasing, asking leading questions, both close end and open ended questions, Reflection and power of silence. Sharing many personal and community cases, she influenced on the group the power to be a coach and how each one of us in our work and positioning in community and church could be an effective coach. Condensing on the top ten qualities of a coach she trailed through many sub dominant themes of, Your light and values, Coaching and resilience, Reflection and support ,Reflection practice; debrief; culture & relevance and closing circle. What a well accomplished session that ended on Wednesday with an in-depth discussion.

All together.

From the documentary narration we recognized the life style of Hitler was a dichotomy. He appeared often with children and people to win the confidence of the German people and at the same time his private life was concealed and displayed him as loner and need entertainment all the time to keep himself cheerful and pepped up. To me this was obviously a style of a strong leader who had the charisma to transfer his personal hatred to be the national consensus, including framing national policy or racial policy and nationalism of national community. This is a powerful model of strategic elimination of weak by the strong and powerful.

But at the end what became very encouraging was the cutting-edge leadership of Col. Claus von Stauffenburg who had the courage to stand against the tyranny of fear. It is the leadership of Col .Stauffenburg, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Hans Litten that inspired me in particular. Amidst all fearful dictatorship, there was someone who threw hope to rest by opposing the dictator or Furher ( leader) as called in German. The history shall remember the leadership of Col. Stauffenburg who had the courage and took a stand against the destructive powers which calls for courage at the cost of his own life.

It also makes us feel that people who stood against Hitler were like prophets of Old Testament, like Nathan who had the courage to face and tell powerful king David that he was wrong. And also Prophet Elisha who stood to tell the evil king Ahab and his wife Jezebel that were wrong. The hope is in those who could challenge and resist evil and to rewrite history of hope by taking a strong position for justice and right.

Participants of the first face to face residency.

Amidst beauty of nature and scenic location of YMCA Guesthouse at Hintersee, Germany, the first face-to-face residency programme of BA HuD and the first batch of the international BA online programme of The International YMCA University, Kassel has kicked off on Monday.

With over 30 applications reaching the IYU at Kassel, 20 participants were granted admission who met the criteria laid down by the accreditation board. Meeting the benchmark of standardization and index of the study requirement, several YMCAs staff and volunteers, social workers and church associated missions’ workers chose to begin the fulltime three years BA HuD programme.

Covering in total 180 credit points, the fulltime study programme covers a variety of dynamic modules of human development, leadership and cross-cultural dialogue that combines theology, social work and management.

A group of 16 participants from four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America) sent in their arrival details to meet for the first face-to-face from 17-28 September at Hintersee. As the first batch of the participants stood to invoke God’s blessings in this new and challenging educational journey, the first day began with a devotion led by Solomon Benjamin and the first session started with open discussion on expectations and also a detailed description of the course contents, module hand book and code of conduct by Dr. Barbara Schellhammer.

Learning in groups.

The first residency draws on various dynamic experiences of the group synergizing a wide spectrum of professional and vocational acumen. They share a distinctive combination of YMCA, YWAM, OM and community development agencies. The participants bring to the study a variety of professional backgrounds as YMCA staff and volunteers, theatre specialists, youth development workers, music and creative arts specialists, theological trained, flight attendant, engaged in business and development project facilitators.

The day also experienced some humorous moments, when an expression as „bringing warm cloths“ to Hintersee was perceived.
The friends from Africa thought of bringing sleeveless shirts and short pants as they are warm clothes in their respective context. Others thought it might be cold hence need warm clothing. Intercultural communications began on such lighter note but ironically highlighted the different culturally perceived notions.

The first residency will have Dr. Barbara Schellhammer, Dr. Neuser, Dr. Niki Kux-Kardos (from Canada) . Solomon Benjamin, Stefan Westhauser as faculty resource persons.

Rt. Revd. Dr. Samantroy , Bishop of Amritsar diocese visits CVJM-Hochschule

In a mutually enriching engagement, the Bishop and CVJM-Gesamtverband engaged in discussions exploring possibilities of exchange and also share their cultural and Organizational experiences. Bishop held discussion with Mr. Berthold Messinger (head International work of CVJM-Gesamtverband), Andreas Getfert (Dozent for practical work, CVJM-Kolleg) and Prof. Dr. Klaus Schulz (Deputy Rector, CVJM-Hochschule). Berthold discussed on the role of the Amritsar diocese, located near the border of Pakistan and India, explored the  Peace initiative and reconciliation mission of the church and also with YMCA as the Bishop is also shared his leadership with YMCA On North India. Bishop shared the many Peace programme and integration work initiated by the Church.

Andreas Getfert shared on the work of the CVJM-Kolleg and discussed the possibility of Students placed in practical semester within the diocese. Bishop invited and offered to host fulfilling the criteria of Social work by involving university social work professors to supervise and to offer a grass root mission experiences, working with people of other faith, nationality and agreed to host them with basic needed boarding and lodging. The students will also participate in many of the church activities and engage in Micro-credit forums, inter-faith initiatives, work among children and youth and other community development programmes the diocese is engaged with the society.

He further said, Amritsar diocese has snow most of the year and goes up around 4 feet living above 2500 feet above sea-level. They run ‘skiing institute’ for beginners and advances level and invited those interested to visit them for this experience.

Klaus Schulz shared information on International YMCA University of applied sciences, very particularly the new initiative of the B. A. Human Development. This was an inspiring programme which Bishop expressed his desire to take back and also his wife explored the possibility of using some of the modules like Gender, leadership and community development modules for the church groups. He agreed to explore the website. http://www.cvjm-hochschule.de/hud

The meetings brought close ties with the church in Amritsar and CVJM-Gesamtverband. Due to meetings in Georgia, Roland Werner expressed his greetings and also Wolfgang Neuser who was away on meetings.

Bischof Samantaroy aus Indien, war anlässlich eines Jubiläums der Partnerschaft  mit dem  Zentrum Ökumene der Evangelischen Kirche in Hessen und Nassau. Er kommt aus Orissa in Indien, dort werden  Christen gefoltert und Kirchen verbrannt. In Kassel besuchte er das CVJM-Kolleg und die CVJM-Hochschule. Hier sprach er mit Berthold Messinger (Referent CVJM weltweit beim CVJM-Gesamtverband), Andreas Getfert (Dozent am CVJM-Kolleg) und Klaus Schulz (Pro-Rektor des CVJM-Hochschule).

International study programme HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP in CROSS-CULTURAL DIALOGUE (B.A.)

The programme is creatively designed to offer pragmatic, relevant application, with a blend of academic scholarship and practitioners’ engagement in cross-cultural dialogue and sharing of contextual experiences.

The degree programme will inspire those, desiring a qualification in the field of Human Development and Cross-Cultural Leadership, for those engaged in NGOs, Mission agencies, for YMCA staff and voluntary leaders, those who have special interest in the area of cross-cultural understanding, conflict resolution and community development. It could also be valuable for people seeking a foreign degree which helps in personal and professional advancement in life.

The B.A. HumLead is fully accredited through the German government, hence recognized worldwide. Alumni will be able to move on to graduate programmes at any other university. The programme will be delivered in English.

It is a fulltime, three year programme with a combination of interactive online courses with two-week residencies (face-to-face) every year. These residencies will be held at different places world-wide offering exposure to different socio-cultural contexts, starting with Germany in September 2012.

The programme seeks to encourage sustainable development, inclusive Christian faith, ethical leadership, compassion and special skills to inspire participants to proactively hold on to tradition and change, particularity and plurality, human dignity and spirituality.

The program costs 300 € per month with additional costs for the three mandatory residencies. Possibilities for scholarships in full or in part for deserving applicants who are formally recommend by the respective YMCA movement will be explored. The application deadline is April, 30th 2012. Those who need a visa may apply earlier. For application and more information please see: http://www.cvjm-hochschule.de/index.php?id=785&L=0

Further you can write an e-mail to Solomon Benjamin.