dear raffi, thank you for sharing your report. i also really appreciate the report that you shared, ilse.
my experience is, raffi, that while you will continue to receive suggestions rich with insight from people on this list, the real morsels of gold you need to keep moving forward are in the hands, minds and hearts of the women you are working with. using open space philosophy: they will come up with structure, practices, time frame that works for them. and it may not emerge as quickly as you would like it to. yesterday i had my weekly one hour 'session' with a group of boys ranging in age from 10 to 15 who have spent years on the streets of port au prince. they are scarred inside and out. they currently live in a shelter where violence is still abundant and conditions are dreadful. at least its not the street. i have been spending one to one and a half hours together with them each week for the last three months and, before that, occasional visits. for me, its about holding space for them, trying to maintain a spirit of love and grace, as i spend time with them. we read, discuss, etc. noise, chaos, violence happens within our ears reach as we are together. i question myself constantly, throughout my time with them and moments when i am not with them and pondering my work with them. while i am with them, i focus on breathing and on listening and speaking my heart. i don't know where we are going exactly. there is no path that i am pushing them down. i just know that i believe in the process of accompanying them. i have enough experience with kids who grew up on the streets to know that the 'success' stories are rare. it seems important for my journey to be at least somewhat aware of theirs. i don't know if this is helpful, raffi. in summary, my sense is that there are no formulas except for that of accompaniment, listening... support the women in their ideas and inititiatives as they emerge. john My website: http://theexperiment.info Open Space Institute (USA): http://openspaceworld.org Join on-line conversations about Open Space: [email protected] Patisipe nan konvèsasyon sou entènet la sou Espas Ouvri ak Wonn Refleksyon - voye yon mesaj a : [email protected]
From: Raffi Aftandelian <[email protected]> Reply-To: Raffi Aftandelian <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: 4-hour OS with Chechen refugee women Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 11:37:05 +0400 Dear listers, Happy to report that the 4-hour OS with Chechen refugee women living at MTF-6 (Dairy Farm #6) took place yesterday. Indeed, they live in a converted barn. They personally cleaned out the barn when they came in 1999-2000 to flee the horrors of the second war in Chechnya. Still, these are very unhygienic conditions to live in. Some children have died of measles there. One mother of ten (!) children has been especially enterprising, built a wood oven so that when the gas is turned off (either because it is not available or as a measure by the authorities to pressure refugees to return back to Chechnya so that we all can pretend that the situation in Chechnya has "normalized) it is available to bake bread and the like. The OS took place in a youth drop-in center at MTF a thin wood structure built quickly by CARE. Wood patterned linoleum floor, we sat on plastic stools, heat up water in a huge kettle. The 10-13 women who came attend a psychological support group run by a local nonprofit, Agency for Rehabilitation and Development (ARD). ARD cut its teeth on psychosocial rehab in the first Chechen war (they were established in 1995). The current group of women the two psychologists (Madina and Toma) from this camp work with are a lot more active than other groups. Still, they have lost so much of their dignity and ability to see (at first) that change comes from themselves. The theme of the OS was Recovering our families' health. There were three themes: -the psychological atmosphere in families -lonely women (divorced, abandoned, widowed) - the relationship between parents and children in families (much about the aggressiveness of youth and their until recently unheard-of disrespect of elders) It helped to have the psychologists re-explain the opening in Chechen (I had worked with the psychologists -- not just the women-- beforehand extensively). It was a very modest start, but in the closing (we ended about an hour early) people noted what I would call an opening in their heart, no problems as such were resolved, few new ideas were expressed, but still this meeting brought a shift, however subtle. I would call it a Breema for the soul. In debriefing the OS with the sponsors, Toma and Madina, they saw that it might be worthwhile to continue this work with ARD psychologists. ARD psychologists are meeting soon to develop a set of principles and guidelines on doing family counseling in the tent camps and in Chechnya. They had planned to commit a day to this meeting. My question-- can a day be enough to develop these principles and guidelines (i.e. to have a plan of action)? How might OS be used here if there isn't the requisite 1 1/2 min. days to meet in OS and then do prioritizing and action planning? Thanks OS'ers all over, Raffi AFtandelian * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
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