F4F Newsletter July 2007

Dear Friends!

After a moment of quiet, let me welcome you once again on the pages of F4F Newsletter, which from this moment on will also come out in Russian language! The last few months have brought many changes to F4F community and were filled with a lot of joyful news and events taking place all over Europe. Many of them we will look at in the next issue of Newsletter, yet I hope you will enjoy the sparkles of people’s experiences and reflections.

Let me remind you that F4F Newsletter comes out four times per year and publishes overview of the events taking place in Foundat ions for Freedom Network, as well as reflections and sharing sent to us by individual friends.

If you would like to contribute to the development and improvement of F4F Newsletter (through sending us your articles and reflections, translating into/from Russian-English or giving us suggestions how to perform better), please write to us on [email protected] [email protected]

Foundations for Freedom NewsletterFoundations for Freedom Newsletter

24 Greencoat Place, London., SW1P 1RD, UK tel: +44 20 7798 6000, www.f-4-f.org, email address: [email protected] 24 Greencoat Place, London., SW1P 1RD, UK tel: +44 20 7798 6000, www.f-4-f.org, email address: [email protected]

Issue 43 July 2007Issue 43 July 2007

FROM EDITOR:

Engaging into politics in Eastern Europe is often a very unpleasant thing to do. People tend to think that you are either greedy for power and money, or you are just a marionette in the hands of corrupted oligarchs. Such is a widespread public opinion. But is this a reasonable thing to say? Is there really no space left for the choice in the name of ideas? Don’t our aspirations give us additional strengths to stand against challenges? Does the service in best interest of our society inspire us no more?

I am a guest of Human Rights Party of Moldova – a new political force, which strives to become an alternative political choice for citizens. I know these people for quite a long time, when each was going their own way. And it gives me an immense happiness to see that their paths have crossed and gave new direction to them as a group. Each of these people deserves a separate talk; however I have decided to ask some questions about their common effort – especially because it started with rather interesting fact – a court case….

- Where did the inspiration to establish political party come from?

Victor : The idea was deve lop ing independently in the minds of two of my friends – Slava and Sergiu. They have been talking to me about the need and wish to create changes in politics on the larger scale, so I have introduced them to each other. Later on Sergiu moved on, but we stayed together as a group.

Slava: I believe that changes can happen through the way of the little things, and through big things. Politics – is the chance to create changes on a much larger scale. And in politics like-minded fellow-members play an important part. Some of them have left but at the moment we are seven people, five out of which are also members of local F4F team.

“A choice to influence the change...”

- What are you, as a party, striving towards? What do you want to see as a result of your activity?

Slava: We want to bring positive changes to our country, but we want to stay faithful to the principles we share as a group and individuals. If we want to build democracy – we have to follow democratic processes within our own party. If we want to fight corruption in our country – we must be honest and transparent ourselves. And so on. We want to bring the new mentality and style of thinking to the process of state development – through introducing creativity and modern approaches.

- Which are the spheres you'd see as your priority in this process?

Slava: First of all, the sphere of education. We need increased investments into both formal and informal education of our children. They see examples of corruption within their own families and follow the patterns, for example. Secondly, its working towards liberalising the economy. And, obviously, human rights protection – where the cornerstone of everything would be an individual human being, not the abstract interests of Universe, nation, country, etc.

- Were you not afraid to step into the sphere of active politics?

Slava: There is always certain risk and fear that is why we have tried and still try to minimise all possible risks, including within the internal party development process.

Victor: I have not perceived party activity as something seriously endangering my life. Until and unless the party creates a serious threat to the existing political power-holders. Through my involvement in human rights activities, I have realised that there are effective rights' protection and risks' minimising mechanisms, and we can use them.

- How did you build your team?Victor: Our main approach is “shared

leadership”: there is no one leader – we try to take decisions collectively. And there are at least two clear advantages of such system: first of all, it develops the in-party democracy. Secondly, in case of external pressure, it makes it more difficult to put pressure on twelve people than on one. The recent example of one of Moldovan parties, proves it to be right.

- Have you faced with any conflicts between party members so far? How did you try to resolve those?

Victor: We still face one disagreement within the group which is unresolved. I can’t say we have conflicts, but certainly disagreements! We definitely

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By Anna Pozogina, Latvia

try to follow the democratic principles and come to consensus on the essential questions. Though, for example, on the question of Moldova joining NATO (North-American Transatlantic Organisation) we have not found common grounds and this questions is still under consideration.

Similarly, with questions related to our party's activity and work. At the beginning of our activity, we have set a lot of goals and plans for the year ahead. We have spent a lot of time on defining our party principles, individual criteria for involvement, principles on which we interact and collaborate with other groups and political parties, party manifesto. But by the end of this setting-up process, some of us have felt that we are moving too slowly and have questioned the motivation of some other members. All of this have resulted in certain tensions between party members, which was discussed during party meeting in December. We have not yet fully resolved the tensions but we are working towards it.

- Nastya, you are the only woman in the party. Do you find it difficult?

Nastya: No, not at all! (smiles)- Your party is still not officially registered. What

happened? Can you tell us more on that?Nastya: Officially, the party does not meet the

criteria for registration of political party, in accordance with laws of Republic of Moldova. We consider that these norms are not accurate and break the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights and Constitution of Republic of Moldova. So we try to bring this message to our Government through initiating a court case on this matter, so called “strategic litigation”, ultimately aiming to require Moldovan authorities to change the excessively restricting law. We want our party to be registered as a municipal party, concept of which is not even introduced into Moldovan legal norms. And tomorrow we have the first hearing of our case.

- How long this process will take you?Slava: Difficult to say, from half a year to a year.

If our requirement will be declined by Moldovan court, we will apply with our case to the European Court for Human Rights, but before that we will have to go through all court levels in Modova. Then, it might take us up to five years.

- Are you ready to go to the end?

I have asked them to identify ways of resolving inner-group conflicts to which I was offered three main points:1) Change your own attitude and examine your role in the given situation2) honest conversation about feelings3) give it time to settle

Victor: Yes, we are ready. Some of us have previous experience with taking our Government and state institutions to court. Besides, through work of Amnesty International in Moldova, I see that it gets results. It might take more effort and time, but has so much sense.

- So, if process takes so long, how will it influence your party activity?

Slava: Let’s see. We can’t predict anything at this particular moment. We are a political party whether we are officially registered or not. We will still continue to work with people, and promote our party's ideas.

- Have you organised public meetings and met with local people? What is their reaction?

Nastya: We have led informal meetings in Chisinau, and have organised an official party presentation for specifically invited people: those we would see as our supporters or future members. There are no huge results, but the general attitude was positive, and we have got one person interested in joining the party. They have already made the first step and applied officially.

- I should have probably asked you this in the beginning of our conversation, but why “Human Rights Party”?

Slava: Well, in order for people to clearly understand our main concerns, and so that it would as adequately as possible reflect our activity. Besides, we tried to find a name which would be positively accepted among potential voters. We have developed and used questionnaire on various possible names of the political parties, and Human Rights Party has got most of positive responses.

- Do you see any other political parties in Moldova, you could cooperate with?

Victor: Not now, and not with any of the parties currently in power, at least not in their present form. First of all we are still in a process of defining ourselves as a political party, so to a certain extent it is premature to speak about alliances. But anyway, at the moment, we can’t see any other political force that would share our values on both, personal and party level. The vacuum created after the main right-wing opposition party has joined the communists in coalition is being filled with a number of new political parties, but most of these are following their own dynamics of defining themselves, building a name, etc., so it is difficult to estimate what will each of these parties become.

* By the time this Newsletter comes out, Human Rights Party request to register was declined by state authorities and they have started their way to the European Court for Human Rights….

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The last F4F Newsletter has introduced the process of selecting new F4F Committee members. People have been sending in their candidates and we have been in constant communication with those who passed through the minimum requirements. We have, thus, one new Member who has been invited to join and who has agreed to dedicate the next years to the work on the Committee – T a t i a n a M i n b a e v a (Novos ib i r sk -Moscow, Russia). Tatiana has been active in F4F Network since 2004, and has recently come back from youth l e a d e r s h i p t r a i n i n g programme “Action for Life 3” in Asia. We have decided to ask her some questions and introduce her to those who might not know Tatiana personally.

What has attracted you in the work of Foundations for Freedom then, back in 2003 when you took part in the F4F Visiting Course? How has your understanding of F4F changed over time? I took part in F4F course back in 2003 simply out of curiosity. The title “Changing course” with a possibility to spend a week out of the city, in the fresh air, among creative and enthusiastic young people, meet foreigners and practice English sounded attractive to me. Then being in YHI (Youth Humanitarian Initiative, NGO initiated by Novosibirsk F4F team) helped to find another dimension to my life: to meet my deepest need to get to know myself, share joy and struggles with others who accepted me, and develop and implement care for and service to others.

My understanding of F4F has significantly changed since that time. I see, understand and accept F4F differently at different times, according to the changes and processes going on in my own life, responding to the needs I have at the moment, and goals to be reached!

When you look back, what were the highlights and the down-hills of your activities with Initiatives of Change/ Foundations for Freedom? What are the lessons you have been drawing out of them?

Amazing thing about IofC\F4F is that it is up to me to transfer down-hills into highlights, meaning - do not lose the lesson. I really like saying “I will either find the way, or make one!” I think that is what I am still trying to learn - to find the best right way!

What is keeping your fire alive? How do you feed the deepest needs of your soul?

After I have returned from AfL 3 (“Action for Life” – a leadership programme of Initiatives of Change, www.afl.iofc.org) and settled down in Moscow with a permanent job in Real Estate Company, I’ve become closer to the “reality”, as we say. On the other hand, it showed me how big is the need for clarity, care and honesty in every day life, and

how “easy it is to say, but difficult to do”. I am very grateful for the experience I am coming through now, but I am also aware of my need to serve others and be of “better use”.Why F4F Committee? How do you see your work on the Committee?For me, similar to many others, it all started from F4F. In a way, I think now is my

turn to pay back to F4F network. I never felt obliged to do so, but it seems to happen naturally and it feels right. I will try to become a useful resource to make the work of F4F even more effective. Moreover, coincidentally, my joining F4F Committee happens at the time of F4F transformation and reconstruction.

Being on the Committee at this time will give me a better understanding of the whole process, as well as possibility to contribute to this process of change.

How do you generally evaluate the work F4F is doing in the region and what are the area we should perform better in? F4F is almost fifteen – so, a teenager! It is the age of transformation and redefining own values, building new foundations again. It is time for gaining maturity, setting goals, learning lessons from the past and looking forward to the future… What about your professional goals? Will you be able to combine your work and involvement in activities of F4F Committee?

This is a very relevant question, but I think for me it goes the other way round: whether I will be able to combine my involvement with IofC/F4F with my work? I hope that each of the sides will contribute to another and help me to perform to the fullest, using more of my professional skills in F4F, and applying experience I’ve received through F4F/IofC to be more effective at my work place!

The process of nominating the candidates is still on! Please, continue giving us your input and suggestions!

Introducing the New F4F Committee people: ” By Anna Pozogina, LatviaTatiana Minbaeva (Russia)

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Words come into fashion from time to time. They then occur frequently in news, articles, books, on radio programmes. Other words almost disappear. “Sin” is in the latter category. It cropped up in a short book I was reading recently. The author, mother of a good friend, wrote that when she met the idea of measuring her life against the four standards of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love she felt she did not do too badly – until someone pointed out that the letter ‘I’ is in the centre of “sin”.

Self first? This made me reflect. Self importance? Self satisfaction? Self righteous? Self pity? Do my needs, my rights, my opinions, my happiness, my reputation matter more to me that

those of others? On the basis of 1 to 10, with 1 being the least sin-filled, I had to admit that I had a long way to go if I was to bring the total down.

In future in any argument, I decided to accept that my opinion might not always be right. Do I exaggerate just a little bit to make any argument more convincing? Or the story a little more interesting? Was the relationship really for my satisfaction? Do I like to be first with the news to boost my importance and show that I am ‘with it’? Did I really need that biscuit? The list is endless. And so is the need of correction by God – and others, especially now that my wife is no longer there to help me.

the others are just slaves of their mood, desires and insecurities.

Discipline seemed to be one of the hardest notions for the participants to grasp. My persona .

Kharkiv: a year later…

As some of you may know, historically the ideas of F4F were first introduced to post-USSR through Western Ukraine at the beginning of 90-ies. But F4F started getting really “infectious” around 1998. Back in 2001, in Kiev area, one of those participating in F4F courses was Volodymyr Krut'ko, who is now a young multitalented businessman and public figure, hyper active leader of People Democratic League of Youth (PDLY). It’s through him that this national NGO became partner of F4F in Ukraine.

It's been another year of our work together with PDLY inviting F4F Visiting Course for mainly its members - young politicians who will eventually run the country one day. Volodymyr’s interest in F4F ideas and his attitude towards youth in Ukraine shows a genuine care for the democratic present and the future of the country grounded in spiritual maturity generally, and belief in one' strong value system specifically.

Although it was the first F4F VC run in Kharkiv, the Course was organised and co-facilitated by some of the members of F4F Kharkiv team born a year ago after another VC in Central Ukraine invited by PDLY. The number of those willing to take part in the Course has been constantly increasing over the year. Though there were 26 participants and 5 Faculty members, the demand wasn't still satisfied.

Despite the fact that selection procedure was quite careful, one should not take it for granted that all the participants who eventually got there had the same understanding and expectations for the Course.

Searching and becoming aware of one's inner and outer freedom lies at the heart of the Visiting Course. Freedom, in its turn, is all about discipline. Only those who follow the discipline are truly free, all

Words can convey different meanings

By Miles Paine, UK

By Zoriana Borbulevych, Ukraine

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impression is that the big part of that particular Course was about finding the way through contrasts, cha l lenges and d ivers i ty o f charac ters , temperaments, life outlooks, sense of humour, morals and manners. The group has gone through compe t i t i on , m i sunde rs tand ing , l ack o f communication rather than co-operation and listening. Altogether at some point it cooled the dynamic of the group down just the way temperature at sanatorium dropped. Yet, hopefully, by the end each one of us took learning for a blessing. And we all know: "Every blessing ignored becomes a curse".

Striking observation, which is worth mentioning, is that the course had prevailingly male representation. It was interesting to see the difference in behaviour and attitude of those who have already had some closer contact with F4F network.

Most of the participants said they became eager to go through VC around a year ago, after they saw their friends behave so ...different.

Mihayl:“Hello, my name is Mihayl and I have taken part in the interactive course lead by Foundations for Freedom in Old Saltyv, K h a r k i v r e g i o n o f Ukraine, in December 2006.

At the beginning, I h a d n o i d e a w h a t Foundations for Freedom is all about and had a slight idea what I will do during the whole week

with them. I would like to state that since the beginning I have greatly appreciated good organisation of the course, which gave much clarity on logistics and accommodation.

Besides, I was greatly impressed by the facilitators who came from different countries and participants, whom I found easy to talk to, share my impressions and feelings without fear of being sincere and receive sincere responses. The course gave a lot of skills useful and essential for everyday life: lots of information, important life experiences of other participants and, what was the most important part, the inner work we have been doing while exploring harmony and understanding that doing good is doing it right, that love within your heart can warm other people, that it is possible and needed to trust other people and the world. One of the most important lessons I have drawn from this course, is realisation how I can achieve the inner freedom. At the moment, I see a lot of young people who do not realise what it means to be free, whereas the freedom we develop within can bring positive changes to our lives. A person that experiences the inner change does not stand still – they continuously keep moving, therefore achieving the progress. And this, in its turn, is what we need! BIG thanks and much love to all our trainers-facilitators, especially to David and Chris! On behalf of all course participants, Ukraine, Kharkiv, 2006.”

Experiencing the Power of Love

The last year was full of insights and realisations – those that were about me and my relationships with other people. I have realised that for the last years I have been driven by the only and all-consuming medium – my own pride and selfishness. To be better than others, be smarter, more successful and most charming – these were the real motives for .

most of my actions, covered by beautiful words on high ideals. If I ever noticed someone, it was with only purpose to feel my own superiority. What became obvious to me – was my division into two parts. One of those, speaking smartly about democracy, honest politics and God knows what else. The other, in parallel, was cheating in my reports to funders, using illegal copies of computer software and lying to the closest people. Obviously, I could at all times find justification that I tend to be honest, unless it is the biggest necessity to lie now.

By Konstatin Ploskyy, Ukraine

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I have always felt like a leader. To be a leader for me meant to be the first (on the horse or on the tank, doesn’t matter really), see further than others and of course forget about the ones following me, only in rare cases looking back at them, say some cheerful words and remind about the necessity to go somewhere together. How twisted this understanding of leadership was!? Leadership (as I see it now) where the leader is not going in the front, but rather supporting others from the back in their common movement into the future and, what is most important, giving yourself fully to the common effort.

I was surprised and questioning myself – where have these insights of another reality started coming from? The answer was simple. The reason was unconditional love of many people who surrounded me and who loved me through all these years: my parents and my family, my friends and my Anna. Only now I realise how difficult it was for them all these years. What pain have I brought into their lives through my dryness and lies.

But they continued to give me all their love, never trying to “change” me, just loved and sacrificed themselves for my sake.

Am I capable to love other at the same level? I don’t know. The ray of love that occasionally sprinkles through the cage of my heart is too thin and weak. Meanwhile, I constantly face the battle with judging other people for little things or against awakening of Pharisee spirit, when I feel “enlightened”. So it is.

Recently, I have found the words of Mitropolith Antony of Surazh (Russian Orthodox priest and philosopher), which I so clearly understand now – “It is important to remember that the only way to reawaken the person, the only way to help the person to open up fully – is to love them; love not for their virtues, but in spite of all their imperfections. Love them because they are human beings, and because human beings are so great and beautiful in themselves. In this we can trust and believe always. We can’t always see it, as only the eyes of love allow us to see this through.”

Leadership in Action

In September 2005 a team of us has started ‘Club for Young Leaders’ in Simferopol, Ukraine. Two months later we all came up with a logo and motto for the Club, which was ‘Leadership in Action’. At that point I didn’t know that a year later I will literally get experience of Leadership in ‘Action’ programme and a clearer understanding of what those words meant.

In September 2006 I joined ‘Action USA’ programme as one of the leaders. ‘Action USA’ was a 2-months international leadership development program, exploring the issues confronting America’s communities and identifying ways to create change. We were 8 people from 7 countries that included Matthew Freeman (USA), Nombulelo Khanyile (South Africa), Chris Breitenberg (USA), Richard Kananga (Rwanda), Selly Wane (Senegal/Germany), Trong Nguyen (Vietnam), Artjom Konohovs (Latvia) and myself from Ukraine. I will also mention at once that I was lucky and proud to work in such a team!

My expectation of leading the program was to ‘change’ and ‘influence’ people I was working with by running trainings and workshops, sharing and teach ing my know ledge and expe r t i se . Responsibilities that I ended up with as a leader, were not what I thought were important ones. I was appointed to look after our finances, meaning to keep an eye on amounts of money we had, collecting receipts and recording them. It was quite a change of expectations about my role of a leader. ‘Expectations – bad idea’ became quite a common phrase on the program. In the course of 2 months we travelled to 9 cities in 8 states. Local coordinators have organized .

very diverse and interesting program in each city that gave us an amazing perspective on USA. We were not only able to see and hear the other side of life in the USA, which was very different from the usual one we get from TV programs and movies, but also to experience it and help out by doing voluntary work in social enterprises. Some of those activities included playing games in a community center for African American kids from deprived areas, cleaning a Cafe’ that provides work for people with disabilities, cooking food for homeless, etc.

It has opened up for me new dimensions about this country, the range and size of problems, like racism, homelessness, apathy and consumerism. But we also met amazing people with huge hearts who really cared about what was going on in their own country and were actively doing something to change the situation.

by Angela Starovoytova, Ukraine

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Most of those we met were curious and anxious about what other countries are thinking about them (that turned out to be the most frequently asked question, after “Where exactly Latvia is?”)

The hospitality and care of host families was admirable. I was also touched by the fact that daily morning practice of quiet time can become a joy and something that one can be looking for. It happens when there is somebody already sitting in the living room with a cup of hot coffee made especially for you and ready to share the beauty of silence and thoughts with you.

Apart from getting new perspective on this country it was also 2 months of discovering my own Self. It was time for me to listen, to learn, to sort out my thinking and internal being. It has opened up new dimensions in me, patterns of my behaviour, fears and protection mechanisms I had.

At times situations were stretching my abilities up to the limits I never knew about. Great thing about it was that the team was always there, whether it was somebody stepping up instead of me, a joke or inspiring word to cheer up, or someone’s shoulder to cry onto.

As one of my friends said ‘my mind is so tricky that now it tricks me’. My discovery was that my outer person, with is my automatic/reactive behaviour, tricks my thinking and makes a mess before I can process and understand what I have done. Some of most valuable things in my life, like my sense of humour, touchiness and faith were challenged and tested. I am also grateful to my team-mates who were harsh with me at times giving feedback about my behaviour, helping me to learn to be more humble, to control my reactions and to change that strong ego I was building up for years.

Allowing others to be leaders also challenged my ego. Most of the time it meant trusting the process by sitting back and letting others take a lead and run things their way.

A lesson learnt is that just being there for people, sometimes can be enough a c t i o n f o r a l e a d e r. Moreover, no matter what, it is not about me, but about other people, their needs and interests. For me it was

to listen, to support, to give a hug, to share a story, to wash dishes, to make coffees or to lead activity during the session.

There is another absolute standard that we came up with as a team – absolute flexibility, which taught me another lesson: ‘Do what you should do as good as you can, and let be what should be’.

Also wanted to mention two more learning points the importance of which opened my eyes on both personal and social change:

-honest dialogue that breaks down walls and gives way for growth

-and sharing a personal story as a tool to build bridges and make theory real and applicable to life.

There were many other discoveries and lessons learnt. You can read more stories of participants on I am still experiencing and noticing the things that have started to change in me during ‘Action USA’ program and still trying to understand what exactly has happened and for what reason. It is this process of becoming a better person that ‘Action’ has reinforced in me and something that I don’t want to quit. Hoping you would help me in that, because that is what friendship is all about.

http://www.us.iofc.org/initiatives/action/

Back to the roots...

For years many people in “Foundations for Freedom” (F4F) felt that although the Programme itself is an initiative of the “Oxford Group/ Initiative of Change” (UK) still much more could and should be done to promote F4F message in its Motherland.

“To be or not to be” - that was a question till almost the very last moment with Visiting Course (VC) in Scargill, North Yorkshire, from 9-13 October 2006. The course was a short version of VC with a minimum number of the participants due to a number of

reasons, one of which was timing. The course took place right before another great IofC event - “European Saeima” in Kiev, Ukraine and many of potential participants decided to go to the International conference. But as they say, whoever comes are the right people. And despite all odds the Course did happen, thanks mainly to faith and persistence of David and Judith Curtis who took on main responsibility for organising and running of the Course.

By Zoriana Borbulevych, Ukraine

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So, eleven participants aged from early twenties to early eighties, mainly familiar with IofC work, were led by 3 Faculty members through a 5 - d a y c o u r s e : c o n t r i b u t i n g themselves and referring to their life experience while running through a number of exercises and topics such as “What does it mean to be human?”, “Are we a body with a spirit or a spirit with a body?” and etc.

John Carlisle (a senior business consultant from Sheffield UK) who joined the Course for two days, contributed to the discussion with rather creative exercises and challenging questions, like “Is an image in my mind a thought?”

We had plenty of time and space to reflect and share in smaller groups. And the ability to be vulnerable was agreed to be one of the main human characteristics along with intellect, creativity, etc.

One of the “hot” discussions was in relation to defining the Absolute Standards or, in fact, the way we present them to other people. “Grey area” subject, .

while looking at Standard of Honesty, brought up memories of many life-experiences, dubious situations, which required strong values, courage and faith.

We would like to express special thanks to Elizabeth Loy for the wonderful lunch in her warm home as an amazing closure of the Course and beginning of great friendships.

R i c h a r d S h r u b ( U n i t e d Kingdom):“…In a fast paced and ever changing world, the opportunity to think in a structured way about the principles and values that guide us is a rarity. Recovering from serious

mental illness and working hard to start life anew, this was a God given chance which I took with both hands.

The people who attended and stunning surrounds of the Yorkshire Dales certainly helped, and the combination served to help me see the path ahead in a new light and travel along it with renewed vigour.”

Community News in brief:

Nick and CJ Foster (UK-Australia) have given the birth to the beautiful baby boy Samuel in April. Both parents are happy and feel very good! His expressions reminded us very much of the young Nick Foster! :)

Anya Maksimova (originally from Novosibirsk) and Alexander Chupikov (Simferopol, Ukraine) gave birth to another amazing baby boy Phillip in March. Anya and Alexander got married last year, and already have an 8-year old son Syoma.

Alya and Alyosha Tarasenco in Moldova are giving birth to a third baby in the family! Alya and Alyosha are old friends of Foundations for Freedom

On May 5th, many friends had a privilege to share the beautiful moment of unity between two people! Anya Borzakovska and Kostya Ploskyy (Kiev, Ukraine) got married in Catholic Church of St. Alexander in Kiev. Soon after that they have joined programme “Action for Europe” as participants, and are on their way to Norway with programme activities. Much love and long years of happiness to you both!

- Newborn members in community:

- Newborn family in the community:

MANY CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FAMILIES !!!

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- Action for Life has finalised the dates for the next programme’s start. The new round of the leadership training programme will start on October 1st 2008. The Planning Team is currently working on f inal ising the applications procedure and programme’s schedule. We will keep you updated with latest developments through our Newsletter. If you want to learn more, please visit: www.afl.iofc.org

- Anna Pozogina (Latvia) and Bhavesh Patel (UK) have just returned back from 5-week long visit to Cambodia and Vietnam. They have visited young IofC teams in both countries and lead a series of workshops and discussions on Life Coaching, Team-Building and Co-operation.

- Zoriana Borbulevych (Ukraine) have finished Training of Trainers for Family Workshop, lead by Ren Jou Liu in Taiwan. She is now qualified to lead workshops on discovering the impact of your family and upbringing on your current life and discovering how to work with your “inner child”. Zoriana hopes to use this tool in her work with Foundations for Freedom, and have started leading sessions as a part of her follow-up work.

- Foundations for Freedom Management Group has developed a new yearly plan for F4F development. They have applied and received

Financial support from Irene Prestwich Trust (UK). The detailed version for F4F Network will come out soon. As one of their planned activities, will be recruiting new people to work with Foundations for Freedom in Kiev, Ukraine. Information on Job Vacancies will come out soon through F4F email loop EEWWW. Please, follow the information!

- Action for Europe (an initiative of Action for Life graduates from Europe) has started their journey throughout European countries, meeting with Initiatives of Change teams and leading workshops/ presentations for diverse groups of receivers. Their first destination was Ukraine, where they have helped in leading Spiritual Camp for Foundations for Freedom network and couple of sessions for Simferopol and Kharkiv F4F teams (* please, read more on that in the next issue of F4F Newsletter). You can follow their journey through regular Newsletter and on newly created Internet Diary (www.action-for-europe.blogspot.com). If you want to learn more, please get in touch with Action for Europe at: [email protected] - Centre for Political Education (Kiev) has closed its office in Kiev.

- F4F coordinator (Zoriana Borbulevych, Ukraine) has moved to a new apartment in Kiev. She is currently staying there with Anna Pozogina, Latvia, who is assisting her in daily duties.

July 5th August 19th : Caux International Conferences, Initiatives of Change, start in Switzerland

July 14th: F4F Committee Meeting over Skype

End August: Foundations for Freedom Summer Camp in Crimea. Dates to be confirmed.

September 4th 12th: F4F Visiting Course in Lviv (Western Ukraine)

September 15th-16th: F4F Committee Meeting in UK

September 15th-22nd: F4F Visiting Course in Vinnytsa (Western Ukraine)

News in Brief:

Calendar of Events:

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As always, F4F is grateful to our donors and IofC UK, without them we would struggle to exist. In particular on behalf of all of us I would like to thank our regular donors who month after month, year after year give money so that F4F can continue to run courses or get people to Caux.

Once again I am happy to say that F4F income has kept up with expenditure. However, as you read on you will see this will change.

One of the disadvantages of being the treasurer is that I have to keep an eye on the long term future and, when we make plans for spending and expansion, the 'Treasurer' part of my brain cannot help thinking 'Where is the money going to come from?'.

As you might have seen from emails on the loop or have read elsewhere in this news letter, the Committee and Management Group have been doing a lot of thinking about F4F's long term future. We want to hand over the running of F4F to Eastern Europeans, expand our operations and become the 'world-wide resource' that our mission statement refers to. The result of the Management Group's long meeting in January was a plan to put F4F in really good order with top quality administration and communications, extensive follow up, a training manual and more course leaders. The budget for this was almost £160,000 ($320,000) and, as you can imagine, I was thinking 'Where's the money going to come from?'. We have been very fortunate because the Irene Prestwich Trust (IPT) has given us £10,000 which will enable us to take the first steps.

Those first steps are the recruitment of two people, a fund raiser and an administrator/communications person who will be based in Kiev. With these people comes responsibility for their care and the obligation to ensure that we have sufficient money to pay them. The IPT money and F4F's reserves mean that, providing we are sensible, we have the funds to pay them for one year but thereafter, we will have to raise the funds. In addition, if we really want to expand and fulfill the Management Group and Committee's plans, we need to raise another £30,000 (approximately $60,000)

before the end of October plus £20,000 ($40,000) by the end of 2007 and a final £34,000 ($68,000) by spring 2008. Our new Fund raiser is going to have a tough time!

All this leaves me, as an individual, with a dilemma. My 'Treasurer' brain is trying to panic at the thought of the financial commitments, increase in responsibility and work load and, above all, 'WHERE'S THE MONEY COMING FROM?'. At the same time the rest of me is thinking 'Stay calm, faith and prayer will see us through', if we are meant to do things, the funds will arrive. The dilemma is 'how do I reconcile' one with the other. One thing I know, however, is that attracting this scale of funding will need some hard work as well as faith and prayer.

As well as funding, F4F needs help from people with energy and commitment who really want to make it work and expand. The future is looking challenging so I think the correct phrase might be 'Fasten your seat belts in preparation for take off'.

With best wishes to you all,Gordon Fuller

News from Treasurer:

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