4-hour OS with Chechen refugee women

john engle englejohn at hotmail.com
Wed May 21 06:41:37 PDT 2003


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:
listserv at listserv.boisestate.edu

Patisipe nan konvèsasyon sou entènet la sou Espas Ouvri ak Wonn Refleksyon
- voye yon mesaj a :
reseauforumouvert-subscribe at yahoogroups.com





>From: Raffi Aftandelian <raffi at pochtamt.ru>
>Reply-To: Raffi Aftandelian <raffi at pochtamt.ru>
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>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
>
>*
>*
>==========================================================
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>------------------------------
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
>Visit:
>
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Search, le moteur de recherche qui pense comme vous !
http://search.msn.fr/worldwide.asp

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html



More information about the OSList mailing list