TRAGEDY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Gilbert Brenson-Lazan gbl at amauta.org
Sat Jan 1 07:51:45 PST 2005


December 31, 2004

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

We have all been deeply affected by the scenes of massive death and 
destruction in Southeast Asia.  I have received dozens of letters in the 
last few days from people around the world asking what can we do
as 
facilitators, as professionals, as human beings.

It is important to recognize that at this moment and for a while to come, 
the imperious need for direct relief aid are prioritary.  The window of 
opportunity for an effective intervention in community and individual 
psychosocial reconstruction will probably begin to appear within a few 
weeks. Here are some ideas to think about and act upon in the meantime:
    * If your live in the affected zone or have friends or colleagues 
living there, you can help them considerably by being sure they know about 
the  IAF-GFSC disaster intervention manuals (for adults, for children and 
for facilitators and other professionals), as well as other materials in 
several languages that are available on the GFSC Website 
<http://globalfacilitators.com> for downloading without cost.
    * If you have professional contacts in the affected areas, you can put 
them in touch with GFSC (send me their names or ask them to visit the GFSC 
website).  We have networks and contacts throughout the affected region and 
many concerned professionals do not know about the existence of others in 
their area. Our GFSC mission is to connect these people in order to develop 
and support local networks of volunteer facilitators that can help the 
communities potentialize their capacity to address their challenges and 
create sustainable solutions.
    * If you have a few hours a week to spare, you and your facilitator 
colleagues can sign up as GFSC Field Volunteers and participate without 
cost in our Mentored Pathways™ Program, in order to be prepared to help in 
the moment that help is needed. For more information and an electronic 
signup form, please go to our website: <http://globalfacilitators.org>.
    * If you wish to donate money for the immediate relief efforts, please 
be sure it goes to a reputable agency that will wisely administer it.  You 
can check out any relief or aid agency at: <http://charitywatch.org/>. If 
you wish to support the GFSC psychosocial reconstruction efforts, very 
shortly we are going to have an urgent need for funds to develop and print 
materials and to transport them and the volunteers who will train others to 
use them, to the affected zone.  Your donation is needed and will be 
greatly appreciated and well used.  All donations are tax deductible in the 
United States and you can make your donation through our website: 
<http://globalfacilitators.org>.

In these last hours of 2004, our prayers are with the millions upon 
millions of people affected by this tragedy of a magnitude unknown in our 
lifetime.  Please help us generate effective actions to be  part of the 
solutions.  In moments like this I remember the words and the passionate 
voice of Dr. Saul Alinsky, the "dean" of community organization in the 
United States, when he cajoled us during a postgraduate seminar: "All that 
is really necessary for evil to triumph in our communities is for men and 
women of good will to do nothing".

Warm regards and my best wishes for you and yours in 2005.

Gil


*******************************
Dr. Gilbert Brenson-Lazan
President - Global Facilitators Service Corps
Email: <mailto:GFSC-Chair at amauta.org>GFSC-Chair at amauta.org
Website: <http://globalfacilitators.org/>http://globalfacilitators.org
*******************************************


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

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20050101/199793a4/attachment-0015.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list