About Us
A Few Words
About Us
The Institute of Cultural Affairs: International (ICAI)
The Institute of Cultural Affairs: International (ICAI) is an international network of over 30 nationally autonomous voluntary organizations working in over 50 countries. It is engaged in socio-economic renewal with the concern for human factor in world development. The head office of the ICAI is located in Brussels, Belgium. It has consultative status category II with the United Nations Economic and social Council. Through Research Training and Demonstration projects the ICAI is engaged in addressing local needs of the people from developing as well as developed countries. The ICAI and the local ICAs are linked with each other through funding resources, technical assistance, exchange programmes, facilitation services etc. The ICAI’s work focus is currently held in following focus arenas.
Sustainable Development: The ICA is assisting the local communities with income generation schemes, leadership development, and social services, as catalytic force towards the self development process.
Lifelong Education: The ICA is engaged in new experiments and model building in order to provide services to the education system, which emphasizes human development as the key to the teaching learning processes.
Organizational Transformation: The ICA is working with corporations, public and private organizations in seeking ways enabling individuals within the organization to act out their functions more effectively and to become facilitator of the transformation process.
Planetary Ecology: The ICA is researching to discern new ways of caring for the environment. The trust is upon educating the people to establish a positive relationship with thee earth’s resources and integrating social and ecological development art grassroots level.
Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) India
ICA: India is a non-profit organization registered under the Society Act of 1954. It is recognized by the Government of India as an 80 G. organization for tax exempt purposes.Since seventies, the ICA: India has been offering its service rural areas, industries, voluntary sectors, education and other particular fields. It has worked through research training, and demonstration project, in many states of India. The ICA continues to motivate and empower individuals, organizations and communities with its emphasis on human development. Currently the ICA: India works through three office, they are Pune, Mumbai and Panvel.
Current Activities:
Panvel Location: The Panvel office runs a full fledge residential Tribal School from 1st standard up to 10th standard. The school has gained a good reputation in the government office and the education field, because of its good facility, remarkable educational standard and numerous extra curricular activities to ensure comprehensive education. The school provides educational facility to over 421 students who come 35 hamlets from remote area and would normally discontinue the education because of school distances and accessibility. This year the school had presented its 1tst batch for the SSC examination and received 73% pass result. The school has 16 teachers and non-teaching staff. The school envisions to becoming a technical vocational school soon.
The Panvel office is also in process of reinitiating its rural development in the tribal area form where the tribal students come. The community development work will assist and empower the tribal community to take leadership in their self-development and will provide necessary external assistance.
Objectives
Overall Objectives
- To motivate and accelerate individuals and promote organizational transformation in their respective professions through facilitation of the development of human growth potentials and enhancement of organizational systems and processes.
- To develop grassroots self development pilot projects in rural areas, that inspire, equip and strengthen rural individuals and communities to take initiative, leadership and responsibility of their individual and community development, while promoting Partnership Approach amongst local and international supporters, form private, public and voluntary sector along with local sector.
- To provide high quality educational infrastructure and holistic education, to tribal students to make them capable of leading a self-reliant life. And to enhance socio economic status of the tribal communities who are linked to the Tribal school students.
- To facilitate the upgrading quality of education in public schools through promoting the concepts of life education, human empowerment and self-initiated educational improvement schools and educational institutions and equipping the teachers with innovative methods and skills and necessary educational resources.
Pune Location: The Pune office has maintained the service in rural development since eighties. For over last twelve years the ICA has been engaged in comprehensive rural development projects Maval and Mulshi Taluka. The Malegaon Cluster Human Development project including seven villages has been handed over to the villagers after working for ten years. The ICA continues to support and guide the villagers when they request for it. The Pune office currently works through four programme thrusts.
Khamboli Cluster Human Development Project: The ICA has initiated work in the Khamboli Human Development Project in Mulshi Taluka since last three years. The project has three villages of total population above 2000. The project area is situated at about 30 Km away form Pune. Current programmes include Afforestration, cooperation irrigation scheme, cooperative dairy, Agricultural development , leadership development, women’s’ self-help groups and income generating activities, health camps etc.
Environment Education Centre: The ICA has developed a full-fledged Environment Education Centre at Talegaon. The Centre offers a residential training center facility, for training and conferences to villagers, NGO and people form private sector. It has developed a nursery to supply plants to the afforestration project and creates demonstration plots and experiments for environmental education.
Innovative Education Projects: The ICA facilitated a 12-day training series offered to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) preschool teachers. The training was made up of four training modules offered every quarterly to equip the teachers with skill methods techniques, activities and teaching aids to improve quality of early education. Similar work is done with the PCMC’s five primary schools form the Kasarwadi (Pune) with the assistance form Forbes Marshall Ltd. The project provides training and guidance input for the teachers towards improving the educational quality through activities and efforts
initiated by he teachers themselves.
Training and Facilitation Service: The ICA continues to provide regular training and facilitation service in the field of leadership development, technology of participation, individual and organizational development. Along with people from the project area, ICA has offered it services to various NGO educational institues and companies.
Mission
- To give emphasis on human development on crating the desire and methods whereby local people themselves plan and bring about lasting development in their won communities.
- Develop rural project as a successful replicable model project for surrounding area, a project that has carried their own development, with participatory approach in partnership with other sectors
- Work for human development since every human being on the planet has the potential to live full and productive life.
Vision
“Leads Community to Advancing Human Development”
Values
- ICA believes in team work, non hierarchical approach,
- Participatory approach, power lies with the wisdom and not with a person,
- We work with people and not for them,
- Human development is core belief of ICA.
- We facilitate the development process, and guide for the sustainability of the project.
- We believe in methodology, developing pilot project as replica.
Focus
- Rural development (to eradicate poverty and improve quality of life)
- Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
- Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women
- Disseminating ICA’s Approach ~ The ICA Technologies and Knowledge
- Sustainable supportive agro business
- Leadership development
- Training and facilitation for other organisations and individuals