Survey to understand the major concerns in the coming five years

As you all know, we will have our General Assembly in September 7-11, 2015 in Korea. The first Planning Committee was held in March 2014. We discussed that it would be good to know what would be important for the YMCA in the next five years. A survey was conducted for a month and just closed the data collection. We received 290 responses from 18 movements. Thank you for the cooperation. Here I would like to share how people think important for the YMCA in the coming five years.

Total Survey Respondents 293 (including those who did not complete)

National and local board 56, National and Local General Secretaries 48,

National and local Staff 77, Change Agents and youth leaders 92

Respondents by Countries

Japan49, Philippines/Cambodia31, Macau25, Bangladesh24, Australia18, Malaysia14, Sri Lanka13, Korea10, APAY8, Singapore/Mongolia7, Hong Kong/Indonesia/India 6, Taiwan5, Thailand3, Myanmar/New Zealand 2, Fiji/Pakistan 1, and no country written 21 Total 285

and the others in orders were: 17 Disaster Risk Reduction(463), 18 Poverty Alleviation(417), 19 Gender Mainstreaming(399), 20 Image & Visibility(396), 21 Outdoor Education(352), 22 Research(198), 23 Interfaith Dialogue(193)

Besides those 23 above items, there were some opinions to add. Those were Nuclear Crisis 1, Elderly care 3, International interaction 1, Sense of direction and sense of dedication/commitment, etc.

Looking at this result, I was surprised to see the youth development as extremely high and 45 people identified and all categories of people chose it as the 1st priority for the YMCA. Up to the 7th priorities, majority of the respondents were about the same. There are obvious differences in the following items.

1. Board members selected Spiritual development and Christian Emphasis as #2 priority but GS #11 and Staff #10 and Youth selected as #16. There is a big gap between youth and senior leaders.
2. Youth selected Child Protection as #4 priority, Advocacy as #5 and early child education as #6, while the others see those items less priority.
3. There are slight differences in perceiving environment among the different groups. Youth and staff see it as top 2-3 priority while the Board and GS group see it 6-9.
4. Regarding Governance, GS identify it as important #4, yet board see it #10.
5. If we see the top ten, three groups of people (Board, GS and Staff) mainly agree, but youth are more interested in children and issues (advocacy, justice/Peace) and value education.

This is a good testing experience for the YMCA that there are different perception and expectation toward YMCA and its work. We all believe that youth leadership development as number 1 priority. But the voices of young people might be neglected in our decision making if majority of the decision makers are senior members with responsibility. We can learn what the young people are interested in compared to what we have thought naturally. We need to further analyze if there is any tendency or differences between National and Local YMCAs, and even among different regions such as Pacific, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. We will further analyze those and share it later.

Disaster Recovery and Rehabilitation Program Updates

The recovery and rehabilitation response process in Tambaliza, Concepcion, Iloilo is in progress. Ianne Christine Aquino, Tin for short, as National Coordinator for Disaster Program shared this recent developments:

• On the pre-implementation phase, the local staff members are continuously getting the profile of the project participants. Twenty four (24) People with Disabilities (PWDs) have been identified and they are members of the group with fishing as preferred livelihood.
• For the implementation phase of both livelihood and shelter rehabilitation, the local YMCA of Iloilo is now canvassing for all the materials, equipment and inputs needed by each of the groups. Coordination with suppliers is being arranged for the efficient distribution process and hauling of materials in bulk. A memorandum of agreement between and among the YMCA and recipient individuals/families has been prepared indicating the terms of reference to ensure sustainability of the livelihood program and that other project component will all be implemented as planned.
• For education recovery and rehabilitation, the three hundred fifty (350) school chairs were turned over to the officials and administrators of BrgyTambaliza High School. The working team is also working on a proposed rehabilitation and improvement of the primary school and daycare center for the next phase of the rehabilitation program.
• In preparation for the International Work Camp to be co-organized by the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs, the local YMCA of Iloilo gathered the 27 university students on 1-5 April to prepare the community and the young leaders who are expected to take leadership roles and tasks during the work camp on 12-18 May in this community. The participants were also oriented about the program schedule and the work they need to accomplish including participants’ safety and security.
• On monitoring and evaluation, close coordination and communication with local staff team at the ground is an essential element to regularly process the work experiences and challenges encountered. It is always good to refer to the terms of reference of the staff involved to avoid slow down and miscommunication. A mid-term program evaluation is scheduled on 28-30 April 2014 with community, stakeholders, APAY, and other partners to review accomplishments and streamline coordination among implementing local /national YMCAs staff and partners.

Preparation for the Phase 2 of the rehabilitation work and international work camp is now well underway as well as the release of support and assistance for Shelter and Livelihood.

As of this writing, there are 37 YMCAs, individuals and groups who have contributed to make all the above responses possible.The total amount received by APAY to date is One Hundred Thirty Five Thousand Eight Hundred Fifty Two (US$ 135,852) and a total of US$ 83,660 out of the total budget of US$ 125,000 for Phase 1 and partly of the Phase 2 projects, respectively.

~ Eloisa Borreo, Executive Secretary

Resource Mobilization - Making Philanthropy developing Local in Asia & Pacific YMCAs

After two years of learning activities on resource mobilization and fund development based on the experiences of the North American YMCAs Development Organization (NAYDO), this year’s attendees from the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs and its Volunteer Consultants did not only join and listen to various workshops and sessions but also shared their own stories and reflections from their initial work with their respective assigned movements. With increasing number of attendees to the annual NAYDO Conference, this year’s event gathered around 1,500 participants from 14 national movements around the world. Aside from the long list of choices of interesting topics, the inspirational messages and speeches during lunch and dinner programs were truly enlightening and inspiring. We appreciate NAYDO’s long years of dedication and commitment in helping other movements develop philanthropy in their own local YMCAs by sharing their human and material resources.

On April 10, 2014, the APAY team of Volunteer Consultants took turns to present their stories and experiences on resource mobilization entitled “Joining Hands for Global Outreach”, including their experiences as Global volunteers, the outcomes to date (Is it Working?),what’s next for RM (where do we go from here?), followed by question and answer session.

As scheduled, in the morning of April 12, the team of volunteer consultants and two national coordinators from Chiangmai and Myanmar and APAY staff gathered together to discuss and reflect on the RM work experiences with local YMCAs focusing on the learning, issues and challenges and suggestions for the next steps for each of the different levels. It was a good opportunity to update one another and take on the continuing task however challenging it may be at this stage. Everyone believes that a budding ‘seed’ of philanthropy is now growing in the respective movements and there have been some encouraging growth for us to continue to work and nurture this good spirit of giving and asking for a successful RM journey towards achieving the YMCA mission. There were six (6) Volunteer Consultants present, two coordinators and the APAY staff.

~ Eloisa Borreo, Executive Secretary

ICF National Coordinators and Working Committee Meet in Hong Kong

Interfaith Cooperation Forum (ICF) hosted a meeting of its national coordinators from Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand from April 6 to 8 at the YMCA’s Wu Kwai Sha Youth Village in Hong Kong. This annual gathering of the national coordinators began with the coordinators sharing an update of the work of the School of Peace (SOP) alumni in their country and the issues that people in each country are facing as well as significant events in the lives of the coordinators. The ICF staff reminded the national coordinators about their roles and responsibilities in their countries and shared with them the activities of ICF for 2014, which include an ongoing series of workshops to train some of the SOP alumni to be resource people in a number of areas that are important to advancing the overall aim of ICF to work for justpeace among Asia’s marginalized communities —tools for transformation for education and advocacy, community organizing and human rights—as well as programs related to justpeace from the perspective of Asia’s indigenous people and the education of children about justpeace. In addition, there are tentative plans to hold mini-SOPs lasting for several weeks in a number of countries in the region and for workshops on gender and on trauma.

At the conclusion of the national coordinators’ meeting, the ICF working committee met at the same venue from April 10 and 11 with Kohei Yamada, APAY general secretary, and Henriette Hutabarat, CCA general secretary, and the ICF staff. An important part of the agenda of this annual meeting was devoted to discussing plans for the next three-year phase of ICF’s work from 2015 to 2017. As well as SOP remaining as the core activity of ICF and the continuation of the training of SOP alumni as resource people and conducting mini-SOPs, some of the ideas expressed were strengthening the ICF national forums and linking them more deeply with national and local YMCAs and church structures and making advocacy a more consistent and prominent part of the work of ICF.

The ICF working Committee met in April in Hong Kong to discuss future plans for the regional interfaith network for the next three years.

~ Bruce van Voorhis, ICF

APAY Green Ambassador Training, Taipei, Taiwan

A Green Ambassadors Training was held in Taipei, Taiwan from 8th to 11th April 2014. Mr. Colin Lambie, member of the APAY Green Team conducted the training. The topics covered in the training included: Climate Change Science, energy basics, energy audit, energy efficiency, carbon emissions and carbon audit, renewable energy, in particular solar PV, good practices of other YMCAs (SPARK project with ACF, Geelong, Bendigo and Hong Kong), environmental advocacy, Green Teams and Green Team objectives and actions. About 12 participants attended all of the training. Another 2 or 3 people attended some of the training. The participants were mostly staff members of the YMCAs.

Prior to the training starting, Mr. Lambie was able to visit the Taiwan National Stadium, Kaohsiung, built for the World Games in 2009. It includes 8000 solar PV panels. He was able to get information on costs of electricity (tariffs), LED lighting and solar PV in Taiwan. These were very useful for customising the presentations to local Taiwan costs, etc.

He also visited a couple of YMCAs in Taipei and was able to use the electricity, gas and water usage data for one branch for the carbon audit. The carbon footprint calculator on Taiwan EPA web site (www.epa.gov.tw) which included emissions for electricity, gas and water particular to Taiwan was utilized, which made explanation easier for participants. The APAY Carbon Footprint calculator was also described, because it includes emissions from flights and waste as well.

Mr. Gilbert Chin and Mr. Charlie Chen, from the YMCAs of Taiwan assisted in hosting the training program. We thank the Taiwan YMCA for hosting this program and the Y’s Men International to support the travelling cost of Mr. Colin Lambie.

~ Duncan Chowdhury, Executive Secretary

The GATN Program Managers Training Workshop

The GATN Program Managers Training Workshop was successfully held during 22-27 April 2014 at Chiangmai YMCA in Thailand. Sixteen Program Managers from local YMCAs of our region who were offering alternative tourism programs or hosting bilateral exchanges in their respective YMCAs participated at the Training Workshop.

This Workshop was part of a series of programmes planned to provide further training for Program Managers from local YMCAs and to help strengthen the implementation of CHANGE principles within our alternative tourism programmes – tourism that seeks to be Community centered, Holistic in approach, Advocating global citizenship and networking, Nature conserving, Gender and child sensitive, and Economically viable.

The main objectives of the Training Program were to:

1. Discuss current issues and trends in alternative tourism.
2. Develop skills in developing alternative sites
3. Develop marketing strategies for the promotion of Alternative Tourism.

The Chiangmai YMCA was chosen as the host of the training workshop because it has developed some very vibrant alternative tourism sites. This provided our participants with an on-site training on how to develop programs adhering to the CHANGE principles of Alternative Tourism.

The Training Workshop opened with a worship led by Mr. Rachan Maneekarn, General Secretary of NCY Thailand and a reflection by Ms. Patcharawan Srisilapanan, Vice-President of APAY. Earlier, Mr. Rachan Maneekarn and Ms. Chularat Phongtudsirikul, Acting General Secretary of Chiangmai YMCA, welcomed the participants to the Workshop at the welcome dinner hosted the Chiangmai YMCA.

Resource persons for the workshop include Ms. Katesanee Chantrakul, Project Coordinator of ECPAT Foundation of Thailand, Mr. Andrew Leo, YMCA Singapore and Ms. Annegret Zimmerman, Consultant for Responsible Tourism, Bread for the World, together with Mr. Richard Kaing, Mr. Duncan Chowdhury, Mr. Chan Beng Seng from APAY.

The Workshop discussed some important current trends in Alternative Tourism such as Sustainable and Responsible Tourism: Trends and Challenges, Climate Justice & Environmental Issues, Preventing child trafficking and prostitution, Voluntourism and Customers of Alternative Tourism. Other sessions focused on the practical aspects like skills in developing and marketing a good site, code of conduct of the hosting the and sending YMCAs, risk management and dealing with controversial issues. The participants also discussed a certification checklist to help maintain a high standard in our programmes so that we can work towards branding our Alternative Tourism sites.

One of the interesting parts of the program was the day-long exposure trip through which the participants had the opportunity to have a glimpse of what Chiangmai YMCA was offering in their Alternative Tourism Program. The village of Baan Kampheng had very successful income generating projects with homestay programme, coffee growing and production of hydro-electric power. These projects generated a substantial income for the community to help run their own additional social welfare programmes. The main attraction of the homestay programme was the beautiful natural forest surrounding the village which the villages worked hard to protect. The homestay also included activities such as tracking to a waterfall, learning about the flora and fauna and making crafts such as tea leaf pillows, making the homestay an interesting experience.

During the Workshop we received news that among the victims of the ship tragedy in Korea, six of the young people were student members of the Ansan YMCA. A special memorial act was incorporated into the morning worship led by participants from Indonesia. Staff members of the Chiangmai YMCA also participated in this worship as special prayers made for the victims in each one’s own language.

The APAY hopes to organise more of such similar training workshops at national and sub-regional levels to help our local YMCAs combat the negative impacts of mass tourism with alternative tourism programs that are Community centered, Holistic in approach, Advocating global citizenship and networking, Nature conserving, Gender and child sensitive, and Economically viable.

The APAY thanks the Chiangmai YMCA for all their hard work in preparing and hosting this Training Program.

Participants learning to make tea leaf pillows		Visiting a family participating in the homestay program		Special prayers for families and victims of the Korean ship tragedy

~ Chan Beng Seng, GATN Program Coordinator

YMCA World Challenge

Basketball Shoot in 2012, 432,000 people celebrated YMCA World Challenge over 80 different countries at more than 1000 locations. This Year YMCA celebrate 170th year anniversary. The YMCA will do it again on June 6th 2014 with thousands of community events and global campaign to collect signatures in support of young people.

The YMCA world Challenge is a unifying opportunity for the YMCA to raise the voice of youth and call in youth empowerment program worldwide. Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs 13 National movement have registered. The YMCA World Challenge is a way for your YMCA to involve local community in the YMCA activities. It is also a way race your profile and constructs partnership.

You will find some simple ideas about what to do on the World Challenge day. YMCA members and communities are invited to celebrate the YMCA fellowship in a day with recreational activities, exhibition, gathering, tournament, conference etc.. The event organizing team can invite Youth Club, Uni Y, Campus Y and other groups to participate. The event starts with a warm welcome and explanation of the YMCA World Challenge. Before leaving, all guests are invited to sign the statement “I stand up for Young People and I want to their voice to be hear”

The world YMCA is providing guidance and resources for communications online engagement. National offices are coordinating the preparation of local events. Area office are overseeing and leading World Challenge activities at the regional level.

All National movement need to report preliminary result “Number of people who signed the statement” before 13th June 2014. Official result of the World Challenge will be published when all the copies of the signatures all participants reach the World Alliance before 30th July 2014.

More materials available to support your planning process challenge@ymca.int

~ Roger Peiris, Youth Development Officer

Green! Green! Green! YMCA Resource Group on the Environment (RGE)

Environment is one of the four pillars of YMCA Youth Empowerment. Of course, we care about Green! Not just am I inspired by APAY Green Challenge last year, I joined the YMCA Resource group on the environment (RGE) with some tens of passionate change agents. It all started in Prague when the group drew the attention of the participants to sign a recycling declaration. Over the past few months, we worked on YMCA environment position paper, Green Profile/event manual for World Challenge 2014 and prepare for the upcoming climate change conferences.

You may wonder how RGE connect people from around the world. We have regular meetings online (Wow! almost every week!) You don’t have to join all meetings but there must be one fit into your schedule. Already we have some friends from Australia, Japan, India and Asia and Pacific region joining this resource group but I welcome more of us! If you think you are green, then let’s Think Green! Go Green!

Click and join YMCA-RGE at http://action.ymca.int/

~ Alvin Kan, Chair of APAY YPLD Committee

New Office of YMCA Cambodia

We congratulate that YMCA Cambodia has its new office at #81, Honoi Street , Sen Sok, Phnom Penh. They are now operational at this newly opened office and school. The office is more functional and efficient than the previous premises. It will provide all possible solutions to the youth members especially to raise YMCA awareness and the education learning centre. You are invited to presence at this new office at any opportunity.