Dear Colleagues:
This issue of The Educator will
be in your mailbox shortly after the New Year begins; so let me use this
opportunity on behalf of the Executive Committee of ICEVI to wish each of you
and your loved ones a happy, healthy and prosperous 2003.
I also want to use this opportunity to welcome Vice
President Steve McCall as he takes over as the new Editor of The Educator. Steve’s first issue in this position has been
created in collaboration with our North America Caribbean regional chairperson
Susan Spungin. I think you will agree
that they have prepared an excellent issue devoted to Early Childhood
Intervention. I believe that there is no
greater investment we can make than to promote the development of early
childhood intervention programs. I urge
you to support Early Childhood Intervention programs in your country. Where
such programs do not exist please work with parents, parent organizations and
national representatives of the World Blind Union to advocate for such
services.
As I write this letter, we have
just concluded the first meeting of the Principal Officers for current
quadrennium. That meeting was most
warmly hosted by our new Treasurer, Grace Chan at the Hong Kong Society for the
Blind.
I am pleased to report that we
are starting the new quadrennium in a reasonably sound
financial position. However, we will
require your support and cooperation to maintain a strong financial base for
your work; particularly as our regional programs grow and develop. Later this year I hope that we will be
launching a new scheme to secure support from those, like yourself, who share
the mission and values of ICEVI. We will
keep you informed on this effort in future issues of The Educator.
Our Secretary General and his
team have been working hard since the world conference to make ICEVI more
visible and productive. I think you will
see the results of that labor in this issue of The Educator and in the programs
and services to our members that will be emerging in your region in the months
to come.
I am also pleased to report that
one of the most important outcomes of the recent Principal Officers meetings
was the decision to have ICEVI become more actively involved in carrying out
research on best practices and service delivery systems. This issue is of particular concern to ICEVI
in developing countries where the vast majority of children and youth have no
access to education.
I have appointed an interim
Research Task Force, chaired by our Secretary General that will develop a
process and framework for our research efforts. The recommendations of this
Task Force will be presented at the first Executive Committee meeting of this
quadrennium to be held in
Our goal is not research for the
sake of research, but practical yet rigorous inquiry that will provide
educators, administrators and policy makers with empirical data upon which to
make better decisions for children with visual impairment. No where is this more important than in
developing countries where access to education is low and where competition for
limited resources makes it imperative that we make programmatic decisions based
upon solid empirical data. We will be
updating you on our efforts in this area in future issues of The Educator.
I do urge each of you to be in
touch with your regional chairperson to share your thoughts on how ICEVI can
become a more active force in promoting equal access to education for all blind
and low vision children and youth in your region. We also hope that you will become an active
user and contributor to the ICEVI website <www.icevi.org>
I hope you enjoy this issue on
Early Childhood Intervention.
Sincerely
President