Dear Colleagues:
As I write this letter we are celebrating the first day of Spring here in the Northeast with a snow storm and a power outage. I hope the battery of my laptop is fully charged! However, there is an old saying in this part of the USA; "if you do not like the weather…wait a few minutes".
This is a special pre-conference issue of The Educator, and as you will see, most of the articles are concerned with the business of our organization, our upcoming World Conference, our 50th anniversary celebration and plans for the future.
The future is indeed looking quite promising for ICEVI. I have never been more optimistic than I am today. Let me tell you why I feel this way.
The Executive Committee has recently completed a very productive meeting at which an ICEVI Strategic Plan was developed and adopted. I hope that you will take the time to review the plan which is presented in this issue.
As we undertook preparations for developing the ICEVI Strategic Plan, Dr. Jill Keeffe, our regional chairperson for the Pacific emphasized how important it was to develop a plan that could be effectively interpreted and implemented at the regional, sub-regional and national levels. I believe that has been achieved. In late May I will have a chance to test how that assumption holds up at the national level. Our East Asia regional chair, Mrs. Grace Chan, her deputy Mavis Campos and I will meet with colleagues in the Philippines to see how the new Strategic Plan "fits" at a national level.
The article by Dr. M.N.G. Mani, regional chair, Asia, provides a fine introduction to the ICEVI Strategic Plan from a regional perspective. Those of you who will be with us at the World Conference this summer will have plenty of opportunity to talk more about the Strategic Plan and its implications for your region. Those who are unable to join us are most welcome to share your thoughts with your regional chairperson before July.
During the fourth and final day of the Executive Committee meeting a new constitution was adopted. Our Executive Committee member and legal scholar, Colin Low, is in the process of registering ICEVI as an Association in the United Kingdom. This will effectively change our status from a Foundation governed by an Executive Committee to an Association of members with voting rights.
Some of our most loyal and longterm supporters; Christoffel Blindenmission, Sight Savers International and ONCE have met to discuss how to make a longterm ICEVI dream a reality; the appointment of a full time Secretary General. I am optimistic that this position will be a reality early in the next term. It will be an enormous help in achieving the objectives of our Strategic Plan and may even help me to recapture my weekends.
As we prepare for the World Conference in the Netherlands, I am happy to report that the Sponsorship Committee, under the very able leadership of Mrs. Grace Chan, J.P., has already raised $102,500 for supported placements and is still working hard to secure additional resources.
The hard work of the Sponsorship Committee and the many generous donors who have contributed, will allow many persons who would not otherwise be able to participate to join us at our World Conference this summer. Your Executive Committee was determined, from the outset, to have good representation from the developing regions of the world; and it seems this will be the case.
Our good friend and supporter Victor Siaulys and Laramara have been wonderfully supportive in offering to produce for ICEVI, at no cost, new publications that project our mission and our message. They are currently preparing a history of our organization written by Ken Stuckey to mark the occasion of our 50th anniversary.
Saving the best news until last; I am pleased to inform you that ICEVI has just received a grant of $500,000 from the Lee Foundation to support programs that will create awareness, strengthen local capacity and share information on "best practices" in our Africa, Asia and Latin American regions. You will learn more about this program as it is launched at the World Conference this summer.
As you can see, there is much to be thankful for and good reason for my optimism. Of course, none of this would be possible without a tremendous team effort. I am grateful to all of the members of the Executive Committee and to the national and international non-government organizations who have worked so hard over the past few years to bring us to this point. I am especially grateful to my employer, the Overbrook School for the Blind, for their generous support of my work on behalf of ICEVI.
As we prepare to celebrate our 50th anniversary, we should pause to look at our past with pride. We will do that…but briefly!
Our efforts and energy must focus on the future and the challenges we face in helping to make the dream of educational access for all visually impaired children, more than a slogan. For the hundreds of thousands of visually impaired children without access to education, their dream must become a right and a reality. Working together we will achieve that!
I look forward to meeting many of you in the Netherlands this summer!
Sincerely,
Lawrence F. Campbell
President