Newsletter January 2009

The UNESCO report from our Petra conference June 2008 is ready (Thanks UNESCO Amman office!)

Participating countries so far: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran IR, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman Sult., Palestine Auth., Qatar, Romania, Russia, Sudan, Sweden, Yemen.

Life-Link Sweden has approached a developing agency in Sweden (Sida) for funding, and we have received most positive reactions such as “a unique and relevant program”. However, the Sida response statues that there are some organizational criteria which Life-Link will have to fulfill before our three-years project can qualify for a grant.

Considering a) the positive results from our pilot project, b) the evaluation by Sida of the program as such, and finally c) that our project is invited as a Good Practice program to the DESD Bonn mid-term world conference (31 March – 2 April), we feel inspired to enter the 2009-2011 project with high quality goals, even though we must be aware of some quantity limitations when starting.

We now propose starting the 2009-2011 project as follows:

FEBRUARY 2009

Registration of Schools

Life-Link office in Uppsala, Sweden is eager to know what schools from your country want to participate. We expect that the schools from the pilot project 2008 will continue and that some additional schools want to join. Please bring this information to your interested schools – great.

From February 1st schools will be able to register, and for quality reasons, we prefer that each school performs its own registration.

The Project website, the same address as before (www.life-link.org/aspnet), will give a school all necessary information for registration.

The Project website will at the same time allow for project communication with Life-Link office Sweden – Welcome!

MARCH 2009

Water for Life action in March and around World Water Day 22 March

We propose that appointed classes at participating schools perform the three lessons and the two self-studies as outlined in the pilot study first edition of Teachers Guidelines Water for Life.

The performed Water for Life action at a school can be shortly reported as part of the “basic general Life-Link program” on www.life-link.org (in practice: Action Report or Want to join in).

Such a report will give each school a position in the general basic Life-Link networking program, and will offer a specific page for each school on the www.life-link.org, Schools and Actions!

(Thus a simpler reporting than the advanced pilot project online report last year!)

31 MARCH – 2 APRIL 2009

Bonn World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development 31 March – 2 April

The Life-Link & UNESCO ASPnet project has been selected and invited as one out of 25 Good Practice programs worldwide to the DESD mid-term world conference in Bonn! This is a prestigious recognition of our program and collaboration! We strongly propose that the UNESCO or Ministry of Education delegation from your country visits the Life-Link & UNESCO exhibition during the conference!

After the Bonn conference we will outline how the Culture of Care action will be prepared in order to start in October 2009! We will also plan for a third action: R-R-R Reuse-Reduce-Recycle.

In summary:

• The Life-Link & UNESCO ASPnet project 2009-2011 is launched, and we wait for your schools to register, starting from February 1st.
• All Countries, and mobilized and registered schools, will have their names presented at the Bonn DESD world conference at the Life-Link & UNESCO exhibition 31 March!
• Now we put our shoulders together for a 2009-2011 most important project and joyful journey!

Greetings from Uppsala, Sweden and Amman, Jordan
C/o Hans Levander Med Dr, Chairperson Life-Link