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From: Jaan Pill
Date: 10/10/01
Time: 9:08:36 PM
Remote Name: 154.20.71.238
ISA has an outreach working group, chaired by Stefan Hoffmann <sthoff160@gmx.net> of Germany, currently working in China.
This working group seeks to establish contacts with people who stutter in countries that are not yet represented by ISA. The working group works in coordination with the ISA board of directors, which determines whether or not a given association (that wants to join) meets the criteria for membership.
The outreach process calls for persistence, creativity and taking advantage of chance opportunities. Sometimes an individual or association hears about ISA, and contacts Stefan Hoffmann or the ISA board. At other times, an association might contact some other association, such as ELSA, or an ISA member association, which in turn lets ISA know of the contact.
Often,, the process begins when an individual or association contacts ISA. However, in the case of China, much of the work that Stefan Hoffmann has done, in establishing contacts there, began with Stefan making the contacts.
Stefan himself first learned about the ISA working group when he read an outreach report in One Voice, the ISA newsletter. "One Voice No. 9," Stefan recalls, "told me about the outreach toward China, and that electrified me on the spot." He has been chair of the outreach working group since July 2001. He is also vice-chair of the ISA board of directors. Jaan Pill was the chair of the outreach working group from 1995 to 2001.
Stefan sees five regions in the world where ISA still has little or no representation: Latin America, Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe, East and South East Asia, and Arabic countries.
He has commented that no one can expect to establish contacts in all these regions over the next three years (the term of office for the current ISA board of directors), but the near-term strategy includes:
1) Latin America: ISA will support the 2002 conference in Argentina.
2) Africa: Stefan's plan is to use South Africa as a base for establishing contacts with English-speaking countries in Africa.
For French-speaking Africa, among other ways, contacts are planned through an ISA member association in France.
Two recent contacts that we've recently had the good fortune to establish have involved Cameroon and Uganda.
3) Eastern and South Europe: This is ELSA's territory and Stefan will provide ELSA with data they can use in case he has some which they don't have.
4) East and SE Asia: Stefan's goals are to continue the work in China much the same as in recent years, with a focus on network building and promoting the self-help concept. He is also focusing on the first steps for East Asia cooperation among China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea.
As well, Stefan is working toward having stutterers from these areas going to the World Congress of People Who Stutter in Perth, Australia in 2004. He has expressed the hope that in the course of its work, the Perth organising committe will help in finding new contacts in SE Asia.
5) Arabian Language Region: A few contacts exist, but nothing structured.
Stefan would like to see ISAD being celebrated in more and more countries. He hopes that, by doing ISAD-related networking, he can find still more people interested in ISA matters.
He also has a strong wish that at the next ISA Conference, in 2004, we will have a still more complete list of participating countries, with funding assistance for countries that need it.
More information about ISA outreach efforts can be found in issues of One Voice, the ISA newsletter, on the ISA website (and also on the CAPS website).
We are pleased with the progress made to date and we're also aware of how much more work remains to be done. We invite anyone who has contact information, or who wants to help with the efforts of the outreach working group in any way, to please contact Stefan Hoffmann.