October 7, 2021– International Blue Cross (IBC) is happy to announce that Reinhard Jahn has been elected president at its General Assembly on 07 October, which -due to the pandemic- took place in an online format. Reinhard Jahn, CEO of the Blue Cross Germany, has extensive professional experience in the field of addiction and due to his position in the Blue Cross Germany possesses vast leadership- and management skills. He has been an active member in the IBC Network Committee since 2008. His involvement in Blue Cross´ international work has allowed him to become familiar with structures and processes within the federation- and development work of International Blue Cross.
Ever since committed to the cause of Blue Cross, Reinhard Jahn wishes to further enhance the cooperation between the German Blue Cross and promote networking and mutual learning between all Blue Cross member organisations and the international Secretariat of IBC. In his inaugural speech the newly appointed president affirms: “IBC is an invitation for all of us to stay connected and share experiences, doubts and ask and answer questions together. It is also an invitation to addicts and families in the Blue Cross countries to seek help and realize that they are not alone in their battle against alcohol harm and addiction. I would like to serve IBC in a faith-based and holistic way and continue and even enhance the engagement of Blue Cross Germany with IBC. I am motivated to bring the international work of IBC forward, help finding and knitting relations and partnerships worldwide and enhance the profile of Blue Cross as a global movement with one voice.”
In addition to its new president, IBC is pleased to announce the election of Hans Eglin, Managing Director of regional Blue Cross Youth organisation from Switzerland as vice president of the Network Committee (board).
Other newly elected Network Committee members are: Ewa Duda, addiction therapist and promotion coordinator at Blue Cross Poland and Lars Thidemann Jensen, Vice Secretary-General in Blue Cross Denmark.
Other Network Committee members continuing their terms are Rolf Hartmann, President of Blue Cross Brazil; Ingalill Söderberg, journalist and board member at local and regional Swedish Blue Ribbon; Holger Lux, MD, Director Blue Cross Rehabilitation-Centres in Romania. Substitute members are Patrick Acheampong, General Secretary Blue Cross Ghana, Revocatus Nginila, Project Coordinator, Blue Cross Society of Tanzania.
We all know that the children of today are the future of tomorrow. How we educate them, how we see and treat them and how we act around them, is going to shape the world of tomorrow. But not every child has the privilege to grow up in a healthy environment. In Southern Brazil alcohol abuse is a significant issue for a lot of parents. Children of alcoholics suffer from the consequences of being brought up upon alcohol. Facing social exclusion, developing mental illness or even becoming alcoholics themselves is a real threat to their future. The KIDS Support Groups in Brazil committed themselves to tackle this problem. KIDS Support Groups are a place where children, affected by their parents‘ substance abuse are welcomed and get orientation as a strategy of prevention and assistance to people in circumstances of social vulnerability and hazard.
The pandemic has challenged the work of the KIDS Support Groups a lot, since it wasn’t possible anymore to regularly meet each other and organise events. Nevertheless the facilitators of the KIDS Support Groups came up with new and creative ways to still support the kids in the communities of Brazil. All 36 KIDS Support Groups found different ways to individually support children during this difficult time. Some groups managed to organise online meetings, others even had some face-to-face activities.
Besides connecting with the kids, it is really important to educate new facilitators and build new partnerships in order to start more KIDS Support Groups all over Brazil. We are really excited to announce new partnerships in the north east of Brazil, where now a new group has been started!
Another achievement of the last couple of months was the finalization of the first story of the comic, „the Azulinho series“. In 2020 they started the elaboration of comics for prevention. These comics are used during activities and get distributed to kids. Working with comics is a way to prevent kids from drug and alcohol use in a child-friendly way.
International Blue Cross (IBC) has mandated the Swiss company RANAS to evaluate its projects in Chad and Congo as an expert advisor on human behavior change. This external evaluation assessed the life skills and peer education projects in Chad and Congo between 2017 and 2020 and reviewed the projects’ relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. By conducting desk review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and interviews with beneficiaries, evaluators were able to clearly determine that IBC’s work in Chad and Congo has a strong impact on substance abuse and related behaviours (sexual risk behaviours and GBV), the related knowledge and attitudes. The impact of IBC’s local work goes beyond the effect on beneficiaries, influencing communal, structural, and governmental levels by changing people’s perception about substance abuse and even encouraging legal changes.The evaluation underlined that the projects are highly relevant in both countriesand positively impacted the targeted groups. It also recommended that IBC’s work should be extended to more areas worldwide where populations are suffering from substance abuse and related negative behaviours. Furthermore, the implemented projects were deemed sustainable and likely to maintain effects for a reasonable amount of time, as the behaviours are changed, leading to life-long improvements in the lives of beneficiaries, their families and communities. IBC is honored to have a positive impact which actively contributes to the achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, in addition to contribution to a more peaceful, just, and inclusive societies.
In the Republic of Congo, where we run our Life Skills programme, a peer-to-peer prevention programme has proven successful in sensitizing youth for appropriate behaviour to limit the spread of the virus. Youth participants of the “Generation 5S” (5S: sans drogue, sans alcohol, sans violence, sans VIH/SIDA, sans discrimination) use leaflets to sensitize their peers for correct behaviour. In a second step they encourage them to pass on the information to others, distributing leaflets to them and triggering a snowball-system.
Addiction is a lifelong disease and it is crucial for recovery and as well later on to provide people with a safe space within which they can heal. Therefor IBC started an initiative conducting self-help-seminars to assist Blue Crosses in establishing self-help groups in their countries. The first seminar was held from 24 till 31 January in Botswana.
The training was conducted using the christian 12 step model compass as a framework for self help groups. „It was a powerful experience of learning that each person needs to work on themselves and the facilitator role is to be on the same level as all participants, and listen“, Anne reported after her trip, which was the first among a series of trainings to come.
The gathering was made even more special as two ex-addicts came to share their stories about their recovery process. They encouraged participants to embark on a journey of self-discovery – „as you cannot run self-help-groups if you have not faced your own problems and addictions. We all have some things to work on- even if it is the use of mobile devices“, so Anne. IBC is looking forward to enabling Blue Crosses in different countries to establish self-help-groups and improve and run them smoothly.
International Blue Cross works within good governance structures whilst implementing projects and programmes with its partners. This requires good project cycle management, throughout preparation and implementation of operational handbook that covers internal regulations, policies that steer professional code of conduct, administrative, human resources and finance management.
Between 27.11-4.12.2019 Anne Babb and Sonja Pönisch run this intensive workshop for Blue Cross Society Tanzania’s secretariat, board and volunteers. In addition we had meetings with key stakeholders. We visited the City Council department for NGO work and discussed the next steps of collaboration with developing life skills, community action and policy advocacy work. At Arusha Sober Houses we discussed collaboration for community action with leaders of NA based therapeutic community treatment model and we facilitated a discussion with two churches in order to find ways to reach vulnerable communities.
Blue Cross Tanzania enjoyed also learning basics of project cycle management and latest information about alcohol and drug harm, self-help and skills on creating change through behavioral prevention. Thank you for all at BC Tanzania for your warm hospitality and we wish you much strength and blessings for implementing all new things on your daily work!
