Annual Report FICE 2022

Dear Readers, Dear Members and Friends,

I welcome you to our Annual Report 2022!

Ever since its foundation in 1948, the members of FICE International collaborate to promote the quality of out-of-home child and youth care, including residential and foster care, in the work with children at risk as well as children affected by war and crises. As a network of professionals, FICE members stem from a mix of direct workers with children, researchers, teachers and trainers, authorities, and leaders of representative associations and aid organisations.

Explore in the following pages the activities and achievements of the members of FICE International in 2022, at the local and national as well as at the continental and international levels.

In 2022, and as always, young people currently or formerly in care have collaborated as experts and contributors of vital importance in many FICE projects and activities, and increasingly in the joint coordination and leadership of FICE by its members at the national, continental and regional levels.

The members and further collaborators of FICE International have developed concrete knowledge and practice at national level and in multinational collaborations. At a continental and international level, they have brought together their different perspectives and rich and varied experiences to further promote professional competencies and concrete actions. At the same time, they have collaborated in defining strategy and coordinating their FICE networks at national and international levels. To a great extent, they engaged in these activities as volunteers and in addition to their day jobs in the field of child and youth care.

It is poignant and frustrating to realize that in 2022, and, indeed, in most if not all years since 1948, children, youth and societies worldwide have been confronted with the same human-made aggressions and crises again and again. FICE began with and for children and youth displaced by World War II. Among many other actions, such as, for example, the establishment of «Safe Parks» in refugee camps in Lebanon, its members came together again in 2022 to found the «Special Task Force Ukraine ‘Hand in Hand’» in support of young people in and from Ukraine and those who work with them during the war, as well as the future reconstruction of child and youth care in the country. At the international level, we hope to learn from these experiences and to further build our capacity to give support in such situations of war and crises as, unfortunately, they occur again and again in different parts of the world, putting children and youth and societies at risk.

At the same time, it is positive and motivating to see that solidarity and collaboration between diverse people always, and still, goes a long way in and of itself. Differences of opinion or cultural differences do not have to be a cause of conflict but a rich source of joint learning, development and action. This experience and belief is what drives us at FICE International. We can never do and achieve everything that, ideally, we would want to do and achieve, but we can try our best under the circumstances we have and continue to learn and develop and never give up. This is what we wish for the children, youth and those who work with them, and for society at large, and it is what we as FICE International must do also.

Thank you, dear Readers, Members and Friends, for all the inspiration and achievements you yourself have brought to the lives of children, adolescents their families in 2022, to the quality of child and youth care, and to the collaboration with and within FICE in 2022! Together with all members of FICE International and my colleagues of the Coordinating Body, I look forward to continuing and further strengthening this collaboration with you for the better lives of children, adolescents and their families in 2023.

With kind regards and very best wishes,

Anna Schmid, Switzerland

President of FICE International