FANTASTICO!

In a word - today’s conference was . . . FANTASTICO!

The First Annual Arequipa Connect Conference had over 60 participants from various organizations in the Arequipa area. The bulk of the time in today’s conference was spent allowing participating organization to discuss their programs - including their challenges and triumphs. Each NGO had 5-minutes (we were really lenient with the time keeping) to discuss the "Who, What and How" of their NGOs and to reach out to the other conference participants.

The afternoon was focused on coalition building and was amazingly facilitated by Mr. Ken Kraybill. The participants seemed to really enjoy the discussions and were excited by the opportunities for interaction and problem solving. Ken led the conference group through a series of exercises designed to everyone thinking about the concept of a coalition and the ways that they might develop a coalition.

The day’s events ended with a few more agency/organizational presentations and a "cocktail hour" for mingling and informal networking. It was a very successful day and a great start to our two-day conference. Our hope is that the strike called for on Tuesday never materializes. This maybe a fleeting hope - but we are still planning to carry-on with our plans.

The conference is a partnership endeavor between HBI and MMI - and we had a marvelous opportunity to demonstrate the power of our collaborative effort when the press arrived. Mr. Brian Piecuch and I took turns speaking to the press (almost 20 press personnel showed up for the event) about our visions for the event and our hope for more cooperative efforts toward serving the poor. To see a brief interview that was conducted on Peruvian Television, go to the following URL: http://vimeo.com/2888021

Thank you for your on-going support of HBI and our work in Peru. Stay tuned to the HBI BlogSpot for further updates on the conference and our outreach work in Carabayllo this weekend.