The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange

The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange (ICE) or Institut d'échanges interculturels (IEI) is an educational and cross-cultural non-profit organisation based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.[2] Administered and staffed entirely by volunteers, ICE promotes children’s literacy and cross-cultural education at home and abroad. It provides at-risk children with their very first books: illustrated and thought-provoking stories from the Middle East and Central Asia.[2][3][4]

The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange (ICE)
Formation15 November 2004[1]
TypeEducational charity (Public foundation)[1]
Registration no.86260 1077 R0001[1]
PurposeProviding for children's literacy and understanding between cultures
HeadquartersCalgary, Alberta, Canada
Region served
Canada, Mexico, Afghanistan
Websitehttp://www.iceeducation.org/

The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange was registered as a public foundation in Canada on 15 November 2004, and its Charitable Registration Number is 86260 1077 R0001.[1][5]

Aims and activities

Following a survey of the literary crisis in Canada,[3] ICE came across a non-profit initiative by American psychologist Robert Ornstein's Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, called Hoopoe Books for Children,[6] and decided that the universal themes in the teaching stories in this series of children's books,[7][8] by the writer and Sufi teacher Idries Shah,[9] would suit ICE's cross-cultural objectives.[2]

In its first ten years ICE has donated free of charge over 164,000 books. Over 80 Canadian non-profit literacy groups have received over 92,000 books, six partner organizations in Afghanistan 71,000 books, and its partner organization in Mexico 1140 books.[10]

In 2012, in the Canadian Pensioners Concerned newsletter Viewpoint, John Zada writes that – working in partnership with Hoopoe Books – in the first eight years of ICE's operations (2004–2012), the charity had purchased and “donated over 82,000 books to more than 80 non-profit literacy groups in Canada,”[3] and donated “tens of thousands more titles overseas for children who are in similar circumstances.” ICE has partnered with many Canadian literacy organizations including ABC Head Start, Calgary Reads, Frontier College, United Way of Canada's “Success by Six” program, and the YMCA. Its funders include United Parcel Service (UPS), FK Morrow Foundation, Government of Alberta, ETFO Humanity Fund and Bridge Street United Church Foundation.[11]

In addition, since 2010, working in partnership with organisations in Afghanistan, ICE has distributed thousands of editions in Dari and Pashto to schools, orphanages, libraries and non-governmental organizations throughout Afghanistan,[3][12] and also hundreds of Spanish–English bilingual editions were provided for children in Mexico through a Christian missionary charity called One Life One Chance.[3][13] John Zada points out that “for most of the children, [these] books were the first they ever owned.”[3]

Speaking to the Toronto Star earlier in 2010, ICE Director and Corporate Secretary and children's author Aubrey Davis said that the charity hoped “to deliver 1.5 million illustrated Dari-Pashto books of traditional oral tales to Afghan children through their local partners, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, the Khatiz Organization for Rehabilitation and The Asia Foundation.”[14]

In 2011, a group of Canadian Armed Forces members in Pohantoon-e-Hawayee (PeH) – part of NATO’s training mission to Afghanistan – purchased almost a thousand traditional Afghan books in Dari-Pashto through ICE. The books were given to children coming to the hospital, either as patients or as visiting family members to help promote literacy.

Interviews

In 2006, ICE director Aubrey Davis was interviewed on CBC Radio One's Metro Morning. He was asked why ICE was celebrating the birthday of Mulla Nasrudin, an international jokester and sage, who may never have existed.[15]

See also

Citations
  1. Staff (2015). "INSTITUTE FOR CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGE (ICE) / INSTITUT D'ECHANGES INTERCULTURELS (IEI)". Canada Revenue Agency. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  2. Staff (2015). "Children's Literacy: About ICE: Who We Are". The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange. Archived from the original on 17 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  3. Zada, John (December 2012). "Helping to Close the Literacy Gap". Viewpoint. 38 (4). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Canadian Pensioners Concerned, Inc. Archived from the original on 17 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  4. "Mulla Nasrudin party to raise funds for literacy". InsideToronto.com. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Metroland Media Group Ltd. 16 October 2007. Archived from the original on 17 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  5. Staff (2015). "Federal Corporation Information - 4233662 - Corporations Canada - Corporations - Industry Canada". Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  6. Staff (2015). "Hoopoe Children's Books". Hoopoe Books. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  7. Kaye, Donna (23 June 2013). "The best stories for children". The Belleville Intelligencer: Lifestyle. Belleville, Ontario, Canada: The Belleville Intelligencer. p. B3.
  8. Kaye, Donna (16 February 2013). "Teaching-stories are effective". The Belleville Intelligencer: Lifestyle. Belleville, Ontario, Canada: The Belleville Intelligencer. p. B2.
  9. Staff (1996). "Idries Shah – Grand Sheikh of the Sufis whose inspirational books enlightened the West about the moderate face of Islam (obituary)". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 May 2000. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  10. Staff (2016). "Children's Literacy: The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange (ICE)". The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  11. Keung, Nicholas (17 November 2006). "Funny stories, universal truths". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Star Media Group (Torstar Corporation).
  12. Staff (2015). "ICE Brochure 2" (PDF). The Institute for Cross-cultural Exchange. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  13. Luckow, Diane (24 September 2009). "SFU staffer builds houses and literacy in Mexico". SFU News Online. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Simon Fraser University. Archived from the original on 17 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  14. Keung, Nicholas (10 November 2010). "Literacy drive puts focus on Afghan tales". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Star Media Group (Torstar Corporation).
  15. Davis, Aubrey (10 November 2006). "The significance of Mulla Nasrudin, and Nasrudin's birthday party" (MP3). CBC Radio One Metro Morning (Interview). Interviewed by Andy Barry. Retrieved 18 December 2015.

References
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