Newsletter in .pdf format

It was marvelous! It was stupendous! It was wonderful! Well these descriptions may be just a bit over the top but it was good.
The six participants put a lot into the programme and on the whole received a lot from it. You will read something about the experiences from the 'horse mouth' before the end of this news letter.
Not only did the participants put a lot in to it but so did individual programme coordinators and host families and others. I have been hearing of numerous experiences both professional and social which took place over the six weeks.
A participant was at a wedding and found the Scots to be 'crazy!'. I think it was the Scottish dancing at the reception which caused this exclamation.
Castles were also explored and brought comments of marvelous and wonderful to some lips.
In the sunshine, the colourful houses of 'Balamory' on the island of Mull were well appreciated although questions were asked about families with small children trailing around with map in hand looking for P.C. Plum's House.
Scottish stone buildings were well admired and comments made about 'not many wooden houses in Scotland'.
Of course our hills and mountains were fascinating for some who were not used to such things and everybody climbed at least one mountain and collected a few 'tics' on the way. Then the great discussion ensued as to what was the best way of getting rid of such lovely Scottish wildlife. It's amazing the number of solutions we have to such a problem.
One participant even climbed Arthers Seat in Edinburgh and was most disappointed when she reached the top to see on the indicator that it wasn't really very high. Her answer to that was that she was going to describe its height in feet' when she got home in the hope that her hearers would get mixed up with feet and meters!
What about the cuisine during the programme? Well there were various comments which could describe some of our eating habits which I don't think I should repeat here. Sufficient to say that on more than one occasion packets of Rennies were seen to be useful side dishes. On the other side of the coin some of us experienced some wonderful foreign dishes served up with hesitancy because, 'all the ingredients could not be found ' in Scotland and there was a measure of, make do with what is available, but to most, the dishes were delicious.
I understand one participant spent half a day - well it seemed like that to her - preparing and cooking food for some 20 guests. She was told that everybody who came to Ayr did this! I good ploy if you can get away with it John!
John finds having a party towards the end of a placement a good way to say thanks to the local people who have been involved with the programme during the individual placement and also an opportunity for them to say 'good by' to the participant.
A Bar B. Q. with international singing and dancing was also enjoyed at the home of Catriona McNaughton at the end of the first week before everybody dispersed to there placement abode.
The placements were all in well known towns or cities in Scotland ie Edinburgh, Ayr, Dundee, Perth and Falkirk but when it came to host family addresses well that was another matter which caused some consternation among the ranks. Where on earth is Kippen, Burrelton, Muirkirk, Falkland, Girvan, Alva, Campmuir, Almondbank or Wormit. They don't appear on 'My map'!! Well by the end of the programme, among other things, the geography of Scotland was improved. One participant thought Muirkirk was on the moon or so it seemed to the person concerned, (sorry, I am putting words into some peoples mouths.)
It is not easy facing up to a different culture, social work system and people speaking in strange Scottish accents. So it was no surprise when the following comment was heard. 'How am I supposed to put all these bit of the Scottish Social Work jigsaw together', This was heard towards the end of the first week and also in the middle of the programme but by the end of the programme some had succeeded in doing just that. At least they had put their particular part into place. I am sure this position was reached with the help of host families, coordinators and other professionals at the various placement bases, who were continually feeding in bits of information which helped bring the situation together.
One placement was partly based at Dundee Football Club. Yes that is correct. At the time of the placement the future of the Club was in the balance Suddenly the participant became a great fan of the Club and was eager to know what decisions were being taken to keep the Club afloat it was a life and death matter. Anna is now the proud owner of a Dundee FC football shirt presented to her by the Club. Those win live in the Tayside area may have seen tar photograph in the 'Courier' when she was presented with it.
As you can see as you read this article, a Scottish social work exchange program is made up of variety of parts each important to the other. Yes, hard work and concentration is required by both host and guest but so also is the opportunity to relax and enjoy life and to absorb the atmosphere of the country and the work place through less formal means.
CIF Scotland is grateful to our 'International Participants' for their valuable contribution to another successful Social Work Exchange Programme.

'From the Horses Mouth'

It's been for me the first time in my life that I decided to leave for so long time from my country. I thought, "Why not?" I should have the possibility to meet people from different countries. I should have the luck to visit a new country, to "learn" better English language (Scottish English) but could also have the possibility to see how people work in the social field! So I decided to leave Genoa, leave my job, my house, my family, my friends, weather (the sun) and Italian food! I thought "I will not die!" I had only one security: a particular Scottish Gentleman that I had met on another occasion in the past .... Surprise, he was the same man since the moment that I arrived at the airport!!
Now I remember many things about the six week period. 42 days, and every day has been for me stimulating, funny, and also sometimes very tiring! Now I have not only many many pictures from my camera, but more and more different sensations in my life. I'm sure to nave found many friends from six different countries but the most important thing is that I've found myself different. When I spent five jays at Kingairloch, three days in Dunkeld, three days in Edinburgh, two days in Perth and one day in Glasgow and 28 in Falkirk I felt I was sharing my life with people that I knew for such a short time, and the strange thing was that for me it was normal. In my life in Italy it would not have been normal, before I give confidence to somebody at home I need to have more time. In Scotland there wasn't time, every minute was lived with great intensity.
The CIF Programme wasn't 'only' to go wild, but I've seen other parts of life, the part of my profession, sometimes so human but sometimes so raw and real. I visited a Juvenile Prison; a Residential School; some Foster Families. I took part in different group meetings including for adoption and young offenders. I saw many people with personal problems. I visited young people in their homes. This is the kind of life I have seen for 36 hours and more in a week, in my professional life for the last eight years and it doesn't matter if I'm in Italy or not because things are very much the same all over Europe. The human problem is a general problem. The differences between people is the culture of the country because that shapes the life style. The weather, the food, the music, the smells are all included as they colour each country and make the differences. I found many Scottish colleagues who work in the same social work field as myself with a different enthusiasm and a different passion. I have begun to understand that to continue to do this job it is necessary to have many passions. In this moment I don't feel the same passions and I miss it. I saw many workers who work with interest but especially they believe in what they do. I observed with curiosity everything even if sometimes I was tired and was a foreigner.
I want to spend some words for the Host Families. I had the opportunity to stay with three different families and they gave me the possibility to meet their friends. To spend with them their free time. To share with them their house, their family, their intimacy, their food and on some occasion also their job. I haven't met before this kind of people and they've been fantastic.
Iain was the centre of everything and everybody, and without him this couldn't happen!! Iain has been the soul of the group and he's been a central point of reference for the organisation and the relations with host families and the different Agencies. I'm sure that he will be a good teacher for Catriona, because for us he was a "dad"!
Before I left Italy for the CIF Programme I was anxious. During the programme I was happy but also tired. At the end I cried because I was leaving many marvelous people!

Paola Villa
Genoa
Italy

Note: Paola has been involved in CIF Italy in a variety of ways and last year was a 'host family'.

For the first time in many years we did not have a Swedish participant on our programme but that does not stop us thinking about them!

Swedish politics:-
Swedes are liberal, yet they always vote for the social democrats. That's because they are so conservative. Or, as the well-known saying goes, the Swedes are a colourful people. They think blue, vote red, and eat green.

In a Restaurant:-
Swedes believe in fairness. No-one should be in debt to anyone else. Consequently they insist on all paying their fair share at the restaurant when the bill comes. Who had what and how much takes forever to work out and is not made easier by the fact that nobody at that stage has a clear head. Lengthy calculations on a serviette and countless restarts later, they've worked out how much each person owes down to the last krona. This is when several in the group realise they need to take out an instant bank loan.

Stephen & Pat Mackay have recently been visiting Marta Klimecka (1999) in the Czech Republic. She now works in the Governors department in the city of Zlin and seems to be kept very, very busy. They also met up with Manfred Beigel (1998) in Viena who invited Stephen to the football celebrations in 2005

In June Abdullah Karatay from Turkey made a visit to Vilnius after being in Latvia to renew contact with Dalia Stakanaite. They were both on the programme in 2001. If you were at the CIF Celidh in St Matthews hall that year you will well remember Abdullah in kilted attire reciting some very emotional Kurdish poetry.

Mia Kulsma
Mia from Finland, (2002) is now married and goes under the name Mia Kettunen.

Sune Carlson (2002)
Sune was seen in Goa India with his wife They were attending the CIF international Conference there. It was reported that Sune had not changed a bit. (read more in /'Sweden 18 years on")

Sandra Braunerhielm from Sweden who was here in 2001 had her second child in June of this year. Both mother and child are doing well.

Carla Teigen (2001)
from Washington, USA, visited Sweden in the late Spring of this year with 'Dan'. Both seemed very happy and full of the joys of life. Johnny and Hazel Stewart met up with her last year in.

Elisabet Olsson. (1996) In March of this year Helen Gill & Paul Connell travelled to Sweden and met up with Eilsabeth Olsson who some of you will remember from the 1996 Scottish Programme. After a couple odd days in Stockholm they took the bus up to Sandviken and stayed with Elisabet and her husband Anders who showed them around the area, the nearby coast and the historic old town of Gavle. Elisabet is now teaching in a local school in Sandviken, a small industrial town, and recalls her time in Scotland very positively. She asked Paul & Helen to say hello from her to all her hosts and everyone she met. By a strange coincidence we also had a visit this summer from Marie Andre Richards from Nantes in France who was on the very same group in 1996.

Susan Topeka (1996)
Susan from Denmark still keeps in touch with folks and is still fighting on to try and re establish a National Branch of CIF in Denmark.

Marie Andre Richard (1996)
Marie visited Scotland in the summer for the second time since her programme in 1996. This time she brought with her, her daughter Philomene, a niece and nephew and her parents. Marie was delighted to have renewed contact with various folks she had contact with in 1996 in Perth, Aviemore, Acharacle, Inverness and even further north. She even managed a visit to Kingairloch to show her parents where she spent a long weekend in 1996 and Christmas 1999.

Ingela Oskersson (2001)
Ingela is still working away in Sweden and among other things has been able to arrange exchange trips with young people in Lithuania through her contacts with Dalia Stakanites who was with her on the CIF programme. We hear that Ingela has found the love of her life!!

Eva Strandman (2002)
Eva is now the Swedish CIF contact person for people wanting to come on the Scottish programme.

Boryana Grigorova (2002)
Boryana is still teaching at a university in Bulgaria. She sends her regards to all in CIF Scotland.

I had the opportunity to take part in the CIF exchange programme in Scotland this year. This gave me a chance to see Scotland through professional eyes and also learn from the others on the programme from other countries.
I have worked in a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team in a community based mental health team in Tallinn for a number of years and have also done voluntary work in NGO's helping in several projects to improve the mental health provision in Estonia. The first community based mental health services began in Estonia about 10 years ago and we are still developing our services. In coming to Scotland and the CIF programme I got knowledge, ideas, new experiences and contacts which I will use in improving the activities of the organisations I am involved with in Estonia. The orientation week with general social work seminars and group visits gave me a good basis to start with my individual programme in mental health in Edinburgh.. My practice placement was put together in a flexible way which allowed me to develop areas in which I was particularly interested. During my time I was able to make home visits, attend meetings of various types, have individual discussions with colleagues to find out more about principles, approaches, methods and tools which are used Mental Health Services in Scotland. As all this new information came to me in a foreign language, it took a while for me to put all the information together to get an overview of things. Comparing it with my everyday life here in Tallinn was difficult because of the different legislative framework and the various restrictions of the systems. It seemed to me that most of the people I met valued the work they did and I think that is important in Social Work. I also noticed that there were more males involved. Overall principles and aims in mental health field were much the same - like moving the support services to allow people to live in their own homes and involving clients as much as possible in decision making but the services in Scotland are much more developed.
In addition to the professional experience I got from taking part in the CIF Scotland exchange programme the cultural experiences were also important. Living with three host families all with different life styles added to this experience. Of course the interaction with my colleague participants was also very enjoyable and informative.
After the six weeks when I was packing my bag and preparing to go back home, I was happy because there was much more to take back home with me than just my regular luggage. I had useful professional knowledge and ideas, new experiences, information and materials. I also took with me good contacts, knowledge of new friends, a better understanding of Scottish culture, improved language skills and more self-confidence which are all good tools I can use in improving my everyday work.
A CIF programme to me, has a similar function as reviews which we use in assuring the success of client work. It provides an opportunity to do the same in ones own professional life and in the life of the organisation you work for.

Anu Rahu
Tallinn
Estonia.

CIF International has been on the go for a number of years. It grew out of CIP a sister exchange programme in USA . In 2005 we will be celebrating 50 years of existence in Bonn Germany. Why not plan to join in these celebrations. The dates for the celebrations and biannual conference are 25th July - 30th July. The theme of the conference is Building Bridges for peace and understanding. It is being held in the beautiful city of Bonn. The conference will host a variety of speakers who will approach topics from various perspectives and cultures. Visit to various agencies, a taste of German culture, singing and dancing are among many other side activities on offer. Post conference tours to East Germany, Northern Germany and Southern Germany will also be available for those who wish to stay longer than the actual conference. Cost for CIF members & family 550Euro. Non Members 590 Euro. Full details can be had from CIF Germany at www.cif-germany.de Some of you will remember the Conference which was hosted by CIF Scotland in 1997 when over 300 people came from 30 countries to share together the theme 'Making the Peace'. This covered individual, family, and national perspectives. We were pleased to receive so many international guests then, so let Scotland be part of the 2005 conference and allow our Germany colleagues to enjoy the same buzz.

CIF INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE & INTERNATIONAL BOARD.

The CIF Executive and Board of Directors from 21 countries met in Riga Latvia over the weekend 15 - 27th June. It was hosted by the young Latvian National Branch and met in the Riga Graduate School of Law which is an old but very beautiful building with extremely modern facilities. A long list of business was got through with remarkable efficiency and time was available for a walking tour in the Old Town, a visit to rural Latvia and a quick walk on the sandy beach. One disappointment was the weather with thunder and lightening and heavy downpours. We did have just a little sunshine however to give us a glimpse of Riga in all weathers.
During the Meeting CIF International was able to formally welcome Australia and New Zealand into the CIF family. They have joined together to form the 'Trans -Tasman Branch. This is the first Branch to be formed from two countries and the Board unanimously accepted them. They hope to be able to host an exchange programme in the near future. The Trans -Tasman Branch will be promoting CIF at the World Association of Social Workers Conference which will be holding their conference later this year in Australia.

This year I took part in the Turkish exchange programme. The programme lasts for four weeks, three in Ankara and one week in Istanbul. The Programme was very full, interesting and fun. We met with social workers, voluntary organisations and ministers of the Turkish Parliament who were interested in our work as we were in what they were doing in Turkey. The Parliament had just changed 'colour' in April of this year just four weeks before we arrived and for some this was a very anxious time. The New Parliament has a fundamentalist majority who were in the process of imposing their policies in the country. Some of these policies were felt by some to be backward steps and new "managers" affiliated to the Governing party were being installed into key jobs. The present managers were being moved without discussion or agreement to new posts. Some of those we met with did not know where their next job would be.
The CIF group consisted of four participants: Pia from Sweden, EUie from USA, Marie Noelle from France and myself from Scotland. As in the CIF tradition we lived with host families, two in Ankara and one in Istanbul. As it happened all host families were involved in Social work of one kind or another.
Language was a bit of a barrier and all the visits to agencies were done in a group when interpreters were present. Each day the group met at 'Downs Cafe', a busy cafe run by young people with learning difficulties, which was very popular with the public and tourists alike. Many of the young people were attempting to communicate with us in English by the end of our three weeks in Ankara. We were escorted to our visits by one of the three students who had been assigned to us to act as interpreters. This was a learning experience for them too as they had never been to some of the agencies on our programme. They used this time well to get themselves known for future employment and for future professional placements.
Most social workers we met in Ankara were women, some working in very difficult circumstances with few resources. Some were working with street children who often lived in slum housing -if you could call it housing - with no hope of being re-housed in modern houses. Community Centres were very popular with women. A lot of work was done to promote women's rights and status. All of the classes and groups were well attended. They covered issues from 'what to expect from marriage' to relationship counseling, - remembering that arranged marriages still happen for a lot of women, some at a very young age. Parenting classes were also well attended and covered the full spectrum, from the pregnancy to babies, toddler years, and for me especially, how to cope with your school age child. Homework and how to deal with the school and speak to teachers was also covered. Community Centres also taught women other skills such as sewing and dressmaking so that they could earn a small income to support their families.
Turkey of course still has its big institutions; children's homes for 500 children are not unusual. Institutions for the disabled children are the saddest. Because fostering is still in its infancy in Turkey these children are condemned to spend their child hood lives in these huge institutions.
The nation also has a very large population of very young people and is already struggling to deal with their social problems. The gap between the rich and poor is wide and there is no social security to rescue those who have little opportunity to get their foot on the ladder to prosperity. Both Ankara and Istanbul have many, many refugees and people from rural areas migrating to the cities to try and escape poverty. Our Social Work colleagues in Turkey are courageous in their fight against poverty and for the rights of both women and children in a society where
they themselves have little support from government ministers or policies. This programme, like all good CIF programmes, also included some time for cultural experiences. A trip to the mountains was a welcome break from the constant noise of Ankara. Like all capital cities, it never sleeps. It is loud and noisy with the call to prayer starting at 5.00am . Each of the participants had different experiences specific to our host family: visits to our host's favourite restaurants, trips to their hometowns or places of interest. Perhaps it was a visit to hear a classical concert or a drink in a chic street cafe of Istanbul.
We each took away our own memories of our time in Turkey, a lot of photographs and a long list of e-mail addresses.

Issy Bruce.

Intensive listening, learning, talking, meeting people, enjoying time with host families (best cooks in Scotland) the best group of participants and glorious weather.
My work placement with Perth & Kinross Council Community Care Team was exactly right for me. I had time to listen, ask questions, reflect and visit clients with colleagues all over Perthshire. My coordinator Anne Robertson found the right mixture of involving me, which gave me the feeling of belonging, but also enough time for reflection and taking notes.
I not only took home tons of information about the Scottish social system but also a lot of subjects to think about. Very important and precious for me was the contact with professionals from other countries and forming, hopefully, long lasting friendships. I value the time and experience in Scotland and thank everybody who helped make it possible.

Sabine Grundmann Germany.

This year lain Cameron stepped down as the incoming programme convener, a post he has held since the inauguration of CIF Scotland in 1992. The Executive committee cold not let this happen without taking the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the tremendous amount of work and personal commitment lain has invested in creating a programme for CIF Scotland that has earned an international reputation for the quality of its professionalism, organisation and hospitality.
It takes many individual contributions from people like placement co-ordinators and host families to make a successful and worthwhile programme. But all these individual contributions have to be recruited, negotiated, co-ordinated and managed so that they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw to complete the whole picture. This is the task of the programme convener and this is the task that lain has managed so skilfully and professionally and yet with such ease and consistent good humour that he has always made it seem like "a piece of cake".
The executive committee was well aware however of the demands of the role of the incoming convener, so much so that it took more than two years to work out how they could possibly allow lain to retire. Once the decision was made, typically, lain himself managed the smooth transfer of the responsibilities of the role to our new convener, Catriona, by staying on long enough for her to shadow him for the 2004 programme.
All members and friends of CIF sincerely hope that lain will not stray too far now that he has finally been allowed to relinquish the programme, but everybody who has been involved with CIF both past and present would want him to know how much his contribution has been appreciated and valued.
At the Civic Reception in Perth, held on 11th June to mark the end of the 2004 programme, lain was presented with an engraved paperweight as a small token of the high regard and great affection in which he is held throughout the Council of International Fellowship and a bouquet of flowers, to say thank you to his wife Anne for her unseen role in generously supporting his time commitment to the programme over the years.
1986-2004 CIF Sweden 18 years on, CIF has a well deserved reputation for creating long standing international friendships, as I rediscovered with pleasure during a recent trip to Sweden to celebrate my new found freedom in retirement.
I first visited Sweden in 1986 as a participant in a six week CIF Programme which ended with the traditional Swedish Midsummer festivities. Although I have been back to Sweden several times since then I have never been back at Midsummer or returned to the south of the country where I spent my main fieldwork placement in 1986. In June this year, Roy and I enjoyed a trip with all the best elements of a CIF Programme. Our host for the first week in Smaland was a participant in the Scottish 2002 programme, but he has been a member of CIF Sweden for much longer, having hosted and co-ordinated programmes for many years. Sune and his wife Barbro welcomed us to their summer house south of Vaxjo where Sune's large extended family seem to occupy most of the houses in the village beside the lake where we celebrated Midsummer in style despite the weather (very Scottish).
Before that however Sune had organised a reunion with my programme co-ordinator and host family in Vaxjo in 1986. Lena still works in the Social Work department in Vaxjo but now lives in an idyllic farmhouse deep in the woods about 20 miles away where we had a delightful lunch catching up on 18 years. Following the Midsummer celebrations, when most of the family had gone back to work, Sune had planned another reunion, this time with my main placement co-ordinator and host from Karlskrona on the south coast. Roland was able to stay overnight ensuring we all enjoyed a relaxed evening of Swedish hospitality.
In-between the festivities and reunions we also had a full CIF style programme of cultural, historical and outdoor activities. This included visiting a clog factory, a Moose reserve, several glass factories, the Emigrants Museum and an outdoor performance of a local history pageant. Apart form adding 3 pairs of clogs, a "Moose" mat for my computer and the inevitable items of glassware to our luggage, we also discovered we have a lot to learn about the art of canoeing and even more about the history of the Swedish people as narrated by Vilhelm Moberg.
From Smaland we headed north to Jamtland, where we spent the second half of our trip near Offerdal, at the summer house of my first Swedish host family, Cecilia. Although not a social worker, Cecilia was recruited as a host family by CIF Sweden in Stockholm inl986 and apparently selected me as her first guest because her 10 year old son Hugo thought it would be fun to
practice English. We did share a great deal of laughter during my 2 weeks of orientation in Stockholm, not least because Cecilia has never reconciled my short northern vowels with "proper English". Cecilia did not continue to host CIF participants but we remained in contact and adapted the CIF principles of professional exchange programmes when in 1996 she came to stay with us in Scotland and Roy arranged an Educational programme in Tayside for her and a colleague from their school in Stockholm. This year whilst in Offerdal we went trekking in the mountains on the border with Norway staying overnight in a mountain hut with rather more luxury than we are used to in Scotland. So it seemed likely that the next stage in the ongoing saga of our personal links with Sweden will be an orientation programme on the Scottish Munros for Cecilia and her partner Lars. Perhaps in 2006, 20 years on!

Anne Partingtcni
Treasure CIF Scotland - UK

Nordic/Baltic Mini Conferences

In recent years the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have each formed National Branches of CIF. They have been supported in this by the Branches in Finland, Sweden and Scotland. After Scotland had three Lithuanian participants on the Scottish programme, Iain Cameron went to Vilnius to meet with a group of social workers who had participated in exchange programmes in a number of countries to encourage them to form a National Branch which they have since done. Finland took the lead in encouraging the three national Branches to begin an exchange programme. This has been done through holding small Mini conferences. In 2003 Anne
Robertson and Issy Bruce travelled to Helsinki to join the conference of 45 participants. The main topic for discussion was the formation of a join programme with each country hosting 10 days of it. This is expect to take place in Spring 2005. The weekend also include the 'mandatory' agency visits which included a visit to a family centre which takes in the whole family - furniture as well! This was in a complex of rooms and small flats situated in a residential area of Helsinki. The conference participants also experienced the pleasures of the sauna and a relaxed social evening. ( I hear that the Scottish contingent did not sing very well!!)
A similar Mini conference is taking place in Lithuania this year over the weekend 17*/19th September which the Lithuania Branch has organised. It will be focusing on the exchange programme and the philosophy behind CIF although there will be agency visits and social and cultural events to experience. Scottish CIF'ers are encouraged to consider participation. For further information get in touch with Issy Bruce as soon as possible.

I am very happy to be taking over the role of CIF programme coordinator from lain but realise I have a hard act to follow! I became a qualified social worker in 1979 and stared my professional career in Greenock, moving a couple of years later to London where I was based for 5 years. I then took a break for 3 years to have my family and was living on the west coast by Loch Fyne and returned to social work in Perth in 1988. I was predominantly involved in child and family work until 1990 when I transferred into hospital based practice where I had special interest in physical disability. In 1993 I joined one of the new community care teams and two years later I gained a senior post in this area where I generally remained until 2002 when I was transferred to manage the Drug and Alcohol Team for Perth & Kinross Council.
In 1993 I started to host CIF participants and always looked forward to this involvement each year. The best part for me has always been the sharing of cultural experiences and learning about people's lives in other countries and cultures. I have also organised 2 programmes for participants who have been based in Perth. I would probably have considered applying to go on an exchange programme but could not think of parting from my children for six weeks! However they have now grown up and left home so I felt I was in a position to get more involved in CIF and therefore the opportunity of becoming the Programme coordinator for CIF Scotland seemed very appealing at this stage. I hope to carry on some of the traditions of the Scottish CIF Programme and develop new ideas with the intention of retaining the excellent reputation of CIF Scotland. It will be an interesting challenge I am sure.

Catriona Macnaughton CIF Scotland(UK) Programme Coordinator

In 2004 Sheila Lochart stepped down as Outgoing programme convener. Many thanks to Sheila for all her help and we hope that when work commitments permit she will be able to coordinate an individual programme in the Highlands once more.
Anne Robertson was elected to the Board and has taken up the post of Outgoing convenor. Anne who is a Care Manager with Perth & Kinross Council is also a CIF host family and has coordinated individual programmes for past participants on our programme.

This was lain Cameron's last year as programme coordinator but we are very pleased that Catriona Macnaughton has taken up the post after shadowing lain this year.

Any one interested on going on a programme should contact Anne at : anne.Robertson@btinternet.com

Anyone interested in becoming a host family or assisting in the 2005 exchange programme should contact Catriona at: Catriona@campmuir.fsnet.co.uk

Anna Smolina Russia