I have the great pleasure to inform you that the ISA Board of Directors agreed to add new members to the Special Friends Group, which helps keeping contacts in countries where there is no ISA member Association for Stuttering People.
Present members were:
- Jiri MAZOCH (Czech R.)
- Tomas SIMKO (Slovakia)
- Moonja SHIN (South Korea)
- Benabdellah DAHO (Algeria)
- Daniela V. ZACKIEWICZ (Brazil)
- LI Shengli (China)
Let’s welcome the following new members:
- CHEN Chao (China, PWS, translated “Sometimes I just stutter”, will help edit website)
- Barry MA (China, PWS, went to the Ghent Congress, website support in China)
- XIAO Kewei (China, ex PWS, psychologist, runs stuttering clinic in Shenyang, open to Self help concept)
- JIN Xingming (China, paediatrist, she went to the Ghent Congress, open to self help concept, runs parent’s group in Shanghai)
- Pedro RODRIGUEZ (Venezuela, PWS and SLP, went to the Ghent Congress, runs online Latin American SHG)
- Carlos A PIMENTEL Ferrari (Peru, PWS, went to the Ghent Congress and to German Conference 2000)
They all will be close to ISA developments and receive the newsletter OV for free. They have the right to publish articles in OV and ISA web site about their country and have access to the worldwide contact network about stuttering.
It is ISA’s hope that they will gradually work to establish Self-Help groups in their areas or continue running them in case they exist. They are of course especially invited to attend the World Congress in 2004 in Perth, Australia.
Of course, among the Special Friends, it might be very fruitful to share experiences, as in most countries we face the same challenges.
I will work as a mediator, so when you have questions, please write to me.
Best from China
Stefan Hoffmann – ISA Vice Chair