CNS Around the World
Centres for Neohumanist Studies

Centres for Neohumanist Studies are developing in Sweden, Croatia, USA, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan, Holland and Haiti. The purpose of CNS is to engage in educational activities and social actions in order to liberate the intellect and further individual and collective welfare. These activities include public seminars and retreats,

community research and development projects, personal growth services, and the dissemination of related publications and materials.
 
CNS, Sweden

The College of Neohumanist Studies in Sweden is a relatively new programme established in May, 2004. CNS plans to offer an equivalent of Bachelors/Masters/PhD in Yogic & Intuitional Science; and Neohumanist Education (NHE) & Allied Sciences. Students may register in either of the two currently running faculties: Faculty of Yoga and Intuitional Science or Faculty of Neohumanist Education. The Institute draws on a wider faculty base of Ananda Marga Gurukula worldwide and gets regular visits of researchers, scholars and speakers for short-term courses, workshops, lectures and seminars. CNS also has a collaborative relationship with the Commedia School, an international theatre school in Copenhagen. In addition CNS is hosting a Study Circle on "Social Ethics” with the sponsorship from ABF-an institution in Sweden which has been supporting public educational initiatives for over 90 years.
 
In the past 6 months, CNS Sweden featured the following programmes:
"Myths of Free Trade" - a debate held November 2004
“Web Sites Management” - a workshop by Iishika.
“Conscious Self-Development” - a leadership seminar by Dada Lokeshananda , January 2005.
notes included in this issue.
“Communication and Counselling Skills” – an experiential four-day workshop led by Dr. Sid Jordan, March 2005.
notes included in this issue.

Upcoming workshops include:
Yoga Education for Kids on June11-12th 2005 by Christian Franchasinii.
Story Telling Workshop on Aug. 13-14th by Ole Brekke.
Bio-Psychology Workshop September 19-26th by Dr. Richard Maxwell.
For further details please visit <www.cns-se.org>
 
CNS Croatia – update on
Moja Prva Knjiga
My first book contest

On April 22, one year after its announcement and with lots of love and hard work from a few volunteers, the "Moja prva knjiga" - "My first
book” contest came to the close of its first round at the prize giving ceremony at the city theatre in Karlovac.

'Detektiv Ribica'
(Detectiv Fish) is by winner
Karla Sutalo, aged 12, from the middle age group. This book is available in Croatian
About 10 schools came from different places in Croatia, such as Zadar, Rijeka, Zagreb, Varazdin, Cakovec, Koprivnica, Stubicke Toplice and others. Most of the schools arrived exactly on time at 3pm and joined local school groups on a tour of Karlovac old city. Karlovac has a fixed 'birthday' when it was strategically built as a defence post again invasions from the South. It has a six

Groups of children from 10 schools meet in the six pointed star in the City center before the Prize giving ceremony and tell about their schools
pointed star with a deep moat around its walls at the intersection of four rivers. At the centre on a smaller six pointed star all the schools assembled and introduced each other. After that they had some free time to stroll around and see the exhibition of the books by children. We had a beautiful artistic display of the 150 best books and of course a table with the newly five published books for sale.
In the early evening, the theatre was full to the brim with about 400 people and children. The programme started with the Zorin Dom children's ballet performing "Ples igracaka" (The Dance of Toys) - the winning story of the 14 year old Masa Lenuzzi from Karlovac. It was a lovely fresh simple and wonderful story line, well choreographed with lots of little elves and toys dancing among the main ballet characters. The stage was an explosion of children's joy to dance and perform and the same for the audience to watch it!
 

Lukrecia and Armin, two young members of our Kuku (klub za kreavno ucenje- creative learning club) of CNS presented a PowerPoint of some images from the 335 books that came from 40 different places in Croatia. It was wonderful to see how children wrote and illustrated. The slides started with themes of Children's Rights where children expressed their thoughts and feelings. One book was titled “My father has improved" and had an image of him drinking. Next were images of children's sensitivity and care for animals and nature. And lots of fantasy and adventure stories! Some authors got special mention, such as the youngest who was only 6 1/2, one who lost her book and wrote it again and two who submitted two books!

Children's choir "Cicibani" - were lots of kids bursting to sing, ages kindergarten and above - they brought the most laughter to the audience with their childlike presence. The whole theatre was alive!

'Ples Igracaka' (Dance of Toys) is from Masa Lenuzzi, she is 14 and from the oldest age group. Her story was made into a ballet play by the children's ballet from Karlovac and is now going to other cities in Croatia!
 

Sanya Pilic, a very popular children's writer came to give the prizes with Tito Bilopavlovic, also a children's litterateur and editor of a children's magazine. Romana Leko as president of CNS introduced CNS. Sanda spoke about the contest and announced the second contest (2005/6). A local company director publicly agreed to give support on the stage! Finally Helena gave thanks to the city, county and all who helped. One parent expressed her support and desire to start a CNS branch in Zagreb.

Some concrete outcome - a budding idea and steps towards setting up a children’s centre in

Grade2 winners with Sanja Pilic and Tito Bilopavlovi, popular children's litterateurs.
Zagreb... and lots more enthusiasm and plans for the future.

Here is the text of the book of the youngest winner a boy of 9 years. It is a translation into English. He made beautiful tempera paintings for each line.

 
I Whisper to the Sea

The sea is like a big blue child.
It likes to play and tumble. It can sleep peacefully, yet it can get angry at times.
I whisper my secrets to the sea, both big and small,
my wishes and dreams,
my problems and everything that I like.
I tell it how much I like its waves, little fishes, crabs and shells.
I wish I could dive into its blue depths and discover all its secrets.
I wish it could carry me on a wave to some far away place.
And the sea listens to me. It comforts me when I am sad, it laughs with me,
and its murmur puts me to sleep in the evening.
It reveals my secrets to nobody, neither to the wind, nor to the seagulls.
That is why I love it so very much, because we are both alike.
Every morning it greets me anew with another little shell or a starfish
And when we have to part, it gives me its most beautiful shell.
When I press it against my ear, I hear the sea whispering the secrets that I alone know.
Exhibition of Books
 
'Saputao sam moru' (I whisper to the sea) by the youngest winner Mario Hren, 9 years old. This book is in English and Italian.
 
A page from his book.
The winning books are for sale from Didi Anandarama. Price is 10 Euro plus postage.
 
CNS Karlovac, Croatia

Centre for Neohumanist Studies in Croatia inspires initiatives towards progressive life-long learning, teaching and sustainable community building in balance with the natural environment. CNS promotes applied neohumanistic learning that stands for extending the love of the human heart to include all human beings, animals, plants and the inanimate world. CNS Croatia has its office base in Karlovac and from this office it implements activities locally and nationally. CNS Croatia addresses society in general in four areas:

-Healthy lifestyle
-Environment
-Education
-Economy
  
Activities
“Circle Time” – Workshops and seminars for teachers on concepts and activities that teach values and character building in children.
“Moja prva knjiga” – National contest for children and youth on writing and illustrating their own story. This project is under the patronage of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. The first CNS Croatia sponsored year long programme "Moja prva knjiga" - "My first book” contest came a the close at the prize giving ceremony at the city theatre in Karlovac in April.
“Kuku” - klub za kreativno ucenje
  • Club for Creative Learning
  • After school programme for creative writing and illustrating.
  • Playgroup for toddlers and preschoolers where children have activities that develop creative intelligence, through arts and crafts, music, dance and movement, storytelling and drama.

    • International Conferences
    CNS organized and participated in international conferences in Dubrovnik (2003), Prague, Macedonia, London and Budapest.

    Future Activities
    After-school programme for primary school children to help them in their homework.
    Regular monthly workshops and lectures on all-round health, personal development, bio-psychology, liberation of intellect for adults and similar topics.

    For further details please visit: <www.cns.hr>

    CNS Asheville, North Carolina, USA
    At the Asheville CNS, Sid Jordan, Brett Sculthorpe, Kristine Weber, Basil Savitsky, Howard Nemon and Cindy Sobering are initially focussing on the development of a seminar centre that would organize regular public events for exploring Neohumanism through five thematic areas: health, ecology, education, science, and socio-economics. Other core strategies to be developed later on include youth programmes, volunteer development programmes, community development projects, and alternative health services.
     
    CNS South Tirol, Italy
    Christian Franceschini has begun work on a Centre of Neohumanist Study in Italy in coordination with other CNSs around the world. He has worked as a Yoga teacher in public schools for almost 8 years, instructing 1000 children (youths) every year, and is in close contact with hundreds of teachers of all school-levels. The local government is more and more interested in getting teachers informed, educated and trained in the field of Yoga (the whole practice, from physical, to mental and also existential). Concentration at CNS Italy will be at first on three faculties: Yoga and Intuitional Science, Neohumanist Education and Sustainable Development.