Greetings and hello, Konnichiwa, Ni Hao, Namaste, Selamat Datang, Ahn Nyeong, Sawa DeeKa

Greetings and blessing to you all. The year is flying by and soon many of us will celebrate meeting together in Gotenburg. I wish safe travel to all.

I have had a busy first half of the year. In April New Zealand OMEP members welcomed 9 Chinese early childhood professionals to New Zealand for a study visit that included visits to Universities, to early childhood centres and cultural exchange. The National President’s annual reports record early childhood visits and exchanges between countries. Exchanges, relationship building and networking is a core activity within OMEP. It is heartening that these exchanges are happening across our region.

On a wider scale we have all read of the horrific events in two of our member countries. Haiti and Chile experienced massive earthquakes. Fund raising for Haiti continues via OMEP World Treasurer Maggie Koong, Hong Kong.

The Pedagogical Research is up and running in our region and will be a focus for the rest of the year. The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) research for the Congress has progressed well with several countries from our region participating. It will be interesting to receive feedback on the collation of this research in Gotenborg.

At the beginning of the 2010 the Asia Pacific Region Fact Sheet were published on OMEP Singapore Web site. More contributions are welcome. To those who haven’t contributed check out the website www.omep-sgp.org for inspiration.

OMEP turned 62years 2010. Birthday bring questions: What is our future and where are we going? Thoughts on this topic are welcome. Feedback please.

I will be back with a report from Gotenborg in September. In the meantime best wishes to you all

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Doreen Launder
OMEP Asia Pacific Vice President.