Goodbye ICCO
On Thursday September 26th I said Goodbye to ICCO. Below you can read the speech I wrote for this Goodbye.
Farewell Reflection: 26 September 2019: ‘Forever Young’
Who would not wish to remain forever young?
Let’s have a look at the lyrics of this beautiful song by Bob Dylan.
May God’s blessing keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay
May you stay forever young
If we take a closer look at the lyrics of this song, we see that remaining forever young has nothing to do with cosmetic surgery, DNA manipulation or hair transplants as some of our world leaders seem to think.
These words did not originate in 1974 when the lyrics were first published. These are deeply spiritual words that we find in the prophets and the psalms of the Old Testament in the Bible.
I have often thought of these lyrics in relation to ourselves, but also in relation to ICCO.
How does an organization remain forever young?
We are rooted in the Christian ecumenical tradition that has the core values of Compassion, Justice and Stewardship. In more concrete terms ICCO has translated this into fighting poverty and injustice. This has not changed in the nearly 55 years of its existence. But this mission is much older, more than 2000 years or even more. In the Old Testament the words compassion and justice are very closely linked and often refer to the position of widows and the marginalized in society, that their rights be upheld
An organization like ICCO is a vehicle to achieve its mission, not an aim in itself. It will change and has changed. ICCO was a foundation, a cooperative, has added private companies and for sure some will prove to not be sustainable, there will inevitably be change again in the coming years.
An organization is needed however to achieve a mission. An organization costs money. There is no need to be ashamed, or feel guilty about this. I refer back to the roots of our mission Compassion, Justice and Stewardship. They remain, and will always remain, with or without ICCO. That to me is the DNA of ICCO.
Within our committed ICCO staff these roots are experienced differently. Some work for ICCO explicitly because of these Christian values. Others are more implicit in this, they feel at home within this culture. Also our regional teams are very different. We have colleagues that share these values, but from a different religious conviction. That is ICCO worldwide today.
My personal history with ICCO goes a long way back. As a young student I was privileged to meet Jo Verkuyl, the founding father of ICCO (together with Jone Bos who passed away recently). I was impressed by his life story in Indonesia, his faith, his strong conviction, even accused of being a traitor, and his authority, even at old age.
When working in South Africa in the apartheid era, my friend Kees van den Broek and I started an NGO called Thusanani: employment for handicapped people and patients. It was supported by ICCO, this was in 1985. The consequence of this ICCO support was that we were blacklisted by the South African government: post was opened and telephones tapped. I am not really an activist by character, more a diplomat. But sometimes we are called to stand upright and be strong.
In the late nineties ICCO was challenged by the then Minister of International Development, Eveline Herfkens: ICCO are you rooted in Dutch civil society? This coincided with organizations within the Protestant constituency, approaching ICCO for closer cooperation. As director of ZOA Refugee Care, I was part of those initial talks. It led to the formation of Prisma, and the ICCO alliances.
Later I was part of the ICCO supervisory board and for the past nine years its CEO. It was a privilege.
We Protestants hesitate to say that we are proud. But there is every reason to be proud, and maybe humble at the same time, for what has been achieved in the past 55 years. I thank you all for being part of that journey.
It is my sincere pleasure to hand over to Sybren and Jolanda to lead ICCO into its next phase. With the Sustainable Development Goals (our new international language) 2 and 8 as our focus: food security, business development, decent jobs, especially for the next generation, within the agricultural sector.
May God’s blessing keep you always
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young
Thank you.
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