(c) 2005
Liga pár páru v ČR
[servis]
THE COUPLE TO COUPLE LEAGUE IN EUROPEThe Couple to Couple League has been active in various countries in Europe for over twenty years. It was brought to the UK (www.cclgb.org.uk) in about 1980 by US servicemen and was built up there and in Ireland (acbreen@eircom.net) by Tom McFadden, who worked for ten years from Dublin, Ireland before returning to the US. At about the same time CCL started in Belgium and the Netherlands (www.ccl-nederland.nl). CCL materials have been translated into both French and Dutch. A new phase began in the 1990s with the falling of the Iron Curtain, which made it possible to extend the work to countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1991 a start was made in the Czech and Slovak Republics (see the article The Couple to Couple League in the Czech Republic and Slovakia). The CCL manual had been translated into Hungarian and published there in 1986, so it was possible to build on the interest generated by it. On the other hand the difficult language has made it harder to establish long-lasting contacts and active CCL work has not yet been established. US-Polish contacts made it possible to start the League in Poland (http://npr.pl) and there are now about 20 Polish teaching couples. CCL materials are available in Polish and there has also been a CCL radio course. The work in Poland was initiated by Roman Strus from Piaseczno near Warsaw. Roman and his wife Aleksandra have also been instrumental in the starting of CCL in Russia. Because Russian family life has been devastated by 70 years of Communist rule, it was not at first possible to find couples with intact marriages to train as teaching couples, which is the normal CCL policy, so a compromise had to be made: four lady teachers were trained to start with. There are now two teaching couples. They already have Russian teaching materials, so there is a good chance they will be able to help build healthy marriages with the help of NFP and win some of those couples as future teachers. In recent years there has been a teaching couple in Spain. For more information write (in Spanish or English) to CCL International, Inc. in Cincinnati, USA (ccli@ccli.org). The Situation after 2000Up to 2000 the whole of CCL's international work was directed by Bill Corey, the CCL Director of International Development, based in CCL Central in Cincinnati. He was literally responsible for the whole world! Although Bill was to retain overall responsibility, some of the immediate responsibility was to be devolved on the CCL employees and other activists in various countries. In Europe David Prentis was to be responsible for Western and Central Europe and Jozef Predac for Central and Eastern Europe. David can work in English, German and Czech, Jozef in Slovak and Russian. He also knows simple English and his wife Simona rather more. Jozef's first assignment in 2001 was to train five lady teachers in Georgia, a country in which it was also impossible to find men interested in doing this work. In 2007 the lead teacher from Georgia, Dr. Khatuna Meurmishvili, came to the Czech Republic, where she was trained by Jozef to train Georgian teachers herself. She has already trained a number of teachers, including one teaching couple. Jozef checked the tests of the candidates. David has been trying for some time to establish suitable contacts in the German-speaking countries and has taught 3 German-language CCL courses in Stuttgart, Germany. After the SeparationAfter the separation from CCL International (CCLI) the various CCL organisations in Europe have retained their names, the reason being that they have become known in their countries by the name "CCL". However, since CCLI has changed its method it is now necessary to distinguish between CCLI and the CCL branches in Europe (CCL Europe), which have generally retained the original Kippley-Prem method. The separation from CCL International is no reason for ceasing to expand the work in Europe. We are keen to spread the apostolate in other European countries, or to help, specifically in the training of teachers, in countries where CCL is already active. A valuable tool for this purpose is the English manual, which we have produced principally specifically for translation into other European (and other) languages. It has already been translated into Georgian and will soon be published. In order to start the work of CCL in a country it is necessary that there should be enthusiastic people there who want to start the work, including at least one couple willing to be trained as a teaching couple. Basically the same approach can be used as has been successful in Georgia. We are willing to send you our English manual as a basis for translating into your language. We are willing to travel to your country to teach the first course(s) and train your teachers. Would anyone interested in this project please write to David Prentis at lpp@lpp.cz or Jozef Predac at lpp@lpp.sk, who would be pleased to provide more details. Further articles: Home page |