News From Our Members

I'm excited to announce that my memoir about our time as expats living in China is here! -- 'CHINA BLONDE - How a newsreader's search for adventure led to friendship, acceptance...and peroxide pandemonium!' is available now. I know that any families who've made the transition to living overseas will relate to my trials and tribulations along with the incredible experience living abroad brings.

A journalist with over 20 years’ experience, Nicole worked as a producer, reporter and news presenter at Sky News Australia for a decade. She currently works as a freelance writer and speaker, based in Sydney, Australia. CHINA BLONDE is her first book.

The Interchange Institute is now offering its popular workshop, Crossing Cultures with Competence, online. This unique training-of-trainers program is designed for those who are already working with people from other cultures and who want new ideas, new materials and a new level of understanding about how to offer a top-notch cultural orientation. We will resume in-person workshops when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, online delivery, delivered by a team of senior trainers with expertise in varied sectors, has been very welcome, especially with the FIGT community. Use this time to get the structure and materials you need to combine your expatriate journey with your professional and/or volunteer experience.

Wondering if this might be for you? Let’s set up a quick chat to help you decide. Contact info@interchangeinstitute.org. Space is limited. See www.interchangeinstitute.org for details.

Dr. Anne Copeland leads the team of master trainers for this online workshop. She is the founder of The Interchange Institute whose mission is to study and support the needs of people in intercultural transition. She served on the FIGT Board and Program Committee for many years and joyfully welcomes its members to this course.

It's easy to take family for granted, isn't it? Until you go to live in a different country…

Visits are great, and near impossible right now. Zoom is magical. But it can’t replace hugs. Or being there in times of sadness and celebration. 

As expats and migrants, long-distance familying is a poignant experience. Often desperately wanted, but also overwhelmingly hard some days.

Helen Ellis’s thought-provoking research on distance grand-parenting gives insight into what it takes for all family members to succeed in staying emotionally close, while physically apart.

Mobile Relocation brings you a FREE webinar with Helen on Wednesday, 24 June @ 7:30pm NZST. 

Click on the image above to convert to your time zone.

We hope this webinar provides support to the expat and migrant community familying from afar in the COVID-19 world. Please invite your grandparents and distant family members to join us too. Places are limited, so register now.

Bridget and Helen are both FIGT members who, despite being fellow Kiwis, met at an FIGT Coffee and Connect session! www.mobile-relocation.com

The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused closed borders and grounded flights around the world. We are doing research into how the situation has affected expatriates and their families. Will it impact their motivation and willingness to live and work abroad? In a global pandemic what happens to the global talent pipeline? Post COVID-19 what will the 'new global' look like? Have you been affected? Most importantly, wherever you are in the world, we hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and well. Take our survey here:

This research is a collaboration between FIGT members, who are intercultural scholars from universities in Hungary, Belgium and the UK - based in Singapore and Malaysia. It will contribute towards PhD research and to papers for submission to academic journals and conferences.

Joyce Jenkins is an experienced intercultural business coach, facilitator and consultant. She also teaches and researches intercultural communication at universities, with a special interest in supporting and developing global individuals and their families. www.experthumans.org.

Author Doreen Cumberford calls her book Life in the Camel Lane: Embrace the Adventure a “learnoire.” It is a combination of Cumberford’s story and the stories of other expats and the lessons they learned living in Saudi Arabia as expat employees or spouses.

Readers considering expat living will learn the four stages of culture shock: arrival, honeymoon, frustration and adjustment. The final stage of acceptance is followed by the adjustments of returning to their home country.

Life in the Camel Lane seeks to acquaint readers with the Saudi culture, lifestyle, and it's deep traditions of hospitality, generosity and tolerance from an insider’s perspective. Cumberford describes Saudi weddings, the sport of falconry and her own feelings about the Saudi law prohibiting women driving (that has since been relaxed.) There are also chapters on the experiences of 9/11 in the terrorists’ home country and the “Terror Years” of internal terror tactics from inside Saudi Arabia. These tactics were designed to drive the expats out of the country and destroy the Saudi government.Readers considering expat living will learn the four stages of culture shock: arrival, honeymoon, frustration and adjustment. The final stage of acceptance is followed by the adjustments of returning to their home country.

With stories and compelling honesty, Cumberford describes her family’s most challenging journey and many of the lessons they learned together.

Written to provide useful insights and inspiration to anyone considering living abroad, Life in the Camel Lane shines the light on building a new identity and home while abroad, and the difficulties of the journey home.

A native of Scotland, Doreen Cumberford worked for the British Government in London and Cameroon in the mid 1970s, then an American corporation in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates immediately after. She has been an entrepreneur, coach, writer and speaker while traveling these last four decades. Doreen has lived in seven countries on four continents, including the Middle East for 18 years. Doreen coaches, speaks and writes about using travel as a tool for transformation, together with the necessary mindset to process international transitions and constant travel with ease and grace.

Covid-19 without a doubt has reminded the world about our degree of interconnectedness. On the one hand we have closed airports, retreated behind national borders, turned inwards closing down communities and neighbourhoods.

On the other hand, despite the physical distancing, the sense of social connection and resulting support around the world has been heart warming.

The Thriving Abroad Together podcast series is an example of this desire to support. The aim to provide positive insights, advice and stories to lift and support the internationally mobile through this challenging time.

Over fifteen generous spirited professionals have contributed their time and expertise to this series, many are members of FIGT.

Click below to access these interviews.

Louise Wiles is the host of the Thriving Abroad podcast, and also a coach supporting individuals to navigate the challenges and maximize the opportunities and outcomes of relocation and international employment. She is the author of "THRIVING ABROAD: The definitive guide to professional and personal relocation success."

“SENIA, is seeing rapid worldwide growth and along with the transformation of SENIA (Asia) to SENIA International, we needed a dynamic educational leader to continue to push SENIA’s mission/vision,”  said Kate Balsamo, SENIA’s Board Chair. “Lori Boll’s long record of advocating for students in the special needs community along with her personal family connection to autism, made her an obvious candidate.”

Lori is no stranger to SENIA. She attended her first conference in 2010 and organized the SENIA 2011 conference in Shanghai, China. She and six others formed SENIA’s first board, of which she has been a member for the past nine years. 

Lori is currently finishing her work as the Intensive Learning Needs teacher at International School Bangkok, a program she created with support from the school. Although she is sad to leave her classroom, she is excited to help lead SENIA in its work worldwide advocating for the support and resources required to enhance the lives of individuals with disabilities. 

About SENIA

SENIA was started by a group of international school teachers in China in 2002. The goal was to create a support network for teachers and other professionals working with children with special educational needs in Asia. SInce then, SENIA has expanded to a global association of educators, professionals, and parents with chapters in Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and South America. SENIA is currently an FIGT Silver Sponsor.

About Lori Boll

Lori Boll is an experienced Special Education leader with a personal connection to individuals with disabilities.

In 2003, Lori’s son Braden was diagnosed with profound autism. This milestone event changed her focus from teaching elementary students to advocating for all children and their education with a focus on meaningful inclusion.

In Shanghai, China Lori worked as a principal for a small school for children with special needs and went on to co-found the first inclusive school in the city. Currently Lori is running the Intensive Needs Program which opened up at International School Bangkok in 2017.

Lori has two graduate degrees; one in Reading Education and the other in Special Education and has been teaching for over twenty-five years in international schools, including American International School Riyadh, Jakarta International School, and Concordia International School, as well as in the United States in California and Colorado.

To assist parents & kids during the current global crisis RCTC has initiated a free downloadable Social-Emotional Learning Activities Resource Guide for Parents. New activities to be posted every week.

To download the SEL Activities go to: www.resiliencecounselingcenter.com/publications.html

William G Nicoll, PhD co-directs the Resilience Counseling & Training Center providing individual, couples and family counseling, parent coaching and professional development training. Bill brings 50 years of experience as a teacher, school counselor, mental health/family therapist, and university professor specializing in child, family & school issues.

In the past weeks, Amel has heard many concerns about whether it is “ethical” or “appropriate” to keep selling and promoting a business right now.

If you listened to her podcast episode #161, you might already know her position and why she thinks you cannot just pause everything and wait for brighter days, no matter if you already have a business, or were planning to start a business.

Now, you might wonder how can you then continue to show up, adjust to the circumstances and make sure that you do business mindfully?

That is why she decided to organize a FREE WEBINAR to share with you:

How to attract clients and communicate in uncertain times

During this webinar she will share with you strategies and real life examples of:

• How to continue to nurture your current clients even if you cannot serve them right now
• How to pivot and make the necessary adjustments in your business to continue to be relevant
• How to communicate mindfully and effectively to attract new leads and new clients

To help you in these uncertain times, she invites you to join her for a FREE webinar on Friday, April 17 at 8 am EDT. Although it is best to join live to get access to the interactive parts, if you can't join, make sure to sign up to get the recording.

She can't wait to meet you there!

Amel Derragui is business and marketing coach, speaker and podcast host at Tandem Nomads. After a career in advertising, she quit her job to join her husband abroad and launched her first business consulting corporate companies while living on the move. Six years later, as she saw a critical need to support other expat spouses in finding their own source of fulfillment and financial independence, she launched Tandem Nomads to help them learn how to grow a successful portable business. Amel speaks for various international organizations such as the IMF, World Bank and European ministries of foreign affairs to provide guidance on how to use entrepreneurship as a solution to dual career challenges. Her work is featured in various media such as Forbes Magazine. www.tandemnomads.com

Generation Mobility's SALUS© platform is slated to go live on April 10th, 2020 with the goal of connecting individuals and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with a mental health professional or certified coach. The service for individuals and families living abroad will be available, free of charge, for the months of May and June.

We are asking for mental health professionals and certified coaches to sign up as soon as possible to donate their time to help individuals and families around the world. So far we have professionals onboard from 20 countries with over 25 languages.

Download the Press Release

Alicia Partee is driven by a single, powerful vision: To break down the barriers that prevent people and businesses from thriving globally, and to use technology to scale the solution. For over 20 years, Alicia worked in the disruptive, fast-paced world of Silicon Valley where she led projects and teams at Fortune 500s, startups and non-profit organizations. In 2006, she wanted to step back from the corporate world, and made a successful career transition into mental health. Learn more about Alicia at aliciapartee.com.