Technological sponsorship is requested by ICEC international partnerships and collaborative initiatives can be developed. The purpose of these initiatives is to increase the social and psychological resources and educational opportunities of children and to strengthen their resiliency and recovery from trauma. ICEC projects engage children in activities created through the use of innovative technology. The activities are designed to enhance their emotional and physical well being as well as their academic development. The work of ICEC is local as well as global and focuses on children, their education, their access to literacy, their use of technology and their life sustaining needs.

ICEC projects and activities are designed to increase the possibilities for children to recover from mass trauma. However, the logistical complexities of providing educational opportunities are sometimes difficult to achieve, because of the remoteness of the locations in which children live and because of the complexities of local conditions. The organizational challenge is to use technology to establish a worldwide web of support for children when catastrophic events occur. The establishment of ICEC global connections between educators, scientists and psychologists from around the world, with teachers in areas of extreme poverty, armed conflict and natural disasters, will provide opportunities for them to work actively together to create international, national and local partnerships.

ICEC international collaborative initiatives are designed to build on and be sensitive to the importance of children's home languages, local heritage and culture. The successful coordination of such an international effort will be highly dependent upon the implementation and use of innovative technology to create a world wide web of support--a cradle of caring-- for children who have experienced mass trauma will take ingenuity and imagination. To make the technology simple enough for teachers and children to use will take cooperation and dedication, a synergistic capability that crosses borders between nations, business and academia. ICEC’s commitment to cross-disciplinary, multidimensional approaches to the use of technology for humanity makes a global web of educational opportunities for children of mass trauma a possible reality.

ICEC’s objective is to use technology to create a cradle of caring for children who have experienced catastrophic events or live in areas of ongoing emergency situations. The intended outcome is more people working together, teachers from around the world working with teachers in places where there is extreme poverty, armed conflict and natural disasters, on emergency education projects and long term educational initiatives. Critical to the success of these ICEC projects and initiatives is the use of technology to sustain these efforts and make it possible for teachers and children who are locally isolated to become a part of the global community. Accomplishing this goal will enable specialists from many different fields, with very different kinds of expertise, to work directly with local NGO's, governmental agencies, and teachers on educational initiatives. If the news media can bring children living in areas of armed conflict and natural disasters into our homes it must be possible for us to go to them. Using technology a global network can be established.

At ICEC these initiatives have already begun. An international network of educators, scientists and psychologists from around the world, has been established to work with teachers in areas of extreme poverty, armed conflict and natural disasters. The ICEC technology project takes to the next level many years of intensive interdisciplinary study in areas of extreme poverty, armed conflict and natural disasters. This includes living and working in international refugee camps, visits to schools and summer camps in areas of armed conflict, and participation in meetings with government and NGO officials. It also includes time spent in Louisiana immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita working in shelters and schools, providing support for teachers, school counselors and psychologists, and consultation and guidance in university settings. Concomitant with this long-term effort connections have been established in the Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Working partnerships are already being made.

In April 2004 educators, scientists, artists, physicians and members of the business community from around the world met at an International Scholars Forum at Hofstra University which focused on the establishment of ICEC and a global network of teachers helping teachers who live and work with children in areas where catastrophic events have taken place. There was an energy, a small beginning of great promise, grounded in the hearts and minds of specialists from many different fields and disciplines who are ready to work on behalf of children to improve their social conditions and provide them with educational opportunities sensitive to the importance of their local heritage and culture.

ICEC ’s technology projects will make the virtual possibilities a reality. Educators, scientists and psychologists who work with teachers in areas of extreme poverty, armed conflict, or natural disasters, have the potential to increase the resilience of both teachers and children, and bolster their recovery in the aftermath of mass trauma. To create a world-wide web of caring for children it will be necessary to establish virtual connections. Participants will need to be able to collaborate synchronously and asynchronously and their needs accomplished using the most appropriate telecommunications technology available. Asynchronous technologies will be necessary to provide shared experiences and gateways used to limit the need for multiple technologies at each site.

ICEC ’s projects are based on 30 years of well documented research with children who are economically and socially disadvantaged and more recently with children living in areas of armed conflict. Each collaborative initiative and educational project will emphasize the local importance of focusing literacy, art and science through projects which recognize the importance of 1] children's cultural heritage; 2] family and community stories; and 3] the exploration of local environments and events that are taking place. International participants will be encouraged to focus on activities that are embedded within the everyday experiences of children. ICEC projects might focus on the lack of drinking water or food or restrictions on transportation and mobility. Projects might also be in the arts which have been established to be beneficial for children who have experienced traumatic situations. Such activities can be both educational and therapeutic, and enhance the development of the social and psychological resources of children. Other benefits include the possibility that these initiatives will result in the amelioration of local conditions which adversely effect children.

The need is urgent, the logistical problems enormous and coordination critical. However, the use of technology in emergency and post-war settings is almost none exist. Many of the technologies that could be used have been used for some time for battle logistics, and by the press corps and multinational corporations. The use of a combination of technologies from high-speed broadband, standard telephony, IP telephony and two-way satellite communications. Gateways between these systems would have to be deployed at various locations around the world. Eventually, applications could be developed to fit the specific needs of children in specific locations and for specific emergency and long term educations situations. The need for educational initiatives using innovative technology is unquestionable. The possibilities of creating a global network of educators and scientists a realizable possibility. The international community has the knowledge, technological capacity and organizational capability to make a real and lasting difference.