For the sixth consecutive year, a group of 30 students from the IFF Europe, in Angers, France, have spent an afternoon at the Geneva IofC office, thanks to Michael Smith, a close collaborator of IofC-France.

The French-Swiss national public radio service (RTS La 1ère), has just broadcast a half-hour report on the evening in July, during the Caux Forum for Human Security, which focused on former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Aboriginals of the Stolen Generations.

The popular radio programme ‘Les Dicodeurs’ is being broadcast daily this week from the Great Hall of the former Caux-Palace on the RTS la 1ère, the first programme of the French-Swiss national radio.

Cynthia Jhaveri is the new Communications Manager of the foundation CAUX-Initiatives of Change since 12th November 2012.

The French-Swiss public service radio, Radio Télévision Suisse Espace 2, broadcast a long interview with Andrew Stallybrass, Caux spokesman, and Rainer Gude, IofC person responsible for relations with the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva as part of a week-long series of programmes on the theme of ‘Healing the wars of religions’.

Being up close and personal with 19 fellow Caux Scholars from 15 countries, guided by Carl Stauffer, a veteran facilitator and professor of Transitional Justice, can be a heady experience. Ask Alisha Harris, a social worker from Richmond, Virginia, studying counseling, who said: “I learned to be vulnerable and comfortable. A leader was born within me.”

People are inherently trustworthy and willing to engage creatively and productively when given the chance to grow professionally and personally. These were key findings shared by top executives during a business values work stream, held over three days, 20 to 22 July, during the conference on Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy in Caux, Switzerland. The interactive work stream was on the theme of ‘reshaping business around core values’.

Tackling food wastage was a key theme of a ‘food and sustainability’ work stream, one of six work stream groups run from 20 to 23 July during the Caux conference on Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy. ‘There’s nothing more personal than eating,’ said Cristina Bignardi, an organic farmer from Bologna, Italy, who was the work stream leader. The food and sustainability work stream, now in its fourth year, emphasised that a paradigm shift concerning eating habits is slowly developing but is far from complete.

‘Organized crime is now a globalised reality. The Mafia has very much benefitted from this globalisation,’ says Fr Tonio Dell’Olio, the Italian priest who founded the Libera Terra Association in 1995 in order to seize back land illegally help by the Mafia. The financial crisis has favoured the Mafia, he says. Globalisation means that the public’s stereotypical image of the Mafia no longer matches the Mafia that now operates around the world.

The Caux Foundation hosted some 1,200 visitors this summer in its International Conference Centre at Caux, above Montreux. Sessions on multiculturalism, human security, business ethics and training modules in change-making and peace-building were held from 1 July to 8 August. Over a hundred delegates of the Initiatives of Change international network, from 42 countries, are now meeting in Caux for their annual Global Assembly.