Zwolle Consultation 2002

1st International Asha Forum Consultation
October 12 - 14, 2002, Zwolle, Holland

In October 2002, The Asha Forum convened the first ever international gathering of Christians who came together from Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe and Australasia to address child sexual exploitation worldwide. It was an amazing success.

In spite of the fact that each participant came from different organizations and cultures, a great sense of unity and clarity of vision was present. The purpose of the conference was to determine how The Asha Forum could better assist these individuals and their organizations in their work with sexually exploited children and to provide a forum for creating a globally unified Christian response to child sexual abuse.

The following are some of the key accomplishments that resulted from the conference.

• An International Advisory Team was formed to provide support and general guidance to the work of The Asha Forum.
• Four working groups were established to tacking the topics of: church empowerment and education, a clearinghouse of resources for workers, developing and delivering training, resource development.
• A clear vision statement to guide the work of The Asha Forum was developed.

The consultation in Holland was in many ways the birthing of a movement as a united mission statement, four working groups and an advisory team were all developed. A draft declaration was presented and the delegation recommended the declaration be condensed to one page to increase the likelihood of its practical use.

Cirencester 2005  Chiang Mai 2005  KL 2004  DC 2003  Zwolle 2002  Yokohama 2001