World Futures Studies Federation Award

I am proud to share this message in which my daughter is given an award:

Dear WFSF Members and Friends,

I am very happy to bring you some wonderful news.

As you know we have just celebrated International Women's Day around the globe.

This day has been celebrated now for over 100 years and marks the incredible contribution of women to the end of political oppression, slavery, and inhumanities of all kinds, and in all parts of the world.

It is remarkable to consider that even in the United States of America, women did not have the right to vote 100 years ago (not until 1920).
And that in Saudi Arabia, women still do not have the right to vote today (it is mooted for 2015).

In order to mark the important contribution of women futurists to the development of futures studies,
I have decided to create a new annual award - to be called the "WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist Award".
In future, this award will be announced on International Women's Day each year.

"WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist Award"
This award will recognise achievements in such areas as:
Advancement of futures thinking in the least developed countries;
Advancement of humanitarian causes through the concepts and methods of futures studies;
Advancement of the rights of women through the concepts and methods of futures studies;
Advancement of the rights of young people through the concepts and methods of futures studies;
Advancement of the philosophies, theories, methods and practices that strengthen and enrich the field of futures studies.
Inaugural "WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist: 2013" - Dr. Maya VAN LEEMPUT

I wish to name Maya VAN LEEMPUT, from Antwerp, Belgium, as my Inaugural "WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist: 2013" in honour of her outstanding work in 2012 and 2013 with young people in Katanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

While I acknowledge that Maya has done a lot of incredible work over the last few years, particularly in her area of positive multi-media futures, I am particularly impressed by her involvement in this recent project with young people in the Congo.
I also want to honour both Maya's courage in undertaking this work, and her humility in not drawing attention to herself as she does her work.

As you may know, this project is part of the WFSF successful application for UNESCO Participation Project 2012-2013 funding. The successful WFSF-UNESCO project is called the World Futures Learning Lab (LEALA). The project aims to develop and deliver blended (live and on-line) courses in world futures thinking and practice. It is directed to a diverse global audience, focusing especially on the needs of Africa, youth and the needs of developing countries.

About Maya
Maya van Leemput is a professional futurist who combines research and consultancy with a creative multi-media practice. Her Ph.D. research at the University of Westminster “Visions of the Future on Television. A Content Analysis and Production Study of Representations of the Future on British Television in the Mid- Nineties.” was completed in 02001. Maya collaborates with visual artist Bram Goots on Agence Future (AF), a long-term independent project to explore images of the futures through conversation and experiment. With a project based practice she nurtures a collection of images of the futures. Past projects include Iris Futures (VUB-IRSIB) and O58 (MAS|Erfgoedcel Antwerpen). In 2010 Maya finished a documentary about Belgium entitled Toekomst(EN)-Avenir(S), broadcast on both the Flemish and French-language Belgian national channels. In 2011 she worked on a participative television series in the French cité la Villeneuve (Grenoble). Currently Maya is working on Maono, a project for exploring the futures of North-South relations during a field trip in Katanga with young adults from Belgium and the DRCongo. She is also producing a series of future oriented interviews for the Maisons des Cultures of Molenbeek. Further clients include the King Baudouin Foundation, Instituut Samenleving en Technologie, EPTA, EC DG Information Society & Media, the Museum of Conemporary Art of Antwerp (MhkA), Prospekta, CultuurNet and COST.

About Maya's futures work with young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The part of the WFSF-UNESCO project, LEALA, that Maya has co-designed and is responsible for will involve the following outcomes:
1.     Contribute to futures capacity in the South and in Africa in particular, with grass-roots futures work and education of the highest standard;
2.     Offer young adults future oriented education and an opening and direct connection to the world-wide futures community;
3.     Deploy a digital learning platform that does not exclude African participation (overcoming technical challenges and limited internet-access in some regions);
4.     Develop an internationally oriented (language, worldview, sources) collection of educational materials and opportunities for exchange that is relevant and of immediate use in Africa and the wider world.

Please see the attached Vimeo link to a short Video (edited by Maya) produced as an outcome of the Congo project last year:
http://vimeo.com/50851169

Congratulations, Maya, for being the first recipient of this new WFSF Award!
You are a great inspiration to other young women coming into the futures field.
Dear WFSF Members and Friends,

I am very happy to bring you some wonderful news.

As you know we have just celebrated International Women's Day around the globe.

This day has been celebrated now for over 100 years and marks the incredible contribution of women to the end of political oppression, slavery,
and inhumanities of all kinds, and in all parts of the world.

It is remarkable to consider that even in the United States of America, women did not have the right to vote 100 years ago (not until 1920).
And that in Saudi Arabia, women still do not have the right to vote today (it is mooted for 2015).

In order to mark the important contribution of women futurists to the development of futures studies,
I have decided to create a new annual award - to be called the "WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist Award".
In future, this award will be announced on International Women's Day each year.

"WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist Award"
This award will recognise achievements in such areas as:
Advancement of futures thinking in the least developed countries;
Advancement of humanitarian causes through the concepts and methods of futures studies;
Advancement of the rights of women through the concepts and methods of futures studies;
Advancement of the rights of young people through the concepts and methods of futures studies;
Advancement of the philosophies, theories, methods and practices that strengthen and enrich the field of futures studies.
Inaugural "WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist: 2013" - Dr. Maya VAN LEEMPUT

I wish to name Maya VAN LEEMPUT, from Antwerp, Belgium, as my Inaugural "WFSF President's Outstanding Woman Futurist: 2013"
in honour of her outstanding work in 2012 and 2013 with young people in Katanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

While I acknowledge that Maya has done a lot of incredible work over the last few years, particularly in her area of positive multi-media futures,
I am particularly impressed by her involvement in this recent project with young people in the Congo.
I also want to honour both Maya's courage in undertaking this work, and her humility in not drawing attention to herself as she does her work.

As you may know, this project is part of the WFSF successful application for UNESCO Participation Project 2012-2013 funding. The successful WFSF-UNESCO project is called the World Futures Learning Lab (LEALA). The project aims to develop and deliver blended (live and on-line) courses in world futures thinking and practice. It is directed to a diverse global audience, focusing especially on the needs of Africa, youth and the needs of developing countries.

About Maya
Maya van Leemput is a professional futurist who combines research and consultancy with a creative multi-media practice. Her Ph.D. research at the University of Westminster “Visions of the Future on Television. A Content Analysis and Production Study of Representations of the Future on British Television in the Mid- Nineties.” was completed in 02001. Maya collaborates with visual artist Bram Goots on Agence Future (AF), a long-term independent project to explore images of the futures through conversation and experiment. With a project based practice she nurtures a collection of images of the futures. Past projects include Iris Futures (VUB-IRSIB) and O58 (MAS|Erfgoedcel Antwerpen). In 2010 Maya finished a documentary about Belgium entitled Toekomst(EN)-Avenir(S), broadcast on both the Flmish and French-language Belgian national channels. In 2011 she worked on a participative television series in the French cité la Villeneuve (Grenoble). Currently Maya is working on Maono, a project for exploring the futures of North-South relations during a field trip in Katanga with young adults from Belgium and the DRCongo. She is also producing a series of future oriented interviews for the Maisons des Cultures of Molenbeek. Further clients include the King Baudouin Foundation, Instituut Samenleving en Technologie, EPTA, EC DG Information Society & Media, the Museum of Conemporary Art of Antwerp (MhkA), Prospekta, CultuurNet and COST.

About Maya's futures work with young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The part of the WFSF-UNESCO project, LEALA, that Maya has co-designed and is responsible for will involve the following outcomes:
1.     Contribute to futures capacity in the South and in Africa in particular, with grass-roots futures work and education of the highest standard;
2.     Offer young adults future oriented education and an opening and direct connection to the world-wide futures community;
3.     Deploy a digital learning platform that does not exclude African participation (overcoming technical challenges and limited internet-access in some regions);
4.     Develop an internationally oriented (language, worldview, sources) collection of educational materials and opportunities for exchange that is relevant and of immediate use in Africa and the wider world.

Please see the attached Vimeo link to a short Video (edited by Maya) produced as an outcome of the Congo project last year:
http://vimeo.com/50851169

Congratulations, Maya, for being the first recipient of this new WFSF Award!
You are a great inspiration to other young women coming into the futures field.

Dr. Jennifer M. GIDLEY
President, World Futures Studies Federation (UNESCO Partner)

Reel Molenbeek Futures

'Reel' stands for being filmed and is not a spelling mistake, filmed by Bram Goots, professional camera man and the interviews are by Maya Van Leemput. Of course a professional sound and a real editing process. It is in the editing process that the story is told. Maya and Bram conducted this type of gathering images of the future already in 25 counties, listening, enticing, conducting workshops, what ever it took to make people think about a longer term future. The end result of this documentary is an interesting mix of the ideas of three men and two women, plus a few people interviewed on the canal in a boat. They tried to imagine where they would be at in their commune 'Molenbeek', one of the 19 districts of Brussels, in their private life, how it would be to age 18 years... The film was moving through the words and actions of the five interviewees: One young girl claimed the right to decide whom and if she would marry: I am not obliged to get married, I am not obliged to have children. I will decide. Beautiful to see a splendid young woman so unafraid of assuming responsibility over her own life. There was a cultural worker who likes to work in that field, and wants more responsibility. He let himself be aged by a make-up artist and thought he looked sixty years old. He pleaded, actually all participants in the documentary did, for more cooperation, more solidarity, more human contact. Technology didn't seem to be important 'If I have a flying car, then that still doesn't me me a superhero', he said. One man, the oldest, has done magnificent work with youngsters, having them look at the stain glass windows of John The Baptist church and then have them make something abstract which is mounted in a public space in one line with the original stain glass windows. The man himself paints beautiful abstract paintings. Upon retirement he'll go back to his small town in Morocco, because there are enough artists here, but there they lack artists. He explained that every year he takes a different class in one or other art technique, this year animation film and video... He paints abstract paintings since that doesn't offend any religion, encompasses all humans, refers to Klee, Kandinsky and Mondriaan. The second woman was kind and gentle, gave her words some thought before speaking. They are new to the quarter and love its mix of people and cultures. Warm hearted. She spoke about the communal gardens in the city and how those bring people together in social and ecological project. Then there was Gustavo, black Brazilian, the only one speaking Dutch really rather well. The whole film was subtitled either in Dutch or in French. A necessity in Brussels. The beauty of his movements with his head while thinking, the fervor with which he spoke about integration and that we are all somebody's racist... Yet hopeful, yes one of his hopes is that that in the future people will be less afraid of each other. 

I was impressed by warmth and positivity of the stories shown. Yes!!! Good people, good thoughts, a great documentary.

Futures (yes, plural!)

Maya Van Leemput is a futures researcher who got her PhD 10 years ago and since then has been collecting with her partner Bram Goots (Camera and DoP) images of the future people hold. Their latest project is in Molenbeek in Brussels commissioned by ‘The House of Cultures’ of St Johns-Molenbeek. They interviewed and filmed about 30 people. Next Friday, December 21, the day the world is predicted to end, she is showing the film ‘Reel Molenbeek Futures’, starting at  8pm. Why plural? Well there are no future facts, are there? So there is not only one possible future, but many possible futures that we co-create by our action, non-action, by what we can imagine, by how we would like those futures to be. For that you need clear images, maybe even universal values... As one of her futurist friends said: With fuzzy images of the future, you get a fuzzy future. Think about it, if you see clearly what you would like in let’s say 18 years, then you can do things to make it happen. If you have never thought about it, the film might just help you realize it is a fun and useful exercise in our life to think and dream and discover our expectations about our different possible futures.

Address & time:
8 PM

House of Cultures and Social Cohesion:

Chaussee de/Steenweg op Merchtem 67

1080- Sint –Jans- Molenbeek- Saint-Jean

Brussels-Belgium

You're all invited... French or Dutch subtitles...