SI MONTHLY NEWS April 2006 eGA longer comments
From SI Exco News
Expressions from Servas India
Servas India represented itself at the EGA by four representatives: Dr Ramesh Sharma (N S, Delegate), Pramod Kumar (HLC Servas India- WCG EGA), L V Subramanian (News Editor, Servas India, Audit Committee member), Abhay Shaha, observer. Servas India brings to this wonderful Servas world gathering its goodwill and greetings from all Indian host members.
Vedic value systems proclaim “Athithi Devo Bhava“ meaning “Guest are representatives of God” and that they deserve respect and affection. These strong values become the strong edifice on which the Servas India spirit revolves. It is with this acceptance that each Servas host member treats the Servas traveller. India is a country having diverse cultures with unifying thoughts weaved with the five religions living harmoniously side by side respecting each other. From the adoration of the ancient values and culture to the development of technological advancements, India plays a major role in revealing the importance of humanitarian values to the world at large. These are the frontline presentations to the Servas traveller when he decides to visit India.
India also respects the Gandhian philosophy which upholds “Jai Jagat “ meaning celebrating Universal Fraternity (Think globally - Work locally). This also embodies the Global village concept depicting Vasudeva Kutumbhakam (Whole world is a village). This has driven us to break the barriers of difference and connect with global points thereby ushering in waves of success and development.
Servas India started its foundation in India in 1951 and has now completed 55 years of its functioning and spreading the goodwill and amity of Servas spirit all around India. The founder of Servas India is Shri Hari Vallabh Parikh (Bhaiji ) who has done extensive work in spreading this wonderful spirit amongst the various states in India. Servas India has opened doors for more than 9000 Servas travellers who have enjoyed the Indian hospitality and have adapted various facets of the rich Indian culture. Servas India takes this opportunity to thank Servas Italy for organising this wonderful EGA in a very planned and harmonious way. From the Day zero, happiness and satisfaction was conspicuous amongst all delegates. The election of Mr Pramod Kumar as General Secretary of the Servas International and Mr L V Subramanian as a member of the Audit Committee by the General Assembly has brought Servas India to the limelight, We are grateful to the General Assembly for having reposed confidence in us and we assure that we will uphold the democratic values and Trust which the GA has placed on Servas India.
Servas India takes honour to extend “Su Swagatham“ (Respectful Welcome) and Namaste to all member groups for welcome to India, the venue of the ensuing GA and will do its best to make this a grand success.
The Role of the Secretariat at the EGA
I am very grateful to many people for the splendid work they did to make the EGA a success. In my view the people who worked before and during the meetings deserve great praise.
I had organized a staff of three women to work with me as the Secretariat, but many more people offered their help.
The official Secretariat was:
Laura Ragucci in charge of translations.
She asked many members from Servas Argentina and other countries to assist her translate all the documents into Spanish and French, working months before the EGA began. Texts were translated into Spanish by Ramiro Oliva (Ar), Alejandro Casin (Ar), Beatriz Giri (Ar), Mónica Bing (Ur) and Laura Ragucci herself (Ar).
Text were translated into French by Marcelina González (Ar), Violeta Viola (Ar), Karin Evrard (Bel), Michèle Lescot (Bel), Danièle Monfette (Can), Jean Seymour (Eng) Maria Gloria Borsa (It) and Fanny Bousquet (Bel).
She asked a lawyer, Dr. Nelida B. Verdejo (Argentina), to help review the translations of legal documents for accuracy.
She brought Alejandro Casin to help her type word for word translations, of the entire conference, into Spanish. They were instantaneous translations beamed to the large screen.
She would like to thank Rita Dessauvage, Nat Sec of Servas Belg. for her help recruiting volunteer translators into French.
Marisa Contini in charge of the binders. Though the binders arrived with many documents in them, there were many more to be inserted. LV Subramanian from India generously volunteered to assist us.
Vibeke Matorp in charge of the reception/help table The table was staffed most of the conference.
Elena Paxia was hired to type the motions as they were stated, make changes as dictated by the delegates, type the key points to each motion and the vote count results. She was assisted by Gary Sealey and Sylvia Krogh
David Asher most generously volunteered to type the minutes as the conference proceeded. His excellent work was most appreciated.
All forms of the minutes can be seen on the website.
Marisa and Vibeke kept the Speaker's Chart from which the moderator's selected the next speaker.
In addition the secretariat helped by running copies of new documents culminating from the many workshops. Vibeke folded and taped the namecards of the delegate’s country.
They checked lists of attendees.
We all answered a constant flow of questions to make the work of the delegates as efficient as possible. We all stepped in to help the other as the need arose.
I can only thank these wonderful people for the hours and hours of work they did behind the scenes as well as during the meetings. But, I can never thank them enough.
Honora Clemens , retiring General Secretary 2004-2006
