SI MONTHLY NEWS July 2006 News
From SI Exco News
South America Area Coordinator
Congratulations!
Exco monitored the South America Area Coordinator Election. We are pleased to confirm Roberto Borenstein as Servas South America Area Coordinator.
We wish you and Servas South America much success. At the end of the election schedule, EXCO called all the Servas Member Groups of Servas America, namely Servas Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
As you know, through the efforts of SI General Secretary, Pramod Kumar we had already initiated and have completed a Servas South America Area Review. This review of Areas was requested by the GA. That Review determined what Member Groups are part of the Servas South America Area and are therefore eligible to vote. (Pramod will be publicly documenting the review).
We know Servas wants to improve democratic election procedures. We therefore took care to respect the spirit of Democracy, particularly as there was only one candidate, who was also the organizer of the election. We worked to make sure that there was no doubt about the outcomes of the South America Servas Area election. We wanted to help make sure the elected candidate could count on a majority of support during the next term of office.
Bolivia
It is a big joy for me to be able to announce that Servas Bolivia is coming back to life. Nils Peters, an enthusiastic Servas member born in Germany in 1977, has signed up as a host in the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, having also volunteered to become a Servas coordinator and help in re-establishing Servas in Bolivia. Nils Peters’ family joined Servas in 1990, having hosted travelers from all over the world. Nils has also gathered experience as a Servas traveler, having visited hosts in Finland, Spain and Israel.
There is 1 year that Nils and his wife (Marion) have been living in Bolivia. Marion has German, Bolivean, Argentinean and Japanese background. Besides Germany and Bolivia, they have also lived in the US. As a first step, Nils will initially establish a network of new hosts in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where he knows some people that will probably become Servas hosts.
We will soon be issuing an updated host list for Servas Bolivia, with the addition of the new members in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Please, let´s welcome Nils Peters as new host and new Main Contact for Servas Bolivia.
Roberto Borenstein, South America - Area Coordinator The African News comes with thanks to Demelza Benbow of Malawi for her Servas Malawi Newsletter.
Botswana
Servas Botswana held a successful AGM. For the report contact Sheldon Weeks at Botwsana[at]servas.org
Uganda
Servas Uganda now has an up to date host list.
Malawi
Servas Malawi will be having a get-together on Saturday, 28 October. Meeting for a social walk at the Petroda gas station near Blantyre at 14,00h. Essential to bring hat, water, snacks and a smile.
Southern Africa
The Southern Africa Area Meeting will be in Livingstone, Zambia during August 2007.
Africa - Scandinavia Links
As a part of working together, links have been set up between various countries. This was started in Barcelona in 2004. The aim was to link African countries with Scandinavian countries for friendship, experience, help and cross-cultural links. This idea was extended in Latina in 2006 and included an evening meeting to review ideas. The following are the links:
Botswana - Sweden
Zambia - Norway
Zimbabwe - Finland
Malawi - Iceland
South Africa - Denmark
Malawi - Iceland Link History
• Servas International meeting in Barcelona in 2004 decides to link Scandinavian countries Southern African countries (based on the idea of Zambia’s Margaret Whitehead) Mali became linked to Iceland.
• Following this decision/meeting the N/S Bergapora Skukadottir was contacted about a possible visit in summer ’04. This did not work out. 2005 Christopher Morden took over as N/S and emails were exchanged.
• In Servas Malawi’s National Newsletter information on Iceland was include in the ’Link Country Curner'
• The link between Malawi and Iceland certainly puts very contrasting countries into closer contact. Strangely enough there are some similarities and cooperation could be mutually beneficial.
Servas Malawi hopes to help support Iceland:
• By contacting Icelandic volunteers who are annually placed in Malawi to offer them free hospitality in our Servas homes - we have few Servas Travellers in Malawi and this would be an indirect way of boosting hosting.
• By introducing Servas to the Icelandic volunteers - hoping they may join Servas once back in Iceland.
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