SI MONTHLY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2005 News Servas meets in Vancouver
From SI Exco News
EXCO applauds two amazing meetings in Vancouver
The Vancouver meeting organized by Penny Pattison of Servas Canada and Mary Jane
Mikuriya of USA Servas and a team headed by Dan with many others in early August was
remarkably creative and productive. Its experience proved the intense value of peopleto-
people relations fostered by Servas. The conference was officially greeted by “a local
First Nations elder who symbolically welcomed us onto his beach, using a metaphor for the
ocean-front land that had been the holy ground of his fore-fathers. As part of the ceremony a
woman was spreading eagle feathers on the crowd, sharing one of the most treasured
possessions among native people, a true welcoming gesture.
Throughout the conference we shared “experiences about peace and travel, personal
experiences of hosting or being a guest, a very interesting exploration of what it means to be
from Canada or the United States, as well as youth perspectives and experiences in Servas.
The organization is making a targeted effort to reach out to young people to spread the
message of peace through travel to the next generation.”
Helga Smith of NYC, a marathon runner, spoke about her taking a group of blind people to run
on a regular basis. Pablo Chufeni from Argentina shared his no-cost language exchange program for young Servas members in countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and the United States. Through his model programme youth may stay with other Servas members while learning English, Spanish, Portuguese or French from Servas volunteer teachers.
The Asian meeting of National Secretaries hosted by Servas India, will connect with some
of these themes of good communications and behaviour in Servas. It will advance the Distant
Vote concept (presentation by Catherine Calderon in consultation with Chris Patterson)
and will tackle technical issues for further development in the Asian Region.
Gary Sealey Interim Programme Chair, eGA
Servas meets in Vancouver
Conference attendees
A joint Servas Canada - US Servas conference was held August 5 - 7, 2005 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and was a rousing success. About 90 attendees were welcomed to the conference by Shatseeakum, an Elder of the Musqueum Nation, whose people inhabited the land the University was built on, and by Vancouver City Councillor Tim Louis, a long-time peace and social justice activist.
Evaluations were consistently high for the program, the fellowship and the outstanding milieu in one of the most spectacular summers on record in the Pacific Northwest.
SERVAS Youth at Work
Favourite activities included the inner-city tours of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, held as optional activities on Friday and Monday morning, and an
informative and lively session on similarities and differences between Canada and the US. Kudos to Penny Pattison and Dan Rubin for all of their hard work organizing the conference. There will be a more complete report to follow on the conference in upcoming newsletters.
inserted by Amelia
