SI MONTHLY NEWS September 2006 Countries
From SI Exco News
Good news from Servas Youth in Argentina!
With a young Servas list of 75 members and the Patagonia ’06 meeting in our background, it is time to go on for bigger and more varied projects.
Combining schedules can be quite complicated, we know that well, especially for “young” people who are dealing with one or two jobs, house keeping, pets, boy/girlfriends, sports, etc..... but in my experience, personal contact makes the biggest difference.
Patagonia ’06 was not the first, but certainly the biggest impulse to the creation of a hard working team. In April ’06 the first National Meeting in Río Ceballos, Córdoba, with the organisation and coordination by another group of volunteers, set up the basis of what we believe Servas Argentina can do and be. Since that meeting, the National Board has new members, specially the election of regional coordinators. It is looking forward not only to interviewing new members, but principally to bringing a new dynamics to the Servas groups in a country with big distances like Argentina.
In the same meeting, I was elected National Youth Coordinator. With only 9 members for Servas La Plata, we had two meetings this year and agreed to create a phone network with the idea of letting the other members know of the Servas travellers we receive in our city, to organise meetings and share the experience.
The last weekend we received other members from Argentina and two American travellers visiting Buenos Aires and knew from their hosts that the third “Socio- Cultural Meeting” was going to be held in La Plata. These cultural meetings are being organised every two months by our National Secretary Cintia Amor and by Diego Rodríguez. Together with them, I coordinated the visit to the world famous Natural Sciences Museum from La Plata, a nice lunch in an old house and the ascension to the towers of the city’s gothic Cathedral.
All this sounds only as recreational meetings, doesn’t it? But personal contact makes the difference. You cannot work with other people if you do not know them, It is no mystery that food, dance and nice landscapes improve people’s mood. Probably, joking and sharing are the first steps to getting to know people all over the world.
But let’s talk about the hard work. As a result of Patagonia ’06 experience, I was convinced that just as a pyramid or a temple, peace has to be built from the very base. We are usually very open with foreigners but often we hardly know the person who lives next door. Argentina is a huge country with its population mainly concentrated in Buenos Aires city. This situation makes enormous internal differences at every level: educational, social, economic and even religious. All the laws that come from the government are hard to apply within this varied landscape.
Argentina is probably, with Uruguay, one of the countries in South America with minimum percentage of aboriginal population. This does not mean that native cultures do not exist anymore. On the contrary, it is just that we do not know them. As a result, I asked myself why not trying to investigate a bit about our so called “original cultures” and organise something.... With open eyes and ears the possibilities just appeared and I started the links with Guaraní, Wichi and mainly, Kolla groups.
Soon, 5 other Servas members living not only in Buenos Aires, but also in the provinces of Jujuy, Santa Fe, Misiones and Tierra del Fuego (Northwest, Northeast and the very South, respectively) who live “door to door” with these communities, offered themselves as volunteers for this project. The more people we can include in the project, the more probability of success we will have, being each person a multiplication factor in this peace building. The so called “Aboriginal project” still does not have a formal name, as we wanted first to talk to the main actors, that is the native groups, letting them know of our deep interest in collaborating and creating a program based on mutual respect and comprehension.
A main contact has been established with the Kollas (truly Inka’s heirs) in the NW of our country. I travelled to Jujuy and had the opportunity of talking to Mr Wanka Willka in Jujuy, a university Quechua teacher and the main promoter of the Kolla Culture. Three main projects emerged from this meeting:
1. Diffusion of their history and traditions in a cultural radio program in La Plata city
2. Contact and cooperation with a Servas member (who works in the film industry) for the production of short movies about discrimination and original communities’ actual situation
3. Cultural meeting: workshops on all kinds of traditions, to be held probably in Buenos Aires, for 3 days and hosting the teachers who will be coming from Jujuy in our houses, just as normal Servas travellers. We intend to extend the invitation to the public in general and give special importance to the participation of young people also coming from Jujuy.
Another project we’re working on is making links with other ONGs which have similar purposes. That is how I contacted those in charge of this project with a personal friend of mine, who is an active member of the Soka Gakkai International. This ONG has Buddhist bases, but works very actively in all kinds of activities that involve peace, culture and education.
Yes, Servas Argentina is very active and we’re plenty of ideas. We’re always looking forward to hearing from new volunteers for this projects.
Paula Falaschi, National Youth Coordinator
La Plata – Argentina, paufalaschi[at]hotmail.com
uploaded by Amelia
