South East Asia Area Coordinator Report 2005

From SI Exco News

SOUTH EAST ASIA - AREA COORDINATORS REPORT FOR 2005

1. SEA Host List

Coordinated with the national secretaries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand as well as hosts in Myanmar and Vietnam to update the SEA host list 2005. In late 2004 and early 2005, I tried to use WHALE for host list production, but encountered various constraints. I was informed that WHALE belongs to Servas Germany; therefore, use of the system has to follow their rules. With the cooperation from other SEA national secretaries, I finally produced a combined SEA list in May 2005, without using WHALE, and uploaded it on the SI web.

In the SEA host list 2005, there were 25 hosts in Indonesia, 32 in Malaysia, 2 (at the same address) in Myanmar, 17 in Philippines, 61 in Thailand, and 2 in Vietnam.

For the 2006 host list, I've asked for cooperation from national secretaries and main contacts to join hands in producing a combined list again. This is deemed as beneficial to Servas travellers planning to visit the SEA region.

2. Area Meeting

I had coordinated with Kinya Tsuge, FEA AC, and Julian Kwong, National Secretary Servas Hong Kong, to organize a joint FEA/SEA area meeting in Hong Kong in May 2005. However, due to confusions within SI community, we decided to postpone the joint area meeting. As the FEA AC will not attend the EGA in Latina, the joint meeting should be discussed at a later date as deemed to be appropriate.

3. Supporting National Groups

Ron Grant, who was a Servas Myanmar host, had returned to Australia in early 2005. Fortunately, he encouraged local people to become Servas hosts. We now have 2 Servas Myanmar hosts of one family, i.e. Mrs. Soung Sandar Aung, Servas Myanmar Main Contact, and Mrs. Mabel Sein Khine, a Servas Myanmar host. I've been in regular contact with them. I had asked Claudio to help provide SI web access to Soung Sandar Aung and this was already done. I believe that Servas Myanmar has potential for future growth. Soung also said that there would be more hosts joining Servas Myanmar. Due to some government restrictions, hosts can be day host only.

Please note that IT facilities in Myanmar are very limited and hosts may not access e-mail facility every day. I strongly recommend that these facts be conveyed to any potential travellers to avoid any misunderstanding. Please refer to a briefing on the meeting with Servas Myanmar on 3-4 December 2005 which was sent earlier.

As for Servas Vietnam, we lost contact with the previous host, but we found 2 new hosts, Peter Feigl and Patricia Chapman, who used to be Servas hosts in Australia prior to their relocation to Vietnam. Servas Australia helped providing information on their previous Servas status.

For Servas Cambodia, I helped Mike Johnson check whether we would be able to re-establish contact with previous hosts even though there has been no host in Cambodia since 2003. Fortunately, I was able to re-establish contact with one host, Mr. Maurits Van Pelt, who wishes to continue being a Servas host in Cambodia. He told me that the other host, Mr. Wim van Damme, had moved back to Belgium. Therefore, there is one host in Cambodia and the information is included in the SEA host list 2006.

4. Coordination with other National Groups

I assisted other national groups, e.g. Fabian Trejo, Servas Mexico; Mette Marklund, Servas Sweden National Secretary, who wished to get into contact with Servas Lao. I also helped forward travellers' requests to Servas Vietnam and Servas Myanmar hosts.

5. New Members

SEA Servas communities are growing, particularly in Malaysia and the Philippines. As other SEA national groups are doing very well, I will focus my support for Servas Myanmar in developing Servas in their country.

6. EXCO

I have maintained contact with EXCO, especially on host list production and AC budget.

7. AC Fund

AC fund was transferred from Frank upon Omer's approval in early May 2005 to an account specifically opened for AC budget.

8. Newsletter

I asked Khun Pisit, Servas Thailand Newsletter Editor, to include news on SEA activities in the Servas Thailand newsletter. He agreed and would welcome news from SEA. The newsletter is normally sent to all Servas Thailand hosts. It will be sent to SEA national secretaries as well.

9. Other Activity

I joined Servas Thailand in organizing a trip during 19-20 November with good participation of local hosts and Servas travellers from other countries. News on the trip will be included in the Servas Thailand newsletter. We aim to organize a local trip every year and to invite other SEA members to join our future trips.

10. Acknowledgement

Thank you very much for all the support and assistance I received from EXCO, SEA national secretaries and main contacts, Kinya Tsuge - FEA AC, Julian Kwong - National Secretary Servas Hong Kong, other FEA national secretaries, Mike Johnson, Laura Ragucci, host list coordinators, ICT helpers, and many Servas friends.

Reported by Siriporn Srithong

SEA Area Coordinator

February 2006

Remarks: If you have any comment or suggestion, please contact me at teamintl@team.co.th