Servas Open Doors
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Servas International | |
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| Motto: | Open Doors for Peace and Friendship |
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| Type: | Non-profit, Interest group |
| Founded: | July 1949 by Bob Luitweiler in the Norway |
| Location: | Global, registered in Switzerland, Zurich |
| Key people: | Gary Sealey, Pramod Kumar |
| Fields: | Peace, Travel, Friendship, Human rights |
| Services: | Meetings |
| Members: | 20,000 |
| Website: | http://www.servas.org |
Servas Open Doors is an international, non-governmental, interracial peace association running in over 125 countries by volunteers. Founded in 1949 by Bob Luitweiler and his friends as a peace movement, Servas International is a non-profit worldwide cooperative cultural exchange network bringing people together to build understanding, tolerance, mutual-respect, and world peace. It works toward world peace by encouraging individual person-to-person contacts.
Servas means "serve", in the sense of "we serve peace", in the language Esperanto. The organization was originally called Peacebuilders.
It operates through a network of Servas hosts around the world who are interested in opening their doors to travelers, and, 'on the other side of the coin', many open-minded travelers who want to get to know the heart of the countries they visit. Travelers and hosts may be interviewed annually according to branch (Member Country) practice; travelers write a letter of introduction annually, as well.
Servas International has consultative status as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, currently with representation at many of the UN's hubs of activity.
There are over 20,000 Servas 'open doors' scattered throughout almost every country in the world.
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[edit] Programs
Unlike other hospitality exchange networks, Servas makes a clear distinction between travelers and hosts. Cost for hosts is minimal, but travellers have to pay more, partly to receive address lists for the countries to be visited (depends on the country branch policy in the 10US$ up to 85 US$ per year for 'international travelers' and free to 50 US$ per year for 'domestic travelers' ).
[edit] Servas International Organization
General Assembly
- Servas Branches
- Executive Committee (President, General Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, Peace Secretary, Host List Coordinator)
\\ Development Fund committee \\ Statues and Job Description committee \\ Area coordinators \\ Youth Committee \\ Archivist \\ News Letter Editor \ Conflict Resolution Committee \ Audit Committee \ Information Communication Team \ Nomination Committee
[edit] Executives
[edit] Servas International Exco Elected in General Assembly in Latina, Italy 2006
President- Gary Sealey from Canada
Peace Secretary- Nandasena Amarasinghe from Sri Lanka
General Secretary- Pramod Kumar from India
Vice President- Mary-Jane Mikuriya from USA
Treasurer- LV Subramanian from India (Ömer Özkan from Turkey elected and hand over in July 2007)
Host List Coordinator- Anna Flamini from Italy
[edit] Executive Commitees
[edit] Servas International General Assemblies
- 25th- 2006- Latina, Roma, Italy
- 24th- 2004- Barcelona, Spain
- 23rd- 2001- Bangkok, Thailand
- 22nd- 1998- Guatemala
- 21st- 1995- Marysville, Australia
- 20th- 1992- Chedidigny, France
- 19th- 1989- Montreal, Canada
- 18th- 1986- Roma, Italy
- 17th- 1983- Nahariya, Israel
- 16th- 1980- India
- 15th 1978- Denmark
- 14th 1976- Los Angeles, USA
- 13th 1972- Wetzlar, Germany
- 12th 1970- Vienna, Austria
... to be completed
- 1st 1952 - First International meeting in Germany (SIN 21- 1984)
[edit] Event
- 1973- UN placed Servas International on its roster
- 1972- Statues were drawn up and accepted by 13 Servas branch countries, Wetzlar
...
[edit] Servas Countries
Servas International is a federation. Each country has its own rules and structure. Diversity is quite complex.
Some Web pages of Servas member countries:
Belgium Germany
Italy
Turkey
France
Denmark
Brasil
Spain
Poland
Canada
Norway
Japan
Hungary
[edit] External links
(Each National Servas Country can have its own website, usually reachable from the main international site.)
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