Hello from Vancouver - Reporting on the Canada-US Servas
Conference
One of the things I do for the website is I continuously search
out individuals and organizations that have accomplished unusual
things or made special contributions. Through my research I had
come across an organization called SERVAS, an organization of
hosts and travellers world-wide throughout 130 countries that
intends to foster peace through intercultural exchange.
Hosts throughout the member countries generally receive
travellers for 2 days (or longer if they wish) and accommodate
them in their home. Sometimes if they don't have the facilities,
the hosts take their guests on tours of their local city or have
lunch or dinner with them, in which case they are referred to as
day-hosts. Many times the travellers become part of the family,
helping out with chores around the house, or even being invited
to participate in family reunions or other local activities with
their hosts.
The really unique thing about Servas, something that sets it
apart from other hospitality exchanges, is that the
organization's stated mission is to foster international peace,
tolerance and understanding through personal connections. Every
traveller and every host is interviewed by a volunteer to ensure
that the individual's philosophy is consistent with the
organization, and that the traveller is indeed prepared to
undertake a cultural exchange with the hosts, rather than just
looking for free accommodation. Following the interview, the
traveller receives an official signed and stamped Letter of
Introduction which must be presented to the host as proof of the
screening process.
Travelling with SERVAS is definitely not a concept for
freeloaders, but a dedicated community of like-minded people who
wish to establish human connections across the globe and improve
global relations one contact at a time. After I completed my
interview with Patrice Samara from the US Office of Servas, she
suggested I might want to come out to Vancouver to cover the
first Canadian-US Servas Conference. I had never been out to the
Canadian West Coast, and I found the concept of Servas very
intriguing, so off I went and used my Airmiles to get myself out
to Vancouver.
The conference officially started at 5 pm on Friday, August 5.
One of the first conference events was a welcoming greeting 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.
Other program points of the conference included a sharing of
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.
I spent the majority of my time at the conference interviewing
individual Servas members and will be completing more indepth
interviews with some of these individuals over the next few
weeks. I had a chance to spend 2 to 3 hours with 5 different
people and I was truly astounded, not only at their travel
experience, but at their dedication to this organization and to
making a positive contribution to our world in general.
One of the women I talked to, a marathon runner, volunteers by
taking a group of blind people out to run on a regular basis. A
young volunteer from Argentina is dedicating a huge amount of
his personal time and energy to build a no-cost language
exchange program for young Servas members in countries like
Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and the United
States. Through this initiative young people will have the
opportunity to stay with other Servas members free of charge and
learn English, Spanish, Portuguese or French at no cost from
volunteer teachers who are also Servas members.
Another very energetic Servas member from San Francisco
volunteers her time to help the local homeless community and to
participate in a variety of peace-building initiatives. I also
talked to a nice couple from New Jersey, both teachers, who
spread the message of peace to an audience of young people and
they are also involved in the Sierra Club, to help save our
environment. Another interesting person I talked to is a
diversity consultant and she helps organizations develop the
necessary sensitivities for working with a multi-cultural
workforce.
Over the last few years I have been spending a lot of my time
reflecting on the state of the world, and in light of recent
developments like 911, the War in Iraq, the Madrid train
bombings and the recent London transit bombings, it is painfully
obvious that we are living in very violent times. We are in dire
need of people who dedicate a good portion of their lives
towards making this place a better world, towards building peace
and understanding, and exactly this is Servas' stated mission.
I admit that I have been losing faith in humanity over the last
few years, but going out to Vancouver and seeing 200 people, all
idealists and active volunteers, was a truly wonderful
experience. It restored my confidence and my optimism, and I
felt embraced by these many wonderful enlightened spirits. The
conference and the people I connected with will remain in my
thoughts for a long time, and it goes without saying that I will
be joining Servas myself.
I started the conference as a writer, but I left as a friend.