WHAT IS SCI?

Founded in 1920 by Pierre Ceresole, a Swiss engineer established a peace and humanitarian movement after the 1st World War. From the modest size in the beginning SCI has today developed into an international peace movement and voluntary service organisation with national branches / groups in about 36 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. Contacts are maintained with like-minded organisations in the above continents as well as in Latin America.

SCI was one of the first organisations to divest itself of all political or religious affiliations in its work of promoting peace and understanding through practical action; it has also made a major contribution to the development of the main forms of voluntary work.

The voluntary work may be on long or short-term basis, and is designed to introduce volunteers to the range of problems, which face communities in the struggle for peace and social justice. The work aspect as much as the social contact with local people is a unique way of acquiring a deeper understanding for problems facing people in your own country and abroad.

Today SCI has over 14000 members and 38 national groups or branches. Every year SCI enables some 5000 volunteers to participate in its work. Living and working together in an international group gives a chance to the volunteer to tune into a network of international contacts, thus helping to break down artificial barriers and prejudices between the nations.

The short-term action is generally carried out in areas of social need. However, there is also a medium and long-term programme under which volunteers can be actively employed for several months or even years. The organisation of international workcamps is still our principal activity but other work is being developed in a broader socio-economic context, for instance the Crossing Borders campaign for refugees. To ensure the unity of the organisation and pursue a coherent policy, SCI has set up national and international co-ordinating structures. More and more emphasis is however placed on the base of our organisation, especially the volunteers and their practical work initiatives.

THE BASIS OF THE ORGANISATION

Volunteers – all those who freely offer their services through SCI for the benefit of needy communities or underprivileged groups, without receiving payment, can be considered volunteers. Normally there are no specific requirements for short-term volunteers, except the minimum age of 18 and the willingness to work and learn. On the other hand certain qualifications might be necessary for those serving longer that three months or going to special projects.

Work camps – The international work camps are mostly 2-3 weeks long. In some countries, for example in Asia, they can extend up to two months. The participants normally come from a variety of countries

BranchesAll groups or already established organisations may apply for branch status if they have been active for at least 5 years; have evidence of administrative stability; are officially registered with the authorities in their own country and undertake a moral and financial obligation in support of the movement. This is granted by the SCI International Committee upon recommendation of its Executive.

Partners – In countries with no partners SCI instead co-operates with partner organisations. Partners are selected according to a fixed procedure and furthermore evaluated on their annual activities. Most of the partners exist in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Working groups – The Working Groups have to apply for Working Group Status in SCI when they start. Once they have received this status, they have to present annually at the ICM a report of their activities, the financial results, and the budget for the coming year and the plan of action. Those have to be voted upon by the ICM.

At present the following international Working Groups were recognised at the ICM in 1998:

European based Working Groups:

* Abya Yala WG
* Africa WG
* East-West WG
* SAVA WG
* Youth and Unemployment WG
* Equal Opportunities WG

Asian based Working Groups

* Peace and Human Rights WG
* Women’s Issues WG
* Environment and Development WG
* Refugees Issues WG

All member branches can freely choose which International Working Groups they want to fully support and become member of. Branches being member of a particular international WG carry a financial responsibility for the possible deficits of such a WG.

Youth and Unemployment Working Group (YUWD)
YUWG is a platform for activists working with and for European young people from underprivileged backgrounds. The actions include exchanges and training events for youth leaders who are from a disadvantaged background or who are aiming to work with teenagers with special needs. The major goal is to provide the possibility of European contacts and exchanges for young people who suffer from the realities of unemployment, poverty, and lack of linguistic knowledge. External Relations

Women’s working group
In the area of women’s issues SCI developed the following activity in 1998. As a follow-up of two "Women in Management"-training’s (1994 and 1997) SCI decided to strengthen its activities for women. Another women’s seminar for women from as well the West and the East has been organised in Belarus. In Asia the WWG has focused on strengthening women’s participation in civil society by organising workshops, seminars and local community work.

Africa Working Group
The main activities facilitated by the WG in 1998 were the volunteer exchanges between European SCI branches and African partner organisations. The group has been responsible for maintaining the contacts with the partners and agree on the exchange procedures, establish new contacts and asses the current ones, inviting African volunteers for a 2 months volunteer experience in Europe.

Abya Yala Working Group
Abya Yala is the WG responsible for the work of SCI in Latin America. The group’s activities are developed in accordance with the ‘Policy Document’ (adopted several years ago and up-dated in 1998); ‘solidarity’ is Abya Yala’s keyword also used for defining their objectives.

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

EVS - Thanks to the initiative of the European Commission in creating a supportive programme

European Voluntary Service), a lot more young people are now enabled to experience the learning processes and richness of doing voluntary work over a long period abroad. In co-operation with Youth Action for Peace and EiE, SCI has carried out a collaborative project on EVS-long term. This programme has been offering a range of long term voluntary service activities with Central and Eastern European countries, as there are Poland, Romania, Hungary and Latvia and a few places in Africa.

CCIVS – the Co-ordination Committee for International Voluntary Service gathers all the workcamp organisations and other voluntary service movements throughout the world. CCIVS is an international non-governmental organisation carried by its members ( such as SCI) and trying to promote the ideals of the voluntary service movements through publications, seminars and political-educational campaigns.

Youth Forum – the Youth Forum is a European International organisation established in 1996 by national Youth Councils and international Non-governmental Youth Organisations (such as SCI). It works as the successor to the Council of European National Youth Councils (CENYK) and the European Co-ordination bureau of International Non-governmental youth Organisations.

UNESCO – SCI has a consultative status with UNESCO. In practice it means that SCI can make its voice heard on policy issues UNESCO is dealing with. One of the channels for SCI to do so, is the “ Collective Consultation” of Youth Organisations, which meets twice a year. In 1987 SCI was awarded the title Messenger of Peace, given by the general secretary of the United Nations in acknowledgement of SCI’s efforts to promote peace and International understanding.

AVSO – SCI is a member of the Advisory Committee for International Voluntary Service, which is a committee consisting of 24 youth organisations that deals with activities organised by the European Youth centre and supported by the European youth foundation. The advisory committee gives advice on topics concerning youth to go to the governing board. The governing board of the council of Europe is the real decision making body for the European Youth foundation.

DESICION MAKING STRUKTURE

The highest decision making body in SCI is the ICM (International Committee Meeting). This body meets once a year. All the branches of SCI (members of the platform) do have a voting right. SCI-Branches can send one delegate and one or more observers. The ICM is prepared by the IEC (the International Executive Committee) and the International Secretariat.

At the ICM, the members of the IEC are elected, under which are the President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer and a few normal members. The IEC is responsible for implementing the decisions taken at each ICM and they have the mandate to take in-between policy and management decisions if this is necessary.

A further body is the FAC (Financial Advisory Committee) which meets twice a year and which advises the international treasurer and/or the IEC, the ICM, separate branches.

EAST-WEST RELATIONS
SCI keeps on working for a closer integration of Eastern European youth organisation within a European framework in order to overcome the present gap in terms of economic resources and organisational infrastructure. For the short-term exchange SCI has developed various tools to support the participation of eastern young people in the West. SCI created provisions such as a Travel Fund for Eastern European volunteers participating in projects in Western Europe. Beside exchanges, SCI has organised training seminars especially to help volunteers becoming trained activists and to support current activists of the organisations working in the East-West field.

NORTH-SOUTH WORK
SCI organises exchanges between European and Asian members and partner organisations in Africa and more recently in Latin America. There is an annual exchange of volunteers who participate in local community projects in Africa & Asia, and in Latin America. It also develops and implements international solidarity and development education programmes SCI’s new series of activities and exchanges. With Latin America, involve both field activities in Brazil/Latin America and a programme concentrating on education for development.

TRAINING
SCI gives great importance to practical action and improvement of the current programmes. Therefore, we organise specific training activities, such as:

Conflict Resolution
Most of the Conflict-Resolution work has been done in Asia: there the Peace and Human Rights Working Group have organised several workshops on the issue.

SUMMER SCHOOL
The Summer School that originally began in 1994 has since then been repeated every year. The idea behind the school is to provide a comprehensive introduction to SCI and its goals and activities for new volunteers. Participants are recruited in Eastern European countries and in the smaller branches of Western Europe. Another aim of the program is for the participants to receive training and encouragement from current SCI activists in order to better enable them to become active when returning to their home country.

HOW IS IT FINANCED
SCI has a variety of sources for financial support. It receives grants from the European Commission, the Youth Foundation and an administrative grant from the Belgian government. The membership subscriptions and contributions by applicants also account for a fare share of the finances. SCI also receives donations from private persons and from special projects.

MEDIUM/LONGTERM PROJECTS
A number of projects are every year open for medium or long term volunteers. It the work can consist of e.g. working in SCI offices during the placement season, work for a campaign during the camp season, take part in a project in the Balkans, work in a community helping handicapped people or a horticulture project. The periods vary between 3 moths to 2 years, depending on the type of work.

SCI IN ASIA
SCI came to Asia in the 1950s along with an earthquake in Bihar, India. Now it is spread to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Korea. In all these countries they have their own national structure. SCI in Asia is more oriented towards development activities and programmes. However, workcamps are regularly held in these countries and their programmes should have work camps as a component. These camps are not always of the same nature as the European camps. They are sometimes longer but also many short weekend camps are common. The Asian camps are organised in collaboration with local voluntary organisations or community development projects, working there on a long-term basis. The camps include local volunteers and SCI members from all over the world. Some of the camps do the work for long-term projects, which run already for several years.

Apart from the work camp activities the SCI branches in Asia have many active working groups. The Peace and Human Rights WG, the women issue’s WG, Environment and development WG and the Refugee WG are all part of the activities related to the work of the Asian branches.

The Asian development worker who is based in Asia is responsible for the development of the above mentioned working groups and is expected to assist in the development of their activities.

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