Last week, our Executive Director, Sarah Gough, had the opportunity to present at the CCIVS conference in Morocco. "In my talk at the CCIVS conference, I mentioned first, that we (Play for Peace) are laser-focused in our implementation. Second, we are compulsively collaborative. Third, we build long-term relationships," Sarah said. Beyond staying true to our mission and core values, this, she states, was what supported our explosive growth over the last five years. The significance of Sarah's opportunity in Morocco is made more apparent when you know the history of the CCIVS movement. An organization that has been working for peace for nearly a century, CCIVS has persevered through wars, international conflicts, and many other peacekeeping challenges.
"The International Voluntary Service (IVS) movement was born in 1920. The first project was held near Verdun in France where a group of European volunteers were helping to rebuild a ruined village. After WWII, faced with the challenges of post-war reconstruction and an increasing number of volunteer organizations, discussions occurred at UNESCO about ways to coordinate and encourage the efforts of volunteering. In April 1948 the International Workcamp Organisations Conference took place and the Coordinating Committee for International Camps was established and based at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. From the 1950s, the number of volunteer organizations increased all over the world, touching different thematics from de-colonisations to peace, from disarmament to health and human rights. In the early 1960s, CCIVS began to make contacts with youth organizations in the then-socialist countries of Eastern Europe, and in the 1970s and 1980s, it served as a crucial neutral platform that enabled volunteer youth exchanges between East and West to be organized.
In 1971 CCIVS was also associated with the creation of United Nations Volunteers. During the 1980s the number of East-West projects across the "Iron Curtain" increased. In 1987 CCIVS was awarded the title "Messenger of Peace" by UN Secretary General, Perez de Cuellar. In the early 1990s, the North-South and Asia-Europe relationships became increasingly important. From then on, CCIVS became known as a space for the improvement of quality standards for exchanges and discussion on the development of the International Voluntary Service movement. Leading the reflections of the movement on the impact, recognition, and policies related to International Voluntary Service, CCIVS members work today around the five key topics of Intercultural Dialogue, Sustainable Development, World Heritage, Health, and Conflict Transformation." (quoted from www.ccivs.org) We learned so much from this conference and hope to partner with organizations that attended in the coming year. Check out the video recap of the CCIVS General Conference below: https://youtu.be/dFHOni6FD0o
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