Dear members all over the world
The year 2004 is behind us and the entire world has now stepped into the year 2005. I wish that you have started your new year on a positive note and are approaching all your opportunities and challenges with a renewed and a positive force.
This year-end left us with a huge natural calamity killing over 150,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands in the way of disease, starvation and death. On one hand it is a relief that our AIESEC people are safe, at the same time it does little to mitigate the grief that we feel for millions struck by this tragedy. It serves to remind of us many humanitarian crises that we face in Chechnya, Darfur in Sudan, poverty and hunger in many parts of Africa, to name but a few.
ike all of us, this tragedy brought me face-to-face with a human being's mortality and the thin life band we all live with. To see our own of humankind face a massive destruction and the painful loss of many families, at this scale leaves us all feeling helpless and uncomfortable. At the same time it is elevating to see the enduring human spirit to survive and the inspiring stories of everyone, who have put and are putting themselves at a huge risk to save the lives of complete strangers.
What role should we as AIESEC play now? What should we as individuals be doing? Should we become the centre of collection of financial resources and then channel them directly to those who need relief? Should we act as people who are giving on-the-ground news coverage to everyone across the world?
Or should we realize that there are many other organizations, which have any of the above as their core competence.
Our response has been in the following directions:
1. AIESEC people volunteering for direct relief work
2. Encouragine mobilization of financial and in-kind resources for the relief effort and channeling them directly to dedicated aid agencies
3. And linking our core-work to this disaster. As the future leaders, we should strive to learn from it as much as possible; as well as starting up related innovative exchange projects
It is heartening to see that AIESECers from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and especially Sri Lanka have volunteered at a large scale to support the relief effort.
If you would like to provide on-ground support to them, please do write to the MCPs of these countries.Like for any other humanitarian cause, we should all mobilize financial resources from our friends, family, and alumni and direct them to the relevant aid agencies for these countries. The ones active internationally are the ICRC (http://www.icrc.org), UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org) and many others easily accessible through the UN website.
For our core work, what are the innovative examples that are occurring?I t is great to see both Sri Lanka and India planning innovative exchange based projects to support relief as well as provide a huge learning experience to our people. If your country or you have any such ideas, then please share with us on this forum currently active on Global Members: http://www.aiesec.net/members/global/forums/forum-view?forum%5fid=4169519
In addition, following are the other discussions open on Global Members: Coping with a violent earth: What can be done to lessen the impact of future natural disasters? (http://www.aiesec.net/members/global/forums/message-view?message_id=23248673)
As well as:Good intentions vs. real change: What are the challenges and opportunities in converting worldwide sympathy into grass roots benefit?
(http://www.aiesec.net/members/global/forums/message-view?message_id=23248680)
Finally, I do hope that this disaster has shaken you enough and brought you face-to-face with how much more needs to be done to make our world a safe place for all. I wish for you that you would find sometime for personal reflection and think of what role you are playing now, and will be in the future to make this world a better place.
On behalf of AIESEC International,
Rajiv
This year-end left us with a huge natural calamity killing over 150,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands in the way of disease, starvation and death. On one hand it is a relief that our AIESEC people are safe, at the same time it does little to mitigate the grief that we feel for millions struck by this tragedy. It serves to remind of us many humanitarian crises that we face in Chechnya, Darfur in Sudan, poverty and hunger in many parts of Africa, to name but a few.
ike all of us, this tragedy brought me face-to-face with a human being's mortality and the thin life band we all live with. To see our own of humankind face a massive destruction and the painful loss of many families, at this scale leaves us all feeling helpless and uncomfortable. At the same time it is elevating to see the enduring human spirit to survive and the inspiring stories of everyone, who have put and are putting themselves at a huge risk to save the lives of complete strangers.
What role should we as AIESEC play now? What should we as individuals be doing? Should we become the centre of collection of financial resources and then channel them directly to those who need relief? Should we act as people who are giving on-the-ground news coverage to everyone across the world?
Or should we realize that there are many other organizations, which have any of the above as their core competence.
Our response has been in the following directions:
1. AIESEC people volunteering for direct relief work
2. Encouragine mobilization of financial and in-kind resources for the relief effort and channeling them directly to dedicated aid agencies
3. And linking our core-work to this disaster. As the future leaders, we should strive to learn from it as much as possible; as well as starting up related innovative exchange projects
It is heartening to see that AIESECers from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and especially Sri Lanka have volunteered at a large scale to support the relief effort.
If you would like to provide on-ground support to them, please do write to the MCPs of these countries.Like for any other humanitarian cause, we should all mobilize financial resources from our friends, family, and alumni and direct them to the relevant aid agencies for these countries. The ones active internationally are the ICRC (http://www.icrc.org), UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org) and many others easily accessible through the UN website.
For our core work, what are the innovative examples that are occurring?I t is great to see both Sri Lanka and India planning innovative exchange based projects to support relief as well as provide a huge learning experience to our people. If your country or you have any such ideas, then please share with us on this forum currently active on Global Members: http://www.aiesec.net/members/global/forums/forum-view?forum%5fid=4169519
In addition, following are the other discussions open on Global Members: Coping with a violent earth: What can be done to lessen the impact of future natural disasters? (http://www.aiesec.net/members/global/forums/message-view?message_id=23248673)
As well as:Good intentions vs. real change: What are the challenges and opportunities in converting worldwide sympathy into grass roots benefit?
(http://www.aiesec.net/members/global/forums/message-view?message_id=23248680)
Finally, I do hope that this disaster has shaken you enough and brought you face-to-face with how much more needs to be done to make our world a safe place for all. I wish for you that you would find sometime for personal reflection and think of what role you are playing now, and will be in the future to make this world a better place.
On behalf of AIESEC International,
Rajiv
posted by Asha at 9:37 PM
3 Comments:
I posted this letter as a follow up to the initial message from AIESEC International (posted on nomadlife by Tom) last week.
Alumni are welcome to join in the discussions on AIESEC.net, doing so will ensure that the "powers that be" read your thoughts and ideas instead of using this page.
Personally I'm not a fan of using the nomadlife homepage as a forum for us as Alumni to discuss what we think AIESEC should be doing. I think we should be using our own personal blogs or somewhere else to do it. This is just my opinion. I do however understand that this current disaster has incited a number of reactions and has made many of us react with alot of emotion and left many of us with the feeling that more needs to be done.
9:50 PM
Asha,
There is no doubt there are a lot of activities in the background inside Aiesec networks about this tragedy.
But this is all invisible to the outside world.
Put yourself in the shoes of an external, as a lay person that visit http://www.aiesec.org, as a person that doesn't have account to aiesec.net.
This is mainly a communication issue. Communicate, communicate and communicate to the outside world.
Take a look at how Junior Chamber International does it http://www.jci.cc/members/
11:23 PM
Do the Mom test.
If your Mom is asking what Aiesec is doing in light of this tragedy, where would you point her to?
11:36 PM
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