CESO invites African partners to Montreal

By Apolinaire Ihaza

On the occasion of the 11th annual meeting of the Forum International du Volontariat pour le Développement (IVCO 2007) in Montreal, on September 17th to 19th, CESO invited two partners from the South, Mr. Dame Sall, Secretary General of RADI (Réseau africain du développement integral), based in Senegal, and Mr. Njong Donatus Fonyuy, Mayor of Kumbo and Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of North-West Cameroon.

Under the theme ``World Citizenship and Effectiveness of AID``, this meeting brought together the leaders of 44 organizations in 33 countries, linked to volunteer cooperation and international development.

Organizations such as the U.S. Peace Corp (USA), United Nations Volunteers (Germany), VSO-UK (England), Australian Volunteers International (Australia), JICA (Japan), Volontari Nel Mondo (Italy), and Volontaires du Progrès (France), to name but a few, participated in this event. Moreover, twenty partners from southern countries – those welcoming volunteer aid from northern countries – were invited to share their vision of effective AID.

Ten Canadian volunteer organizations also took part. They are Canadian Crossroads International (CCI), Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI), CUSO, World University Service of Canada (WUSC), Canada World Youth (CWY), Ingénieurs sans Frontières (ISF), Oxfam-Québec, Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO-SACO), SUCCO and VSO Canada. This meeting was possible thanks to financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

CESO President, Paul van der Wel, and Vice-President, Dorothy Nyambi both participated in the entire process and stated that Mr. Dame Sall and Njong Donatus Fonyoy contributed significantly to the work.

The two partners were invited to be guest speakers at the first luncheon of the 2007-08 season of the Montreal CESO Club. They spoke passionately of the outstanding results of work done by CESO volunteers in their respective municipality and country and they are looking forward to continued collaboration. On this occasion, more than 45 people attended the luncheon, volunteer advisers as well as some special guests.