March 27-29, 2011  UNESCO Palace  Beirut, Lebanon

The First IAVE  Regional Volunteer Conference for the Arab Nations was held on March 27-29, 2011 at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, hosted by the Association for Volunteer Services (AVS).  A theme of the conference was the quotation by the famous Lebanese philosopher and artist Gibran Khalil Gibran:  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. 

Conference Objectives

The conference had four main objectives:

1. Networking among people in the field of volunteerism in the region and beyond.
2. Sharing: Providing the opportunity for participants to share their experiences in volunteerism
3. Teaching and learning: Giving the opportunity for participants to teach what they can on the subject and learn from specialists in the field of volunteering.
4. Planning: Taking the first steps to plan a strategy to expand and improve volunteering in the region.

Conference Participants

There were 78 participants in the conference.  These included 73 from the Arab region and five from outside the region, distributed as follows:

(*non Arab countries)

• 13 participants from outside Lebanon received scholarships to participate, each according to his needs and commitment to volunteering.
• The participants were divided into three forums: General, Youth, and Corporate.
• We distributed 17 certificates to participants in the Youth Forum, 7 to participants in the Corporate Forum and 40 to participants in the General Forum. This does not include those trainers, volunteers, and others who could not attend the whole conference.

Program Summary

The conference program consisted of six plenary sessions including the opening and closing events, 23 breakout sessions (12 for the General Forum, 6 for the Youth Forum, and 5 for the Corporate Forum), two discussion sessions, and three field trips. 22 workshops were given (including all three Forums), in addition to16 other panel presentations. We want to thank our 14 presenters from within the region, and three from abroad: Dr. Kang-Hyun Lee, president of IAVE, Martin Cowling who gave the largest number of workshops in the General Forum and led the SWOT Analysis, and Sarah Hayes who led the Corporate Forum. We also want to acknowledge Aysun Sayin from Turkey for her contribution to the Corporate Forum. And we want to give special thanks to Kathi Dennis, the Executive Director of IAVE whose support for the conference was critical to its success. We also want to acknowledge the three part-time staff (Lody, Sama, and Marielle) and more than 35 volunteers who participated in conference planning and implementation. And finally, we want to thank our three primary financial supporters, the Fatat al-Qassim Development Center, Mentor Arabia, and UPS through IAVE, along with in-kind supporters: Bayt.com, O-Minds, and Café Najjar. Together, they all made the conference possible. Thank you!

Beyond the Conference

An important objective of the conference was to plan for future development of a culture of volunteering in the Arab region. We were able to establish four committees during the last discussion session:

1. National Volunteer Policies and National Volunteer Centers  /  Facilitator: Alia Abu Suleiman
2. Resource Development and Distribution  /  Facilitator: Wasan Hijazi
3. Networking  /  Facilitator: Osama Mustafa  
4. Education in Schools and Universities  /  Facilitator: Patricia Nabti

In addition, the Youth Forum has begun to organize an initiative they call Shamaa (“Candle” – an acronym in Arabic for “Youth Volunteer Initiative”) which is modeled on GYSD and will encourage youth throughout the Arab World to do service projects during the last week of July.

And there is discussion coming out of the Corporate Volunteering Forum and Sarah Hayes’ interaction with other conference participants about how to promote corporate volunteering in the region. Mohamad al-Huneini, who assisted and was a trainee with Sarah Hayes during the Forum, wants to work with AVS on the project as soon as his exams are over in May.

Membership in IAVE

IAVE held a membership meeting at the conference to explain what IAVE is and discuss future plans to hold the 2^nd IAVE Regional Conference. Some of the participants were already members of IAVE before the conference. And at least 8 people became members at the conference. Encouraging IAVE membership is also part of follow-up with conference participants, since it is our hope to have IAVE National Representatives for all 22 Arab countries in the coming five years. Two participants have volunteered to translate e-IAVE into Arabic.  . And we have encouraged youth and those who promote youth volunteering to attend the IAVE Youth Summit to take place in Baranquilla, Colombia in November (http://www.worldyouthsummit.org/).

Acknowledgements and big THANK YOU to all those who made it happen:

• The 14 presenters from within the region
• The 3 from abroad: Dr. Kang-Hyun Lee, president of IAVE, Martin Cowling, and Sarah Hayes
• Aysun Sayin from Turkey
• Kathi Dennis, the Executive Director of IAVE
• Part-time staff: Lody, Sama, and Marielle
• All the volunteers
• The 3 primary financial supporters: Fatat al-Qassim Development Center, Mentor Arabia, and UPS through IAVE
• In-kind supporters: Bayt.com, O-Minds, and Café Najjar.