Servas International

Servas International ("we serve (peace)" in Esperanto) is a non-profit organization providing a hospitality exchange service to build peace and cross-cultural understanding through day visits or overnight home stays among members. It was founded in 1949, in the aftermath of World War II, by Bob Luitweiler and other Danish students as an international network for people to meet and where suitable, to be offered a short stay, as part of the peace movement.

The organization may now be described as a platform, part of a gift economy. Members can be both hosts and travellers, and hosts do not charge for lodging. Members pay an annual fee to the organization, which is determined locally by country. There is an international executive and each country has an elected board or committee to manage membership (including interviews for new applicants), determine membership fees, organise social events, support various peace-related activities.

Servas is owned by an accredited Non-governmental organization and has been affiliated with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations since 1973.

Servas and the United Nations

History

Servas was founded in 1949, in the aftermath of World War II, by Bob Luitweiler and other Danish students as an international network for people to meet and where suitable, to be offered a short stay, as part of the peace movement.

In 1989, Pat Knowles wrote a useful account of Servas, from its beginnings up to 1989 that focused on peacebuilding and friendship, and networking. Servas International's Peace Secretary was in touch with some international organisations including War Resisters' International, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Quaker United Nations Office, Pax Christi International. In illustration of its UN status, Knowles reproduced Servas International's submission to the UN Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. Knowles also described the initiative in 1986 for Servas groups to recruit a national peace secretary with duties like those of Servas International Peace Secretary. Contributions from the peace secretaries of Germany, Poland and Israel are included. Knowles explores the connection between travel and understanding asking about the early study groups on non-violence techniques and the question 'can we travel too far, too fast?'

Founding countries: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In 2006 Servas International started a Servas On Line project replacing its paper based system

At the General Assembly in 2006 a distant vote procedure was created for Italy.

Servas Song

Servas Traditional Meetings

Sentierinsieme/Pathways Together

Organized in July in Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany "Sentierinsieme" is the Servas traditional yearly alpine event - organized since 1985 -where Servas members from all over the world come together.

Raymond Forget (Servas France) and with Luigi Uslenghi (Servas Italy) founded "Pathways Together" in 1985.

Alpe Adria Meetings

September-October in Austria, Italy, Slovenia Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany

Source

Servas Peace Schools

Groups/Member Groups

*(sos): Seeds of Servas, by Bob Luitweiler (DV): Distant Vote

Member groups on the map