Servas International
Motto:	Open Doors for Peace and Friendship
Type:	Non-profit, Interest group
Founded:	July 1949 by Bob Luitweiler in the Norway
Location:	Global, registered in Switzerland, Zurich
Key people:	Gary Sealey, Pramod Kumar
Fields:	Peace, Travel, Friendship, Human rights
Services:	Meetings
Members:	20,000
Website:	http://www.servas.org

Servas Open Doors is an international, non-governmental, interracial peace association running in over 125 countries by volunteers. Founded in 1949 by Bob Luitweiler and his friends as a peace movement, Servas International is a non-profit worldwide cooperative cultural exchange network bringing people together to build understanding, tolerance, mutual-respect, and world peace. It works toward world peace by encouraging individual person-to-person contacts. A non-profit organization (abbreviated NPO, or non-profit or not-for-profit) is an organization whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes, without concern for monetary profit. ... This article is about political advocates. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Servas means "serve", in the sense of "we serve peace", in the language Esperanto. The organization was originally called Peacebuilders. This article is about the language. ...

It operates through a network of Servas hosts around the world who are interested in opening their doors to travelers, and, 'on the other side of the coin', many open-minded travelers who want to get to know the heart of the countries they visit. Travelers and hosts may be interviewed annually according to branch (Member Country) practice; travelers write a letter of introduction annually, as well.

Servas International has consultative status as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, currently with representation at many of the UN's hubs of activity. NGO redirects here. ... The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development. ... This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ...

There are over 20,000 Servas 'open doors' scattered throughout almost every country in the world.

Programs

Unlike other hospitality exchange networks, Servas makes a clear distinction between travelers and hosts. Cost for hosts is minimal, but travellers have to pay more, partly to receive address lists for the countries to be visited (depends on the country branch policy in the 10US$ up to 85 US$ per year for 'international travelers' and free to 50 US$ per year for 'domestic travelers' ).

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Servas International Organization

General Assembly

• • Servas Branches
    
  • Executive Committee (President, General Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, Peace Secretary, Host List Coordinator)

  Development Fund committee  Statues and Job Description committee  Area coordinators  Youth Committee  Archivist  News Letter Editor  Conflict Resolution Committee  Audit Committee  Information Communication Team  Nomination Committee 

Executives

Servas International Exco Elected in General Assembly in Latina, Italy 2006

President- Gary Sealey from Canada

Peace Secretary- Nandasena Amarasinghe from Sri Lanka

General Secretary- Pramod Kumar from India

Vice President- Mary-Jane Mikuriya from USA

Treasurer- LV Subramanian from India (Ömer Özkan from Turkey elected and hand over in July 2007)

Host List Coordinator- Anna Flamini from Italy

Executive Commitees

Servas International General Assemblies

• 25th- 2006- Latina, Roma, Italy
• 24th- 2004- Barcelona, Spain
• 23rd- 2001- Bangkok, Thailand
• 22nd- 1998- Guatemala
• 21st- 1995- Marysville, Australia
• 20th- 1992- Chedidigny, France
• 19th- 1989- Montreal, Canada
• 18th- 1986- Roma, Italy
• 17th- 1983- Nahariya, Israel
• 16th- 1980- India
• 15th 1978- Denmark
• 14th 1976- Los Angeles, USA
• 13th 1972- Wetzlar, Germany
• 12th 1970- Vienna, Austria

... to be completed

• 1st 1952 - First International meeting in Germany (SIN 21- 1984)

Event

• 1973- UN placed Servas International on its roster
• 1972- Statues were drawn up and accepted by 13 Servas branch countries, Wetzlar

...

Servas Countries

Servas International is a federation. Each country has its own rules and structure. Diversity is quite complex.

Some Web pages of Servas member countries:
Belgium Germany
Italy
Turkey
France
Denmark
Brasil
Spain
Poland
Canada
Norway
Japan
Hungary

External links

• Servas.org
• Members' site

(Each National Servas Country can have its own website, usually reachable from the main international site.)