Report on the 1st IAVE Regional Volunteer Conference for the Arab Nations

The first ever IAVE regional volunteer conference for Arab Nations took place at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon on March 27-29, 2011.

The theme of the conference was a quotation by the famous Lebanese philosopher and artist Gibran Khalil Gibran, “It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Conference organizing committee chairperson Patricia Nabti said, “It has been my dream since I attended my first IAVE World Volunteer Conference in 2001 that the Arab World would have a regional conference like other regions of the world.”

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.

Networking

There were 78 participants in the conference. These included 73 from the Arab region and five from outside the region, distributed as follows: Lebanon 31, Palestine 2, UAE 1, Saudi Arabia 11, Iraq 2, Egypt 10, Algeria 2, Yemen 6, Jordan 1, Syria 3, Oman 1, Sudan 2, Mauritania 1; and from outside the region: Australia 1, Korea 1, Turkey 1, United States 2.

Sharing, teaching & learning

The participants were divided into three forums: General, Youth, and Corporate. 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 to 16 other panel presentations.

13 participants from outside Lebanon received scholarships to participate. 17 certificates were distributed to participants in the Youth Forum, 7 to participants in the Corporate Forum and 40 to participants in the General Forum.

Planning

An important objective of the conference was to plan for future development of a culture of volunteering in the Arab region. IAVE was 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.

One of the conference volunteers started a Facebook group for conference participants soon after the conference was over which has generated some lively correspondence and provided a place for participants to share pictures from the conference.

The organizing committee thanked the 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. Acknowledgements also go to Aysun Sayin from Turkey for her contribution to the Corporate Forum; and special thanks to Kathi Dennis, the Executive Director of IAVE whose support for the conference was critical to its success. The three part-time staff (Lody, Sama, and Marielle) and more than 35 volunteers who participated in conference planning and implementation were recognized. And finally, thanks go to the 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.