Yes we all know RESPECT is run only by volunteers, but did you know that one of
our volunteers was named one of the ten NetAid and United Nations volunteer of
the year? That's right Paul Fifen Chimy, originally from Cameroon who is now
living in France, is that special volunteer. He volunteers with various
organizations and we are so pleased to have him as one of our volunteers.
"The opportunity to serve and make a difference is something every world
citizen and more precisely, developing country national should strive to achieve.
The organizations I worked with are very special to me and I want to see them
succeed. I give my time to these organizations and feel I am the lucky one who
actually benefits most through cross cultural learning, experience, and the
satisfaction of success."
Paul Fifen Chimy
To read more about Paul please visit
<<here>>
On April 26th, the students and teachers from the Advanced Joint English
Telecommunication Club (AJET) in Taiwan had a very successful charity funding
for their partnered Conakry Refugee School in Conakry, Guinea. The charity
funding event was three fold with an exhibition and selling of crafts, a snack
food fair, and the always popular pocket money donation scramble!
The country coordinator for Taiwan, Sunsun, described the impact of the fund
raising event: "RESPECT teachers in Taiwan have transmitted a respect for
life and social responsibility not only to our next generation but also to our
community. I believe our students also learned a number of skills in art,
accounting, and fund raising."
No doubt Taiwan will continue its active participation in RESPECT and we
would like to thank everyone that has given a little of themselves to raise
awareness of refugee issues, build bridges among youth and take action in
helping refugees.
RESPECT Resolutions
RESPECT is always finding ways to improve itself and their recent Interim
Board of Directors Meeting on 27 April 2003 is an example of just that. In
an effort to systematize the decision making process at RESPECT, this first
Board of Directors meeting was yet another progressive step for this pro-active
organization. The meeting tabled a number of resolutions, some of which are
listed below.
- *BE IT RESOLVED that a basic template should be designed
for RESPECT letters to be used by both refugee and non-refugee students for
their introductory letters;
- *BE IT RESOLVED that RESPECT examines slow-postage problems
and explores alternatives to the long waiting for replies;
- *BE IT RESOLVED that the Interim RESPECT Board of Directors
develop bylaws that facilitate RESPECT, its work and a true Board of Directors;
- *BE IT RESOLVED that WREN collects information on the
various refugee school countries to create a "database" to send to
non-refugee schools so that those schools have resources available concerning
the situation in the country they are corresponding with;
- *BE IT RESOLVED that RESPECT pursue official Charitable
Status at the provincial, national and international levels;
- *BE IT RESOLVED that RESPECT pursue a sustainable source
of revenue and funding opportunities, including but not limited to, government
programs, foundation grants and in-kind contributions.
If you would like more information on the resolutions passed at this meeting,
please contact Marc Schaeffer at respect@respectrefugees.org.
