The Asian Platform Meeting (APM) is an annual meeting and program organised in Asia to accommodate SCI Asian branches and for them to face common challenges together. This meeting also aims to strengthen cooperation among SCI Asian branches in the future. 

This year, APM was successfully organised by SCI India – Karnataka Group in Bangalore, India from August 10th  to 11th, 2024. 

The meeting was organised in a hybrid format, using a well-equipped conference room with uninterrupted online participation. 

It was a lively meeting with fruitful input and efforts from both the attendees in person as well as online.  The opening ceremony was filled by special welcome-words from SCI president Alexandra, who encouraged the others to make the best out of this meeting, a speech from the SCI India president and, in the tradition of SCI India, a candle was lit to open the meeting.

Following that, the many attending branches presented an update from their organisation, their workcamps, in some cases also long-term projects and volunteers, and other activities of the last half year. It was also very Interesting to hear about their (near) future plans.

Many issues were being discussed at the two-days meeting. Among them is the worrisome human rights situation in Bangladesh presented by Parag and Zahir from SCI Bangladesh.

Once more, it proved that SCI in Asia-Pacific has its own dynamics. While quite some branches in Europe have staff, in this region they are managed by volunteers only. One of the reasons is that there are, in general, more funding sources available for staff and projects in Europe than in other continents. A main item at the meeting was to inquire if there could still be an SCI-Asian liaison-office in the region. 

The meeting ended on Sunday afternoon with an extended closing ceremony. For most of the attendees this was not yet the end of all activities, on the contrary…

It was very nice to have a workcamp after the tight scheduled meeting of APM. The workcamp was held at Kanakere, Maddur, Karnataka, India from 12th to16th August. Before the group headed to Maddur, they managed to have one school visit session at Arpan School, Bangalore where they did a peace poster competition and peace walk on August 12th. It was organised along with differently-abled children at the school. They got together and sang songs and a talent show by Asian volunteers was arranged and ended with the distribution of snacks to children.

In the afternoon, the group left Olive Holte (their accommodation during the APM) to the campsite by a small bus. Around 15 participants, both international and local volunteers, participated in this workcamp. As usual, volunteers managed their food, except for the first dinner when their very handy host, Mr. Srinivas, cooked for them instead.

On the second day, they had a tree plantation and awareness of using plastics at the local vocational school, which they organised along with the Rotary Club in this District. Volunteers planted around 100 trees of diverse kinds. Students and teachers also participated in this session, as well as the local leader who managed to visit and take action with them. The locals promised to take care of the trees that will provide shade for students who are going to study there in the future. 

The workcamp consisted of much more than those activities, way too much to mention all. The group visited and supported a range of local initiatives. Two-way learning took place in all those places. Worthwhile to mention were the special activities on August 15th, India’s Independence Day. Participants visited the same school for the second time (the first time was regarding a health-check). The Indepence day activities began with a flag ceremony and then the kids performed some excellent talents such as dances and singing. A Malaysian volunteer named Kuna was very touched by such a memorable moment since her childhood in India made her experience the same moment like they had on that day.

At night the volunteers organised a bonfire with singing songs and ended with the song WE SHALL OVERCOME. They finally travelled back with memorable memories of APM and post-work camp.

Special thanks to the organisers of the camp Mr. Srinivas  & SCI India – Karnataka Group secretary Mr. Shashi for leading the camp. Great work – also organising APM itself – by the entire team of SCI India – Karnataka Group!

Article written by Prabhakar (SCI India), Sany (IVP Indonesia)