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Foundations for new projects

10 November 2005

21 October 2005: ICVolunteers becomes a federation

The first seeds for ICVolunteers were planted in 1997, when Viola Krebs led recruitment of more than 800 volunteers to help coordinate and report on the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva. Following the success of this event, individuals who wanted to continue to work together formed an ongoing team of conference organizers and volunteers.  Later in 1999, Viola Krebs decided to found "International Conference Volunteers (ICV)", an international non-governmental organization based in Geneva, to provide a permanent structure for our work.

Growth of Our Network and Activities

Since its foundation, ICVolunteers has continued to work to help produce local, national and international conferences on today's most important social, humanitarian, environmental and scientific issues. Our efforts have been possible thanks to the support of our donors and members, as well as our fundamental base, our current network of 1,500 active volunteers, today coming from approximately one hundred countries and speaking some sixty-five languages.

In addition, ICV over the years has developed certain complementary initiatives and programs, always based around our core mission of catalyzing volunteers to help organizers of worthy projects around the globe to promote a better, more equitable and fairer society across all fields and sectors.

Creation of ICVolunteers Federation

As ICV has grown, our activities have become more decentralized.  While the majority of our work still takes place in and around Geneva, we now have offices and representatives in a number of other parts of the world. 
Feeling the need to adapt ICV's institutional framework to its increasing portfolio of field activities, we launched in October 2005 a new organizational structure, transforming itself into an international federation, with national offices and associate partners in various parts of the world.

In addition to its headquarters, our federation has representations in Canada, France, Mali, Senegal, South Africa.

Driving force

ICV still sticks to its initial vision: the will to offer innovative services applicable to different contexts and regions. This aim is achieved by matching local volunteers and projects, the two jointly finding their own solutions. These solutions and the inspiration for them come from the basis rather than in a top-down fashion.
Today, the emergence of the information and shared knowledge society has made it essential to mobilize the citizens. If volunteers were to be put in one single nation, they would represent the world fifth economy. Thus, they are an important actor in society, and can actively contribute to human communication, building a society based on more Solidarity, Sharing and Consensus

In such a perspective, volunteerism remains more than ever the space to reinvest so as to contribute to quench the thirst of our world. Indeed, one of the essential characteristics of volunteerism is in fact this dedication to the human kind and this spirit of mission serving the majority: volunteers are paving the road of the future.
ICVolunteers aims to be the space, a catalyst, for individuals, communities and society in general.

Our Vision

The vision of ICVolunteers is to help develop a future where both individuals and communities can reap the benefits of personal commitment and free will. Through volunteering, we seek to link knowledge with needs and to promote a better, more equitable society involving all fields and actors.


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