In this fabulous Outgoing-Exchange Team we have: Melissa from the US exclusively in Geneva, Sara from the lovely area of Tessin, Awa from gorgeous Paris, funky Caroline from France and Sebastian from Europe.
Sebastian and the OGX ladies
What we do:
Promote AIESEC internships across different genevan Universities Organise interviews for exchange participants in order to analyse their motivation to explore the world with all its different cultures and different professions. This Interview is done by 3 people: one guest interviewer (people with professional background) and two AIESEC members. We organise a one day Cultural Seminar exchange participants need to attend before they go abroad. Together with the OGX Coaches (people who have already been on an AIESEC internship or people who are on an internship in Geneva) look after the exchange participants and guide them towards their unforgettable experience.
Above all, we enjoy what we do and we are passionate about travelling and entering into the “real” world.
Thank you the OGX team for the great SRB and XPS you organised! Many people and good feedbacks thanks to your organisation! You really made us proud!
AIESEC Geneva Xmas Dinner: Fondue night at Bains de Paquis
Yet another annual Geneva Xmas dinner is over. Thank you everyone for making this year's edition ever more so special. So many people...we thought we were never going to be able to seat everyone :) And what a great night it was, especially once the wine bottles started emptying :)
Big thanks to Caroline for organizing this memorable evening, and of course, huge congratulations to all those teams and individuals who were awarded for the outstanding achievements in the previous semester.
Most Excelling Leader: Sarah Lee Steele Most Progressive Member: Laurence Strubin Best Selling Pbox: Sustainability Best Team Spirit: Career Days
We'd especially like to thank all the alumni for joining us on this special occasion, it was great hearing the stories about AIESEC from the older generations!
And of course, we were so excited to spend the evening with all the interns, as well as the current and the ex MC! Kiff la vie!
On this note, we'd like to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year! We wish you all the best for the holidays and the upcoming year, and of course: Good luck for the exams!
Concentrating on the fondue...
Future leaders of AIESEC Geneva
Trying to appear serious after all that wine...
And last but not the least.... the chickens that still soar!
It is with great honor that AIESEC Geneva presents the new Executive Board for the year 2008/2009!
Hania Bouamra - LCP Marina Selin - VP TM Philipp Hayoz - VP ER Sebastian Scholl - VP OGX Laurence Strubin - VP ICX Karthik Vanniasingam - VP F
Sebastian, Karthik, Hania, Marina, Laurence, Philipp
We are truly proud of the new team and I must say inspired as well by the great motivation they have for their work. We thought that after a long year of hard work and lots of effort it would be hard to let go of the LC, but seeing such a great team, we couldn't be happier that we are leaving the LC in the right hands! We're confident that you'll have a great year ahead, and wish you only the best! We hope your term will be at least as fulfilling as ours was, with lots of successes, inspiring moments, and life-lasting friendships, as well as a certain dose of challenges, which are sure to make you grow as a person, as well as a leader.
Looking forward to the next year, and the good surprises you'll have at hand for all of us! Good luck!
LC Geneva is having the privilege of organizing the biggest national conference of Switzerland: DO IT 2009!
For this occasion, we'd like to congratulate Priscilla Steiner on her election as the new OCP DO IT '09! We wish her all the best for her term, great experiences and a very successful and memorable conference! Good luck!
Two weeks ago, 3 of our VPs and two of our Project Managers joined the Swiss Delegation at WeGrow, an International Conference for local leaders, which was taking place in a wonderful hotel in malta... below you can see a video with some impressions!
GENEVA YOU DID IT!!! It finally happened... last weekend the Geneva Delegation was in Fiesch, VS! With 41 delegates, we were the second biggest delegation next to Zurich (they had 2 more delegates) and can I just say... I have NEVER been SO proud to be a Geneva delegate. We totally ROCKED THIS CONFERENCE!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS!!! really... It was the last conference for us as an EB and it really made our year! A big thank you to the MC for an amazing conference with very useful content and of course to the faci's as well! A big thank you to the OC for the good organization and the fun parties ;) A big thank you to our LC coach for being our coach... thank you Marcel! and last but not least a big thank you to you the delegates!!!! :D You worked hard and partied even harder and that's the way we like it genevan style ;) We won the best quality kiss award, we were always the last ones standing and still very proactive during sessions! It started on Thursday with HALF A METER OF SNOW!!!!! lol.... followed by open plenary where we performed our really cool roll call (Yannick, Ces soirees la ;) New members got introduced to their homegroup's and the leaders got back into gear and looked back at what has been done! Afterwards everyone got dressed for the party..... HALLOWEEN.... there were a lot of scary costumes!!!
Friday morning you could already see some tired faces.... but we went into the company's workshops with our best spirit..... UBS was there to answer all the financial crisis questions, EBBF talked about gender roles at work, Amazee came to present the newly founded start-up and what it means to be an entrepreneur, Booz&Co talked about Project Management and there were a lot more workshops lead by our partners! At night, we had the famous Gala Dinner where everyone put on their best suit/dress and after a delicious meal, we moved the party into the party room :)
Saturday and Sunday we had useful Soft Skills and Hard Skills sessions, the new members had the famous simulation! And can i just say that our last LC time was THE BEST!!!! After saying our good-bye's on Sunday afternoon it was time to get back to our respective cities. We are all still recovering... but i think I can safely say that it was an awesome conference, everyone had lots and lots of fun and we are all excited to continue in our LC!!!! so again.. thank you LC Geneva!
so with that here a few images: the EB at formal dinner!
Even Marmita was dancing....
Ah and the dutch... what's DO-IT without the dutch.... and their famous ROLL CALL!!!! TOOT TOOT
AND last but not least.... our beautiful LCP with our award :D
So, I know it's been a while..... but that doesn't mean their haven't been things going on!!! Just recently we had INTERNATIONAL DAYS 2008!!! We really want to congratulate the whole team!!! They did an amazing job!
Here are a few images:
They worked really hard this summer to organize this event around Cultural Diversity, focusing mainly on topics around Climate Change and Globalization!!
An interesting workshop about globalization and culture with the representatives of Morocco and Yemen
The stand of Verein Indonesia Schweiz held by Mrs Yasandikusuma
This year highlight: the dance from the Club Thaï de Suisse romande performed by Tom
We hope some of you had the chance to go to one workshop or the other!! We really want to thank the team for a wonderful job ;)
Before Uni started, the EB and PMs attended ACT, which was the national conference for all leaders in Switzerland. It was a very eventful three days, with lots of useful information sharing, new strategy implementation, and of course fun.
The conference was a great motivational boost for the start of the second part of our term. We came up with a whole new recruitment campaign, and LCM training cycle. However, the most memorable part will definitely be the breakfast, lunch and dinner pasta ! Thank you Bern :)
Here’s a picture of Geneva delagation at one of the parties. As always, we were very well represented. And even Edward danced !!!
The weather being nice, and the exams long over, we thought we'd go make friends among some influential people in Geneva. Yes, you are right, we went to a networking event!
Right in the heart of all the intergovernmental organizations, we attended 'Reconnecting People' organized by the Jeune Chambre Internationale. It was a great opportunity to exchange contacts with companies and meet other associations, amongst which was even Caritas.
All in all, it was a pleasant evening, with lots of selling and elevator speeches, which finally ended in a big party that went late into the night.
Most importantly, don't forget to check Leman Bleu from time to time. We're gonna be on TV!!!! (The camera-man would not leave us alone!!!)
Me voilà en Indonésie depuis un mois et demi déjà. Je ne sais pas par où commencer, tellement de choses à raconter… Tout d’abord, l’accueil qui m’a été réservé était vraiment incroyable, les Indonésiens ont vraiment un sens de l’hospitalité très développé. Ici, à Bandung, je travaille dans une ONG qui s’appelle « Rumah Cemara », celle-ci s’occupe principalement de drogués et ex-drogués. En Indonésie, les drogués sont considérés comme étant des criminels, si un policier voit quelqu’un consommer, quelle que soit la drogue, c’est la prison direct ! Et d’après les récits que j’ai eu les prisons ici ce n’est pas ce qu’il y a de plus sympa…au contraire c’est un centre de trafic énorme, et toute personne qui entre en prison, droguée ou pas, finit par consommer ! C’est une vraie contradiction ! Cette situation résulte du déni total du gouvernement à mettre en place un programme social ou une aide pour ces gens qui se retrouvent marginalisés par la société ! La politique gouvernementale de l’Indonésie c’est « SAY NO TO DRUGS »…Donc évidement avec une politique pareille on ne va pas très loin, car la drogue est présente et le nombre croissant de consommateurs aussi ! Les drogués vivent pour la plupart dans la rue, ils jouent de la guitare aux feux rouges pour gagner un peu d’argent. J’ai eu l’occasion d’en rencontrer plusieurs fois, et tous vivent dans des conditions terribles, et surtout le pire, c’est que même s’ils décidaient d’arrêter de consommer, pour eux ça serait impossible de trouver un travail, de se marier, bref de mener une vie normale, car ils sont cruellement stigmatisés, ceci du au lois gouvernementales et aussi beaucoup à la religion musulmane qui les considère comme des « pécheurs »… Donc en gros, Rumah Cemara, s’occupe de ces gens en leur apportant du soutient psychologique, spirituel, financier, puis leur offre la possibilité d’aller en cure de désintoxication, dans un lieu qui ne ressemble pas trop à une triste prison. Ou sinon, ils ont aussi une division dans un hôpital ou ils proposent des traitements à la méthadone. Je vais souvent à l’hôpital pour parler avec les patients, on essaie de les remotiver un peu, car pour la plupart ils ont un peu perdu espoir et se sentent enchaînés à ce traitement, car ils doivent venir TOUS les matins pour chercher leur dose. Certains suivent le traitement depuis plus de 5 ans ! Ils sont tous super avec moi, surement parce que je suis une « boulé » une étrangère, et qu’à Bandung ce n’est pas courant, alors ils sont tout contents de voir que je m’intéresse à eux !
Ensuite, lorsque les consommateurs ont arrêté depuis 1 an au minimum, Rumah Cemara les engage dans la propre ONG pour aider d’autres drogués, ce qui leur permet d’avoir un travail et donc un logement. Les salaires sont ridicules : 200.- par mois, mais ici on peut survivre avec ça. L’autre grand problème avec la drogue en Indonésie, c’est l’infection massive du sida. Presque 90% des héroïnomanes (drogue très populaire et consommée ici) sont atteints du sida et de l’hépatite C. Ceci est du de nouveau au refus du gouvernement de coopérer, presque aucune campagne anti sida existe ici, les gens connaissent très mal cette maladie et ont donc des comportements à risques qui pourraient être évités. Donc on essaie aussi de faire un peu de prévention, mais c’est dur car les moyens manquent terriblement !! Donc tous mes collègues sont d’ex drogués et pour moi c’est passionnant d’écouter leurs récits et surtout de voir à quel point l’Indonésie à différentes facettes bien cachées ! Grâce à eux je connais le côté obscur de ce pays qui n’est donc pas uniquement composé de plages paradisiaques sur lesquelles les touristes viennent par millier... En même temps, j’habite chez une famille traditionnelle indonésienne et je parle aussi beaucoup avec eux, mais ça me choque toujours de voir à quel point leur récit est tellement différent !! Donc voilà, mes collègues sont géniaux et plus je passe du temps avec eux, plus j’apprends à les apprécier. Et ceux qui me disaient à Genève que deux mois de stage ce n’est pas assez long, et que je ne croyais pas, avaient vraiment raison !!! C’est terrible, maintenant que je me suis vraiment intégrée, que je commence même à avoir quelques notions d’indonésien, parce qu’ici quasiment personne parle anglais, et que je m’attache de plus en plus aux gens, le départ approche cruellement !
Pour finir j’aimerais remercier l’Aiesec de proposer de tels stages, c’est une expérience de vie incroyable, inoubliable…
P.S la photo est celle du mariage d’un des collègues à Rumah Cemara avec une bonne partie de l’équipe !
