Symposia

The symposiums are organised like forum discussions. A panel of people from different organisations introduces the theme with short contributions. This is followed by discussion between the panel members and is also open to the floor for contributions and questions.

If you are interested in a particular theme and feel that you or your organisation want to contribute to it, please let us know, so that we can include you in the panel.

Or, if you have a theme which we have not covered around which you would like to organise a symposium, find a couple of others to join you, or tell us so that we can open it to other contributors.

The idea of these discussions is that the real issues confronting social organisations today can be aired and shared- Obviously a conference cannot come up with solutions, but the people who find one another around such a theme might very well carry solutions within them into the future.

Should any further themes for a symposium or free initiative arise in the course of the conference, these can be communicated to the organisers, a venue found and the initiative included in the Daily Newletter and Notice Board.

Here is a list of suggested Symposia.
Please let us know where you feel you can join in:

HIV-Aids
There will be a number of organisations attending the conference that are concerned with this catastrophic modern epidemic. It affects schools, clinics and all social organisations. We cannot guarantee that there will be many experts on the subject at the conference, but the point is that if people want to do something in this field, they can find out what’s happening and what initiatives there are that are concerning themselves with it.

Environment:
Little needs to be said about this, as it is a fairly well known general issue. What we tackle specifically at the conference will depend on which organisations are there and what they are able to contribute. But it is a sufficiently prevalent theme to ensure that there will certainly be content.

Education
Of course many of the participating organisations will be schools or otherwise involved in education. Whether there should be specific prepared content on this will depend on the needs of the participating organisations. If you wish to contribute, or have specific questions in this regard, please tell us so that something can be organised.

Rites of Passage and initiation
Young people in our society increasingly grow up without any structured rites of passage and have difficulty in establishing a relationship with the adult world. There are many traditional initiation ceremonies and processes, which have guided young people in achieving their maturity. These can be of great help in education and in understanding the psychology of the young.

Follow-up of volunteer groups.
There are a number of NGO’s that organise volunteer programs in development countries. The volunteers go there for a shorter or longer period and have various experiences, both positive and negative, which they carry into their later lives. They often have little opportunity to communicate what they have gone through to the people back home, and also, their ideas and initiatives are seldom realised.

A process of follow-up is what is missing, also for the life of the organisations that have acted as agents or hosted the project, so that their potential contributions can be properly channelled and integrated.

Family violence and sexual abuse:
This affeccts particularly those working particularly with children and with women, No matter how good our educational or human rights programs may be, in the face of this phenomenon, we often feel powerless and resigned. The steps we try to take legally or through direct communication are often useless or counter-productive. How can one tackle this from a sociological point of view, taking into account the families and the community in which they are embedded?

Violence and crime in Society
Our age, and many countries and communities are affected by this factor today. If a society has not experienced the benefits of police protection, or lives in the close proximity of continuous violence, all children, family life and community relationships have to deal with the fact that the word of the criminal is law. How do we deal with this and what initiatives are there in our environment that are doing something constructive.