2005-11-28
The 8th HKWC and 2nd WFDB GA
Dear Friends,
The 8th Helen Keller World Conference and the WFDB 2nd General Assembly have been conducted successfully! There have never been so many visitors to a Helen Keller Conference before - approximately 300 including interpreters, guides and professionals. The organisation of the conference was impeccable, making sure that everything ran smoothly.
They days before the inauguration of the HKWC there were two meetings. On the 1st of June the African deafblind leaders held their second meeting, a follow up of the Nairobi meeting held in November 2004. The countries represented at the meeting were Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. It was decided that the next meeting be held in Nairobi in February 2006. On the 2nd of June, there was an EC meeting, with the main purpose to discuss and prepare for the GA.
I will not be able to tell you about the inauguration, lectures, work shops and exhibitions of the conference, since I was busy at the WFDB-office, but the proceedings of the HKWC will soon be posted on the Conference web page. Instead I will tell you a little about the General Assembly, which started in the afternoon of Sunday the 5th of June. On Saturday and Sunday all the national representatives were asked to register with me in order to become delegates with the right to vote. With the list of registered representatives we were able to make an electoral register and finalise the voting cards, given to each delegate at the GA. On the first day there was information about voting procedures, nominations and list of candidates, greetings and some reports. The following morning the Executive Council Officers were elected which now consists of the following members:
For contact details please go to contact details
On Monday afternoon there was an excursion organised by our Finnish hosts to Viikinsaari Island, a beautiful little Island outside of Tampere. They had organised a lovely Finnish evening with an open fire for bbq, sauna, delicious food and dancing.
After this well needed break, the GA convened on Tuesday morning to appoint the regional representatives:
Only for the Pacific a vote was needed, since nobody representing those countries was present.
Two auditors were elected: Mr Robbie van Eck in South Africa and Mr Geir Jensen i Norway and the last elections were for the Election Committee, which now consists of Mr Dimitar Parapanov from Bulgaria, Mr Jan Jakes from the Czech Republic and Mr José Lllong from Perú.
The General Assembly accepted the offer made by South Africa to host the 9th HKWC and 3rd WFDB GA in Cape Town in 2009.
For more details of the General Assembly, please click here
I will take the opportunity in this newsletter to say goodbye to everyone in WFDB and thank you for the two very enriching years I have worked with you. I wish you the best of luck with your work!
Best wishes,
Charlotta Göller