The Asian working group of IHEYO organized a three day meeting in Nepal from 1–3 June 2007 to set the future plan of the group. This meeting has formally started up “The Organized Youth Humanist Activism” in Asia. Moreover, this meeting changed the name of the Asian group formally to “Asian Humanist Alliance of IHEYO”, resulting in the acronym (AHA)-IHEYO.
The meeting treated the fifteen issues on the agenda as proposed by Uttam, Executive Member of IHEYO, taking into consideration the different opinions of the proposed members of AHA-IHEYO. Of course, as it was the first meeting for groups stemming from the Asian region it was basically focused on the formation of Asian Humanist Alliance- IHEYO.
Several issues and topics on the agenda of AHA-IHEYO have been finalised, such as the action plan, activities, guidelines and AHA-IHEYO’s institutional structure. IHEYO has invited two participants from India and two from Nepal for the meeting. Mr. Abhilash from India, Mr. Uttam & Raju from Nepal played a vital role for the fully interactive meeting.
The meeting has set the basic guidelines for the group to operate and function in a democratic way. It has been worked out to be helpful for the decision making process of AHA-IHEYO. The meeting has endorsed a steering committee consisting of 5 members, based on a two-tiered structure of the institution. Hereunder, the first steering committee of the AHA-IHEYO as endorsed by the meeting of the group is presented.
|
Name |
Country |
Position |
|
Uttam Niraula |
Nepal |
Co-ordinator |
|
Abhilash |
India |
Member |
|
Raju P.Chetri |
Nepal |
Member |
|
Harpreet Kaur |
India |
Member |
|
Gulalai Ismail |
Pakistan |
Member |
The current steering committee will be functioning until the next Assembly to be held in this region. The first Assembly of AHA-IHEYO will dissolve the existing steering committee and form the new Steering Committee.
The meeting has decided to publish an e-bulletin of AHA-IHEYO half yearly. The meeting has also decided to create an e-mail group with the support from IHEYO. This e-group will be the main mode of communication among the members of the steering committee and others. Members of the AHA-IHEYO interact and discuss in this group. This group also helps to increase/update the members on work and activities of AHA-IHEYO. AHA- IHEYO can count on the collaboration of IHEYO to put its information on IHEYO’s website.
The meeting has decided to organize a Regional Conference in December 2008 and a Steering Committee meeting in November 2007 for which the venue will be fixed later. The regional seminar will be organized every year and the Steering committee meeting will be held twice every year.
The meeting has further decided to establish the Secretariat of AHA-IHEYO in Nepal.
A major challenge for AHA-IHEYO will lie in taking up contact with different youth organizations and to associate like-minded youngsters for the collective efforts. AHA-IHEYO will have its own criteria for the involvement in the group in collaboration with IHEYO. This group will accommodate very active, enthusiastic and activist minded youngsters for the promotion of the humanist movement in Asia.
Mainly, seven probable countries for the membership of AHA-IHEYO have been selected currently and depending upon the contact and communication with them further membership option will be made open. Any organization from Asia which fits into the IHEYO criteria can join AHA- IHEYO.
After the three day meeting, participants also attended a one day workshop on “Secularization of the Country: role of youth, politicians and civil society” jointly organized by AHA- IHEYO and Society for Humanism (SOCH) Nepal. In this workshop youth, politicians and members of civil society have actively participated and discussed about humanism, a new subject in Nepal. All the participants expressed their views. The work of IHEYO has been detailed in this workshop.
In sum, IHEYO has started its initiative to establish a group at the Asian level after the India conference held in 2006. With the rigorous efforts for 7 months after the conference, AHA-IHEYO has been formed formally. Currently, 9 organizations from the different countries of the Asian region are affiliated with AHA-IHEYO. At the same time AHA-IHEYO is also looking into the possibility of involving youth who can be individual member of it.
Uttam Niraula, coordinator of AHA-IHEYO, [email protected]