12/05/2022
☮️ These days AEGEE family finally has an opportunity to meet each other live in Agora Novi Sad(AGORA Novi Sad 2022) . Unfortunately, you can`t see any Ukrainians there - we are forced to hide in the bomb shelters instead.
📜 Yesterday, during the morning plenary we addressed a statement to all AEGEEans with a question: what can we do (more), as part of NGO that empowers young people to take an active role in society in order to help us in these dire times of need?
📝 We'd like to share some key points from the statement here:
🤝 "We would like to thank every individual, every local, European body, and the Comité Directeur (AEGEE / European Students' Forum) for all the support you’ve shown so far. We feel the strong AEGEE Spirit within you and know that you’ll always be welcomed here in our cities..."
🤔 "Today we must ask ourselves what can we do, as part of NGO that empowers young people to take an active role in society in order to help? The war is still ongoing and it’s very important for everyone to continue doing as much as we can to keep it on the agenda..."
✌️ "You can also approach Ukrainians and ask them about the ways of providing humanitarian aid faster and custom-tailored..."
⛔️ "We call upon AEGEEans to suspend any international activity hosted in Russia and Belarus for a wartime period.
We’re asking the Russian and Belarussian AEGEEans to not apply for hosting international AEGEE events that involve the participation of foreign AEGEEans, the residing and future Comite Directeur’s to not approve these events, and the regular AEGEEans to not participate in them, until the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, including the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea..."
💰 The reasoning behind this is simple - by suspending the hosting status, you won’t sponsor a war by paying the Russian and Belarussian governments through taxes and buying products and services there. You won’t pay for accommodation, the food, and the leisure options, as the money would go not only to their locals’ budget but also would end up fueling the war through taxes.
Surely, you’re not the gun that fires, but you also won’t be the one’s putting the bullets into the gun..."
🗣 For that reason, we encourage the Agora to discuss this proposal and give a resolution. We understand it might be a hard topic to discuss and an even harder decision to make, but we believe that it’s also a morally right one, as we can not imagine AEGEEans would fund a war, not anymore at least..."
🙏🏻 We hope that AEGEEans understand our position and welcome it with cold minds and open hearts. It's not about bullying/pressing someone, it's about taking every opportunity to bring peace back to our common home, which we like to call Europe.