Archives of Service Civil International

Emergency Action

by Philipp Rodriguez (Nov 29, 2009)

Already in 1924, SCI set up volunteer team to helpe the village Someo, in the italian speaking part of Switzerland, which was affected by a landslide. With more than 300 volunteers cleaning the devasted location this emergency action service was a success.

For the founder of SCI, Pierre Ceresole, the emergency actions done by international volunteers, would contributue to peace building by creating mutual trust.

In the following years and decades SCI initaited similar projects. Some example:

Flood in Liechtenstein 1928
Earth quake in Bihar (India) 1934-1937
Floods in the Netherlands 1953
Earthquake in Orleansville (Algeria) 1954

In 1958 the French branch set up working group dedicated only to the Emergency Actions, which move rapidly to the scene of disaster, This initiave, lead by Pierre Rasquier and Etienne Reclus was supported by other branches of SCI . By the 1970s the group was extended to other non-govermental organisations. In 1977 the organisations Action d'Urgence International (AUI) was founded which still exist a specialised organising emergency actions with volunteers.

In SCI Archives we hold files from the mentionned emergency actions of SCI and the set up of the commission and AUI.