We received the following message from Benny Andersen, International President of AIEJI, the International Association of Social Educators.
Dear All,
It was great to learn about the many regional initiatives to promote the International Day of Social Educators telling relevant politicians and authorities about the work we do by sending them the Copenhagen Declaration.
Below is a summary of activities which took place and that I am personally aware of; there might very well have been more.
In Palestine they arranged a workshop and sent out a press release.
In Chile, they sent out a letter with the declaration to colleagues and authorities including the president, the parliament, political parties and NGOs and posted it on their website: http://www.pedagogiasocial.cl/
In Italy, they sent out a newsletter with the Declaration attached to partners and politicians and also published the declaration on their website: http://www.anep.it/nuovosito/home.asp
In Norway, they posted the declaration on their website: http://www.frifagbevegelse.no/fontene/article4620173.ece
In Russia, they held a round table discussion and sent the letter to the president, the prime minister, the parliament, the minister of health and social development, the chairman of the Duma, the president of the Russian Academy of Education and the chairman of the National Charity Fund.
In Brazil, they used the celebrations of winning the Olympic Games in 2016 to also promote our day amongst the thousand of people flocking to the beach of Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro.
In Iceland, they sent the Copenhagen Declaration to all their members and at the meeting of the Nordic Forum For Social Educators they celebrated the day amongst the delegates by reading the Copenhagen Declaration aloud and mentioning all the other activities in other countries.
In Denmark, we sent the declaration to our Minister of Welfare, posted it on our website: http://sl.dk/Aktuelt/Nyhedsarkiv/2009/10/International%20Socialp%C3%A6dagogdag.aspx and had a comment published in our specialist magazine.
We know that a lot of activities took place at workplaces around the world and that many of you used this day to congratulate each other by email or text messages. AIEJI covers many more countries than are listed above and I am sure that in time, as the date gets more incorporated, we will see the activities grow and disperse to more countries.
Please, also go to the forum of the AIEJI Facebook group where you will find a few personal accounts of 2 October as a normal workday. And feel free to add your own story.
Kind regards,
Benny Andersen
AIEJI, President