On December 5th, International Volunteer Day, officially promoted by the United Nations (UN) since 1985, according to resolution 40/212 decreed by the General Assembly; New Acropolis Chile adhered to this commemoration by organizing the “1st Volunteering Congress on Humanitarian Aid“. The event was attended by prominent speakers, experts in their fields of action related to Disaster Risk Management, prevention, network management and strategic alliances suggested by both the Sendai Framework for Action for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda promoted by the UN, around the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

More than 200 attendees, including volunteers and humanitarian workers, accepted the Sunday invitation, validating with their participation the objectives of the Congress to highlight the importance of Civil Society Education in relation to Disaster Risk Management and to celebrate International Volunteer Day.

Organizations present at the event:

1.-   Voluntarios Protección Civil                                   15-   Universidad de Concepción

2.-   Caritas Chile                                                              16-   Guías y Scouts de Chile

3.-   Asociación de Abogadas Matilde Troup              17.-  Cruz Roja Chilena

4.-   Cuerpo de Socorro Andino                                     18-   ONG SAR Chile

5.-   ONG CERT Chile                                                      19.- Defensa Civil de Chile

6.-  Asoc. Gremial Parque Bustamante                        20.- Grupo Apoyo en Emergencias

7.-  WIZO                                                                            21.- Red Nacional de Emergencias

8.-  Agrupación de Emergencias Curicó                      22.- World Vision Chile

9.-  Agrupación Provincial de Emergencias                23.- Narices Rojas Tarapacá

10.- Ejército de Salvación de Chile                               24.- Movidos por Chile

11.- Comunidad ORG                                                      25.- Gestión de Riesgo

12.- Info Octava Bio Bio                                                 26.- PAYÚ

13.- ONG Rescate 6                                                         27.- Fundación Teletón

14.- Voluntarios Universidad Santa María                28.- Nueva Acrópolis.

The International Organization New Acropolis, IONA, was represented by attendees from Spain, Italy, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador, in addition to national volunteers with training in Humanitarian Aid, who accompanied representatives of 27 other Organizations and Networks of Institutions working in different regions of the country, many of them with international presence.

Finally, as the organizing institution, we opened all doors to strengthen alliances and committed our efforts to collaborate in practical actions including unity of purpose and a strong will to unite all the parties involved in Humanitarian Aid, considering the various nuances that this offers and of course we advanced the option of a second Congress for the year 2022.