Seychelles CEPS Marks Third Consecutive NGO Week With Volunteer Awards Return
VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (CEPS) will be commemorating the NGO Week for the third consecutive year in collaboration with its members, as part of its efforts to push for the revival of the civil society sector. The celebration will start on February 26 and run until March 3, 2024. Whilst the non-governmental organisation (NGO) day is commemorated on February 27 worldwide, the week-long celebration will also incorporate the Zero Discrimination Day on Friday March 1, amongst other activities. The framing of the week as a multi-event celebration is being read as a sign of the growing ambition of the platform to give civil society a higher profile in the national calendar.
One of the most prominent CEPS events that will return this year is the volunteers’ award, which originated in 2016. The official launch is expected to take place during the NGO week. All the details and categories will be detailed for the event that will take place at the end of the year when the international volunteers’ day is commemorated in December. This year’s event will be the fourth of its kind, after a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent priority to revive the civil society sector. The return of the award, after a multi-year gap, is being read as a sign of the renewed confidence of the platform in the strength of the local voluntary sector.
The volunteers’ award is also one of the other strategies to encourage people to engage in contributing voluntarily in society and take part actively in building the nation, CEPS chief executive Alvin Laurence stated. Such award is an occasion to emphasise the positivity and the goodwill of individuals who are often forgotten and yet are making vital contributions, added Mr Laurence. Last year, for the CEPS anniversary, the chief executive declared that this year more emphasis will be laid on volunteerism, be it the neo-voluntarism that is often overlooked. The first CEPS volunteer of the year award was held in December 2016, and Vijay Construction is the main sponsor of the award.
The award allows CEPS to give prominence to volunteerism and recognise the works being undertaken by volunteers within the platform. Throughout the years, it has been recognised that citizens do not embrace volunteerism today as compared to the past. As a matter of fact, there are clear signs which are calling for actions to rekindle and re-energise the spirit of volunteerism, which was all along a natural response valued by our nation. The aim of the award is to recognise volunteers’ contributions in communities, to honour individuals who have overcome significant challenges in dispensing their benevolent and charitable services, and to honour individuals who have made exemplary benevolent contributions and services for an extensive and a minimum period of time of one year.
It is also to recognise innovative and inventive approaches in volunteerism, recognise voluntary services that have led to long-lasting results as well as to recognise voluntary services that have led to sustainable programmes by the civil society organisation involved. The framing of the award as recognising a range of contributions, from one-off acts to long-term programmes, is being read as a sign of the breadth of the conception of volunteerism that the platform is seeking to promote. The decision to recognise ‘neo-voluntarism’ is also being read as a deliberate move to draw attention to the new forms of voluntary action that have emerged in recent years, and to bring them within the recognised framework of the platform.
