Service Civil International (SCI) is an international peace organisation, founded by Swiss pacifist Pierre Cérésole in the aftermath of World War I to foster understanding and a culture of peace between people from different countries. Since 1920 SCI has organised international volunteering projects in the form of workcamps and has expanded to have branches in 40 countries, as well as partner organisations who help run the projects.
Aims and activities
SCI bases its work on the following values: volunteering, non-violence, respect for human rights, solidarity, respect for the environment, inclusion, empowerment, and cooperation.
According to their constitution, SCI "believes that all people are capable of living together with mutual respect and without recourse to any form of violence to solve conflicts".
SCI organises international voluntary workcamps in order to promote a culture of peace. Most of the workcamps are short-term projects of between one and three weeks for groups of international volunteers. In 2022, SCI organised 136 such workcamps and 839 volunteers participated in them. SCI also sends volunteers to workcamps organised by partner organisations. About half of volunteers are aged between 18 and 25 and about half of all participants are school or university students.
thumb|right|[[Pierre Cérésole at the first workcamp in 1920]]
Cérésole, together with English Quaker Hubert Parris, put the idea into practice with a workcamp in the French village of Esnes-en-Argonne, which had been badly damaged during the Battle of Verdun. The team of volunteers, which set to work in November 1920, included three Germans, an Austrian and a Dutchman. A Dutchwoman covered the initial costs of the work and did the cooking and washing. The team constructed two wooden houses and then, when the French government cancelled their contract, turned to clearing fields of debris, filling up shell-holes and repairing a road until, in April 1921, the French authorities asked them to leave. In spite of its premature end, the project had been of benefit to both the volunteers and the villagers, and Cérésole's enthusiasm for workcamps was undiminished.
Another opportunity for a workcamp presented itself in 1924. The village of Vers-l'Eglise in the Vaud district of Switzerland had been damaged by an avalanche in December 1923. Forty volunteers from different countries spent three weeks in August 1924 rebuilding a house, building a bridge and clearing a stream. This was followed by a workcamp to help rebuild Someo, a village in Switzerland that had been damaged by a landslide, where for the first time unemployed men were recruited. In 1924, Cérésole also started to promote international workcamps as a model service for conscientious objectors, in order to support a political campaign to introduce an alternative service in Switzerland, a proposal that was defeated in the Swiss parliament.
The largest disaster relief camp of the early history of the organisation took place in 1928 in Liechtenstein, after the river Rhine had burst its banks in October 1927 and left farmland covered in silt and stones. Cérésole, With the help of his brother, colonel Ernest Cérésole, recruited more than 700 volunteers from 17 countries who cleared the land over the spring and summer of 1928.
Evolution in the 1930s
thumb|right|Pierre Cérésole sitting amidst children at [[Brynmawr]]
Until 1934 the group was run informally, but at that stage Cérésole decided to found a national organisation. After some debate, Cérésole's view that the organisation should broaden its base and be open to non-pacifists prevailed.. In 1931 SCI sent a team of international volunteers to the Welsh colliery town of Brynmawr, which was hard-hit by unemployment. The Quakers, joined by student organisations, had started relief work in Brymawr in 1929. The SCI team of 37 international volunteers helped build a public park, including outdoor swimming pool and paddling pool, alongside British volunteers and local men and women, during the summer of 1931.
Cérésole, who was inspired by Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and who had met Gandhi in 1931, wanted to spread the idea of workcamps to India. Through the support of British Quakers and friends of Gandhi, among them Charles Freer Andrews, he was able to set up the first workcamp in India in 1934 to do disaster relief work in the Bihar region, which had been affected by the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. However, the project was well received as creating a new image of how Europeans could interact with Indians by, among others, Rajendra Prasad, who later became the President of India.
thumb|SCI volunteers house, 1935 in litzirüti
In 1937, SCI joined a number of International relief organisations working in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Under the name Ayuda Suiza and coordinated by SCI activist Rodolfo Olgiati, Swiss SCI volunteers including Elisabeth Eidenbenz, Ralph Hegnauer und Idy Hegnauer evacuated women and children and distributed food and clothing in parts of the Spanish Republic. Twenty years later, humanitarian aid was given to orphans in Tunisia during the Algerian War. These two projects were rare examples of SCI providing humanitarian aid.
Expansion after World War II
A branch of SCI had been set up in Britain in 1931, the same year as the Brynmawr workcamp. As more countries set up branches after World War II an international association of SCI branches with a secretariat in Paris was founded in 1948.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Country
!Organisation
!Status
|-
|Albania
|PVN Albania
|Branch
|-
|Australia
|International Volunteers for Peace – IVP
|Branch
|-
|Austria
|SCI Österreich
|Branch
|-
|Bangladesh
|Service Civil International Bangladesh
|Branch
|-
|Belarus
|New Group SCI Belarus
|Group
|-
|Belgium (French-speaking)
|SCI – Projets Internationaux
|Branch
|-
|Bulgaria
|Cooperation for Voluntary Service – Bulgaria (CVS-Bulgaria)
|Branch
|-
|Croatia
|Volunteers’ Centre Zagreb – VCZ
|Branch
|-
|Finland
|Kansainvälinen vapaaehtoistyöry – KVT Finland
|Branch
|-
|France
|Service Civil International Branche Française
|Branch
|-
|Germany
|Service Civil International – Deutscher Zweig e.V.
|Branch
|-
|Greece
|SCI Hellas – Kinissi Ethelonton
|Branch
|-
|Hong Kong, China
|SCI Hong Kong, China
|Group
|-
|Hungary
|Útilapu Nemzetközi Építőtábor Hálózat
|Branch
|-
|India
|Service Civil International India
|Branch
|-
|Indonesia
|IVP Indonesia
|Group
|-
|Ireland
|Voluntary Service International – VSI
|Branch
|-
|Italy
|Servizio Civile Italia – SCI Italy
|Branch
|-
|Japan
|SCI Japan
|Branch
|-
|Kosovo
|GAIA Kosovo
|Branch
|-
|Malaysia
|SCI Malaysia
|Branch
|-
|Mauritius
|SVI Mauritius
|Branch
|-
|Moldova
|AVI Moldova
|Group
|-
|Nepal
|Service Civil International Nepal
|Branch
|-
|Netherlands
|VIA Netherlands
|Branch
|-
|Nigeria
|VWAN Nigeria
|Branch
|-
|North Macedonia
|Center for intercultural dialogue – CID
|Group
|-
|Norway
|Internasjonal Dugnad Norway
|Branch
|-
|Poland
|Stowarzyszenie "Jeden Świat" – SCI Poland
|Branch
|-
|Portugal
|Associação Medestu
|Group
|-
|Romania
|SCI Romania
|Branch
|-
|Serbia
|Volunteers’ Centre of Vojvodina – Volonterski centar Vojvodine
|Branch
|-
|Slovenia
|SCI Slovenia
|Branch
|-
|South Korea
|SCI South Korea
|Branch
|-
|Spain, Catalunya
|Servei Civil Internacional
|Branch
|-
|Spain, Madrid
|SCI Madrid
|Branch
|-
|Sri Lanka
|SCI Sri Lanka
|Branch
|-
|Sweden
|SCI Sweden
|Branch
|-
|Switzerland
|SCI Switzerland
|Branch
|-
|United Kingdom
|IVS Great Britain
|Branch
|-
|USA
|SCI USA
|Branch
|}
Networking
thumb|right|Ecological work in Sweden
The organisation has consultative status with the Council of Europe, operational relations with UNESCO and is a member of:
- CCIVS (Coordinating Committee of International Voluntary Service Organisations)
- YFJ (Youth Forum Jeunesse)
- UNITED for Intercultural Action – a European network against nationalism, racism, fascism
In 1987, SCI was awarded the title of Messenger of Peace given by the United Nations, in acknowledgement of its efforts to promote peace and understanding.
Prominent members
- Pierre Cérésole
- Hélène Monastier
- Rodolfo Olgiati
- Mohamed Sahnoun
- Friedrich Glasl
- Simone Tanner-Chaumet
- Elisabeth Eidenbenz
- Jens Klocksin
- Max-Henri Béguin
- Emma Ott
- August Bohny
- Idy Hegnauer
- Ralph Hegnauer
SCI International Archives
thumb|SCI International Archives Coordinator Heinz Gabathuler at his workplace
The archives of SCI are held in the municipal library of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and were founded by Ralph Hegnauer in 1975. The files, documents and photographs in more than 700 archive boxes are accessible via several inventories and databases with some material being available online.
Bibliography
- Hélène Monastier, Alice Brügger: Paix, pelle et pioche, Histoire du Service Civil International, Editions du Service civil international, Switzerland, 1966
- SCI : Service Civil International 1920–1990 – 70 years of Voluntary Service for Peace and Reconciliation, Verdun, 1990