35th General Assembly

On June 14, Electriciens sans frontières held its 35th General Assembly: representatives of all our regional delegations participated in this major step in our association’s life.

Due to the pandemic and for the second year in a row, the meeting was held by videoconference, which makes the strong participation all the more remarkable!

Facing the pandemic, we have collectively learned to organize ourselves differently, to find other ways of working together.

The project teams kept on working and setting up quality projects, despite the risks, contingencies and constraints linked to the pandemic.

For many players, the roll out of the pandemic meant a freeze on activities. For our part, we did not give up, and we implemented Plan Bs to review our interventions and carry out our projects remotely. We have not been caught off guard as we have been acting remotely for years due to the insecurity that keeps on affecting several countries where we intervene. The generalized closing of the borders was only one more obstacle, which did not make us give up.

As soon as March, we initiated a program to better support health care workers and strengthen their response capabilities. This Covid plan, which affected more than 70 health care centers, was added to the hundred or so projects already underway. Above all, it was driven by a collective momentum, by the mobilization of all the Electriciens sans frontières delegations, our partners on the field, and the companies without whom nothing could have been done.

The year 2020 has therefore been a turning point in our way of conducting projects, and nothing will be the same as before. But the lessons learned do not mean that we will give up on the model that remains our trademark, the “doing with” or collaborative approach. We do not forget that it is our presence there that has enabled us, over the years, to build and maintain a lasting legacy of trust with these partners and companies who are now by our side to intervene when we can no longer do so.

And as soon as the security or health conditions allow it, we will return on the field with the will underprinning our way of doing things and which can be summed up in two words: “working together“.