MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IVM foundation organizing new meeting

International Village Meetings, IVP, a foundation dedicated to bringing together and integrating teenagers from Argentina, Chile and Falkland Islands, and which suspended activities in 2001 when the collapse of the Argentine economy is back recruiting volunteers for another meeting in the coming months.

IVP president Juan Manuel Ipiña visited last weekend Rio Grande and Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego and met with teachers, students, parents and local media to promote the resumption of the successful experience with the purpose of integrating youngsters, 17 and 18 year olds, who somehow where affected by the 1982 South Atlantic conflict.

"The complex political and financial situation of Argentina since 2001 forced us to suspend the work we had started in 1996", said Mr. Ipiña, an Argentine who has visited several times the Falkland Islands and has been involved in the strictly private project since the mid nineties.

Since 1996, Mr. Ipiña and his IVP have managed to regularly organize the event bringing together adolescents from Tierra del Fuego, Punta Arenas in Chile and the Falkland Islands who basically spent three weeks living together and sharing experiences.

The first IVP event took place in Colonia, Uruguay, and the last one in Nunatak, in the Tierra Mayor valley of Tierra del Fuego.

"The meetings help to shape the generational identity, and this is the first time since 2001 that we are attempting to organize a new IVP meeting. This can be described as a first motivational visit to Tierra del Fuego", added Mr. Ipiña.

Towards the end of next February, Mr. Ipiña will be back in Tierra del Fuego to begin selecting coordinators that will then be responsible for choosing ten teenagers who will be joining Chileans and Falklanders of similar age in an IVP camp.

The project which is totally voluntary has to be financed by private contributions and "it won't demand more than 10,000 Argentine pesos (3,350 US dollars)", anticipated Mr. Ipiña.