News

From 23-24 November, an “Active Citizens’ workshop” was held in Nicosia, Cyprus, as part of the “Social Cohesion by Empowering Volunteering during Emergencies” project

From 27-29 September, the Erasmus+ project “Inclusive First Aid” (INFA) met in Sveti Ivan Zelina, Croatia, hosted by local project partner SRCE.

From 18-21 July, 19 teams from 12 organisations and 11 different countries competed in Zabljak, Montenegro at the 9th Samaritan Contest. This year’s competition was jointly hosted by Samaritan International’s members Alfa Centar (Montenegro), IDC (Serbia) and CDI (North Macedonia).   Over the course of 3 days, the youth teams tested not only their theoretical […]

The 11th International Samaritan Forum took place on 23-24 May 2024, at a crucial time just before the elections of the European Parliament. Hosted by ASB Germany in Cologne, the Forum brought together 80 Samaritans and external guests from 15 European countries. While the main thematic focus if this year’s edition was on social services […]

Ahead of the elections for the European Parliament in June 2024, Samaritan International published its election memorandum titled “Social resilience needs to become a priority” and sent a catalogue of questions to the European parties as well as the main groups in the European Parliament. The responses will inform Samaritan International and its members about […]

On 28 February, the European Parliament adopted its First Reading position on the Revision of the Driving Licences Directive. Samaritan International strongly welcomes the result in view of the agreed rules for ambulances. Whereas other issues, such as regular medical testing or minimum age, have taken the spotlight in the public debate, Samaritan International had […]

On 18 December, SAM.I. welcomed Pompiers Humanitaires Français (PHF) as its 21st member organisation. PHF has become the second French member in the network next to the Fédération des Secouristes Français Croix Blanche. “I am very happy to welcome Pompieres Humainataires Français to Samaritan International. They will certainly enrich our network with their high expertise in the […]

On 14 November 2023, Samaritan International organised a policy debate with high-level stakeholders to discuss the importance and value of qualified volunteering for our societies. Volunteering is not only an expression of civic engagement, which is vital for living democracies, but structurally committed volunteers are also a necessity for the work of the members of […]

From 8-10 August “Inclusive First Aid” (INFA) met in Copenhagen. INFA is an Erasmus+ co-financed project that revisits practices of the Samaritan organisations in offering first aid education to persons with disabilities.

In May, SAM.I. Secretary General Ivo Bonamico and SAM.I. President Knut Fleckenstein travelled to Kiev to visit our Ukrainian member organization SSU, who has uninterruptedly continued to provide services and helped to distribute aid shipments to the Ukrainian people since the start of the Russian invasion. The SAM.I. delegation travelled jointly with representatives from the […]