ESN members met on Monday 9 July in Paris to participate in the General Assembly of their network. More than thirty participants made the trip including representatives from the United States, Morocco, Belgium and Great Britain. The President of the MGEN Group, Roland Berthilier, opened the meeting by saying that at the dawn of its tenth anniversary, the Education and Solidarity Network was recognized as an important sphere of exchange between the worlds of education and health, but also as a watchtower able to identify innovative projects and practices.
“Beyond being a linker, our network has become a hub of skills. By addressing the ESN, a project leader accesses a pool of expertise in the fields of health promotion at school, community health, insurance, mutuality, education, project management, influence and fundraising” continued ESN President Matthias Savignac.
The first part of the meeting highlighted testimonials from three union representatives:
- Gary Phoebus of NEA-MB (USA) about Donald Trump and the education unions. His intervention was entitled: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Christian Chevalier of UNSA-Education (France) presented the reforms and new practices that have been put in place to develop his union
- Gareth Young of NASUWT (UK) presented the results of a survey on the health and well-being of education professionals in Great-Britain
The second part of the meeting was devoted to the statutory aspects including the presentation of the 2017 activity report and the welcoming of seven new members within the ESN, including the Zambian National Union of Teachers (ZNUT).
Finally, participants were presented with a school health promotion project to be carried out in 2018 by the ESN in Haiti with education unions thanks to the financial support of the Wallonia-Brussels-International Cooperation.
