Until its formal launch, many youngsters did not know about AIESEC and those who knew a little about it were not too sure the organisation would ever make it to Mauritius.

AIESEC is an international, non-profit, and non-political organisation run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. This is an  international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential with a view to having a positive impact on society.

The idea of starting this body came up in the 1930s when students from different schools in  Europe exchanged information about various programmes and schools that specialized in business and economics. Later a clear identity was defined in 1949 at the Stockholm Congress with the participation of 89 members. Presently it has  28,000 students in 105 countries at over 1100 universities across the globe and realizes around 5000 exchanges yearly.

It aims at developing young people to focuse on taking a proactive role, developing self-awareness and a personal vision, building networks, and developing capacity to effect changes.

This is done annually through 6,500 leadership trainings and over 350 conferences to a membership of over 28,000 students. AIESEC also runs an exchan­ge programme that gives over 4,400 young people the opportunity to live and work in another country. The national and international offices are managed by students on leave or members that have very recently graduated.

Mauritius in action
The launching of AISEC organsiation in Mauritius in fact forms part of India’s Country Expansions Ini­tiative for the year 2007-2008. Some of its international members are in Mauritius for the last one month to make it a success.

Lavanya Vasu­pal, Vice- Presi­dent of the In­dian National team says: “Our expansion here is  the humblest way of contributing  to the organisation's  vision of  peace and fulfillment of human  potential. The many similarities in culture and growing cooperation between the two countries had led  us to choose Mauritius.”

This year, five Mauritian students – Kushum Luchmun, Rowin Kistnama,  Nekitsing Shersing, Amishta Sohoraye and Vedar­shen. V.Poinen – from the Univer­sity of Mauritius attended the Na­tional conference in Pondicherry, India on  June 23.

They had the chance of meeting   350 members belonging to 15 different cities in India through various sessions and workshops in June. “Handling the expansion in Mauritius is also a tremendous entrepreneurial and learning experience for both AIESEC India and our global members” Lavanya adds.

She further points out that  the Mauritian branch will address some of the important challenges wherein the youth  have a vital role to play.

“Our first priority will be addressing issues like HIV-AIDS, environmental challenges and entrepreneurial developments,” Lavanya says. For this year, this local team will be guided and monitored  by the international members, Lavanya, Jessica Jug­ga­nadum from France and  another one from Russia.

Lavanya says that “next year Mauritius will have its own National team to carry forward the task of the leadership and we will also have a National Con­ference in the month of Sep­tember.”

Leaders in the making
AIESEC Mauritius basically provides its members with an integrated development experience comprising of leadership opportunities, international internships and participation in a global learning environment. Vedar­shen V. Poinen, a member, says: “We have as of now facilitated two international internships, five international conferences exposure, 4 global learning environment and leadership opportunities to our members.”

Presently, it has 25 members from different departments of the University of Mauritius and the second recruitment will start in mid September at  the UOM Campus.
Any university student is welcome to join the organization for leadership and conference opportunities. For international internship opportunities, candidates should  be undergraduate less than 30 yrs old.

Vedarshen says : “Our objective in  Mauritius is to make AIESEC the first choice among young people to activate leadership and facilitate international exposure through exchanges and conferences.

It is necessary as we Mauritian students who have a real problem in having access to platforms that provide us with practical soft and hard skills in management and leadership.”

“AIESEC is the world's largest youth run organisation and Mauri­tian students definitely need platforms like AIESEC to help them discover and develop their potential,” he adds.

No easy task
However, the task was not easy for the new members. The main difficulty faced to set up AIESEC in Mauritius was selling the new NGO concept of AIESEC to young people and to stakeholders such as companies, NGOs etc, the members say.

“We spent much time on information about AIESEC as NGO. First, our task would be  to place  the organisational structure of the first local committee of AIESEC in Mauritius, prior to starting the recruitment process for the second batch of members,” Vedarshen says.

Jonathan Ditjacques has joined the organisation two months back but has something to share.

He says: “ Working on communications and external relations of AIESEC has  helped us in building knowledge, discovering and deve­loping hidden potential. I truly be­lieve that AIESEC is a great opportunity for the youth to really develop and master their potential so as to be high performers in the world of work onwards and become chan­ge agents, so as to have a positive impact on our modern so­ciety. I can see that attitudes towards certain issues and my own way of doing have changed sen­sibly in a positive way. I am ready to be an active member of such an organisation that  opens up new horizons for youngsters,” Dit­jacques adds.