2020 has come to an end but not without celebrating SEP 30 years of existence. The big celebration we had in mind could not happen because of Covid-19 that changed 2020 so drastically. But it could not stop us from celebrating and looking back at 30 years of work. We had a 30 days countdown on social media. 30 members, ex members, intern members, and colleagues wrote what SEP has meant to them in their professional life. Below you can see some examples, visit our Facebook page to see more!
In the meantime a lot of efforts were made to organise the event: designing a celebration logo and invitation, inviting people, editing video clips, buying and trying out technical gadgets, selecting pictures, preparing a history presentation, a slideshow, a dance routine…… And then the 30th day was reached… and the Zoom celebration happened.
It was so exciting to see different faces on our big screen from ex members all over the world, members, friends, relatives… while a slideshow with happy faces of children we work(ed) with was shown. There were so many happy faces everywhere as people were greeting each other, some we had not seen for many years!
The room was set up with cameras, screens and microphones and felt like a real studio. The camera switched from the DJ table to the place of presentations or to the shared screen, an amazing set up. And lucky we were… no power cuts, no internet disruptions so everything went smoothly.
The participants were welcomed form the different representatives of all professions part of SEP. Dennis our DJ and Master of ceremony took us through the different stages of the celebration. After the presentation on the SEP history, we watched some testimonies from people who have been part of SEP in one way or another. We heard members, ex members, beneficiaries, and friends. There was then a short music break before we moved on to the slideshow with many pictures about the projects, the Wezesha programme, the SEP people and the events SEP has organized. This was followed by more video testimonies and the dance routine that we repeated and it was great to see people joining on the screen wherever they were in their rooms…. The music got them up and moving! We had a cake cutting… a beautiful cake with the SEP 30yrs logo on it and the team had a piece while our audience had to eat virtually.
We finished the celebration with a vote of thanks and lots of waving hands on the screen. We thank everybody who took time to celebrate with us, it was encouraging to have your support! We thank all the staff for their dedication to this 30yrs celebration, in particular the organising team who worked hours and hours to make this event a success.
We are busy making a short recap of the event. We will post the video here shortly!
