Thu, 18 Oct 2007

Camphill Village West Coast in South Africa in new sponsorship drive

DASSENBERG, Western Cape (NNA) - Camphill Village West Coast in South Africa will soon be launching new sponsorship drives to raise funds for new young residents who have been at risk in their communities and have suffered from abuse and neglect.

In its September Newsletter, the Camphill community said that since they all had no families that could support them financially and in other ways, Camphill Village had to raise the necessary funds as well as finding caring people who could provide weekend and holiday care.

“This places a heavy burden upon our organization which already carries all the responsibility for the provision of care,” the Newsletter adds. Camphill's work was crucial to help overcome the traumas which the young people had been through.

“If you are interested in befriending and sponsoring one of these young folk, please contact us,” the appeal concludes.

END/nna/cva

Link: (www.camphillwestcoast.org.za)

Item: 071018-02EN Date: 18 October 2007

Copyright 2007 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

Embezzlement charges against General Anthroposophical Society executive council without substance - “Living the Christmas Conference” appeals court decision

DORNACH (NNA) - Swiss prosecutors have dropped their investigation of the executive council of the General Anthroposophical Society (GAS) on charges of misappropriation of funds as being without substance.

The offices of council members at the Goetheanum were raided by police last March and documents and computers removed as the result of complaints in July 2006 by the group “Living the Christmas Conference”.

State prosecutors have now cleared the executive council of having wrongly used GAS funds to cover the costs associated with the so-called constitution process to determine and clarify the legal basis of the society.

The group claimed that the members of the GAS executive council should be held personally liable for costs of over 800,000 Swiss francs arising from legal action taken by “Living the Christmas Conference” with regard to the dispute over the constitution issue.

Prosecutors found that the executive council had acted “in accordance with the properly formed will of the majority of members of the General Anthroposophical Society in having paid the costs of the constitution process from the assets of the General Anthroposophical Society.”

In a separate development, the group “Living the Christmas Conference” has decided to appeal the ruling by the Dorneck-Thierstein district court rejecting the group’s challenge of the legitimacy of the resolutions adopted at the extraordinary general meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in April 2006. One of the issues at the meeting was the court costs associated with the constitution process.

The Dorneck-Thierstein district court also still has to hear separate cases related to the expulsion of the “Living the Christmas Conference” members earlier this year after a conciliation meeting with the GAS executive council, requested by the group before the hearing, did not produce any result.

Goetheanum spokesman Wolfgang Held told NNA that, apart from anything else, the expulsions could not be negotiated on the basis proposed by the group because they were decided in a resolution adopted by the GAS annual general meeting which could not simply be reversed by the executive council.

END/nna/cva

Item: 071018-01EN Date: 18 October 2007

Copyright 2007 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/