About TEJO

The World Esperanto Youth Organization (TEJO) is an organization of young Esperanto speakers with members and national branches in more than 50 countries. TEJO works with the World Esperanto Organization. Its headquarters is situated in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

TEJO organizes the International Youth Congress, which takes place in a different location around the world each year. Other events organized by TEJO include seminars and training devoted to diverse themes. TEJO publishes the socio-cultural magazine Kontakto as well as the online newsletter TEJO Aktuale. The most widely known of TEJO’s projects is Pasporta Servo: a social network that brings together both Esperantists offering free hospitality at their homes, and those who would like to take advantage of this opportunity. The Organization defends the cultural richness of linguistic diversity, human rights, specifically their linguistic aspect, and worldwide understanding through easily accessible international communication.

Aims

According to its statute TEJO’s aims are:

• To advance the usage of the international language Esperanto
• To contribute to the development of Esperanto culture
• To strive towards the solution to the international language problem and to facilitate international communication
• To facilitate spiritual and material inter-human relations of all kinds, irrespective of nationality, race, gender, religion, politics or language.
• To help our youth have an active role in constructing an inclusive, international, empathetic and rights respecting society.
• To cultivate a strong sense of solidarity between its members, resulting in their understanding of and respect for other peoples.
• To improve the knowledge and organizational capabilities of its activists and instigate their cultural development – to effect the power of youth in the Esperanto movement.

History

TEJO (then known under the abbreviation TJO) was founded in 1938 at the time of the first International Youth Convention (IJK – later, the International Youth Congress), on the initiative of two Dutch teachers: Elisabeth van Veenendaal and her husband, with the aim of popularizing Esperanto, arranging meetings, and promoting the language’s use in schools. Its activity was soon stayed by the Second World War, but then revived in 1945 through the reissuing of magazine La Juna Vivo and an occurrence of IJK in Ipswich, Britain, in 1947. By the beginning of the ‘50s TEJO had transformed into a complete youth organization, and in 1952 it changed its name to its currently recognized form. In 1956 TEJO became the youth section of UEA.