In December 2013, after months of planning and anticipation, eight SA members finally gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, at the intersection of Europe and Asia, in the shadow of St. Sophia Cathedral and the Blue Mosque. Four more unlikely countries coming together would have been hard to imagine—we were three from Russia, two from Iran, two from the UK, and one from the US.
The first SA/S-Anon New Zealand Conference was held on November 9, 2013 in Auckland. Attendees came from the New Zealand cities of Christchurch, Auckland, and Napier, plus some members from “across the ditch” in Australia. A good 24 people were present with equal numbers of SA and S-Anon members.
I just returned from the Russian-speaking Convention held in Moscow on November 22-24. What a great experience!
EMER held its first Regional Convention in Warsaw, Poland last October 25-27, with great results! We had approximately 152 participants, including 125 SA members (116 men and nine women) and 27 members of S-Anon. Of these, 117 participants were from Poland and 35 from other places in the world.
Dear SA Fellowship: I am an SA woman living in Iran. The typical Iranian, it seems, has great difficulty understanding lust addiction and believing in SA’s program of recovery, and this can be even more difficult for women.
Last year I discovered just how generous our members can be when they see a real need. At the tender age of 50—for the first time in my life—I decided to try to raise money for a cause. As a Russian speaker, I was excited to attend the first-ever Russian-speaking SA Convention in Moscow in 2011.
I came to my first SA meeting while living in Tokyo back in 2002. Soon after, I moved back to the US, where I was in and out of SA for a few years. When I was relocated back to Tokyo in 2008, I was out of control again. I returned to the space where we used to meet, but no one was there. I was told the meeting had died off a few years earlier.
The Europe & Middle-East Region (EMER) combines the former UK and Ireland Region with Intergroups in Israel. EMER comprises seven Intergroups: Belgium (Flanders), Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and UK. It includes 120 SA Groups and 530 members. We are also building strong fraternal links with the German-Speaking Region and with the Iran Intergroup.
¡Hola amigos! Jim D. here—“Jaime” to those of you who speak Spanish. I’ve recently joined SA’s International Committee, to help coordinate outreach efforts in the Spanish-speaking world.
I just returned from visiting a loner who lives in Slovenia. This man has 21 years of SA sobriety, but because of the nature of his profession, he has been unable to attend meetings—although we did have two meetings whilst I was visiting there. This member subscribes to ESSAY, and for many years he participated in a letter-writing circle within our fellowship.
