The IYNF team represented by Vanessa, Thomas, Max and Henrique travelled to Amsterdam for an important mission: to dig into the archives of IYNF and to collect interesting records for a publication that marks the 40 year anniversary of the organization. Waiting for us there was a vast amount of dossiers with thousands of old-fashioned documents, reports, magazines and pictures, which didn’t foretell an easy endeavour. However as soon as we opened the first documents we immediately got thrilled, as we knew we were about to make fascinating discoveries.

A significant part of the Young Naturefriends history is kept at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), one of the world’s largest research centre in the field. This place gives shelter to countless publications of socialist, anarchist and activist organizations as well as famous authors like Marx, Engels or Rosa Luxemburg. More modest but still impressive, the records of IYNF occupy almost two entire shelves – in total 9 metres of dusty materials, clearly untouched for several years. We couldn’t believe that the first years of IYNF, including the original statutes, main struggles, visionary projects and old publications were just in front of our eyes; together with records of curious partnerships and unexpected journeys! After an entire day of exhaustive research we left the place with a big smile and the feeling that an important part of the job was done. Not so fast though…

On the next day we headed to a different part of Amsterdam with many questions on our minds. At the office of UNITED we were warmly welcomed by Geert Ates, former president of IYNF and some of his colleagues. Before we continued the research and to our delight Geert spoke about the past of IYNF and its connection to the socialist and working class movements, as well as the struggle for fundamental human rights, democratic justice, feminism and intercultural dialogue. As soon as we learned these facts it was possible to correlate the history of the late 20th century with the history of IYNF. Even though the aims have changed, the organization has always been committed to important causes following the evolution of society.

Another very important part of our journey was meeting with Gerard de Jager and Theo Dersjant, who on behalf of NIVON, described how they saw IYNF taking its first steps. In an engaging and funny moment we saw how Gerard and Theo got involved in the Naturefriends movement, what were their main struggles and motivations, how the organization influenced their careers, and what made people get involved in youth work back in the day. Thankfully, Gerard and Theo were extremely patient, answering to endless questions and being able to provide interesting information.

The search for the past of IYNF turned into a very interesting experience. Even though our expectations were initially unclear, we collected many important facts from 40 years of existence of IYNF. We realized that IYNF had different approaches over the last 4 decades, but out front there were always motivated and pragmatic people striving for the best results. We are proud of what we built and excited for what is yet to come.