INTERNATIONAL PEN FRIENDS (IPF) - UNITED KINGDOM
ABOUT US
IPF aims to keep the art of letter writing alive and to use it to enhance worldwide friendship and understanding. At IPF, We also encourage members to combine email and other forms of communication with their letter writing, where possible. However, many members say how much fun they have sending and receiving letters in the mail.
History
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International Pen Friends (IPF) was founded by Neil O'Donnell from Dublin , Ireland in April, 1967. Inspired by his experiences as a young child growing up during World War II, his vision was to give people in all age groups, from every country, the opportunity to gain penfriends and promote world peace and understanding through sincere correspondence. From these humble beginnings in a shoe box, IPF has grown to be regarded as the world's greatest penfriend club, providing more than 1.5 million people aged from 8 to 80+ years with penfriends - offering services in six different languages. IPF's success was achieved long before the Internet became popular, and has continued in a technologically advanced society. This reflects the continuing popularity of IPF, and the high quality of the service it provides. |
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Developments
Neil faced a number of difficulties during IPF's early days. For example, during a postal and telecommunications strike in Southern Ireland lasting five months, during the 1980s, Neil drove each week from Dublin to Belfast to post and collect the mail, with the help of another IPF representative. His determination was extreme, given the danger of such a journey due to the unrest in Northern Ireland at the time. IPF has also had to overcome many political and economic challenges to gain members in certain countries. During the 1980s and early 1990s, IPF provided a free penfriend service to over 40,000 people in Eastern Europe, giving those people the opportunity to experience the benefits of global friendship, an opportunity they otherwise would not have been able to enjoy. Today, IPF continues to provide many free and heavily subsidised memberships to people in countries facing severe economic hardship. The enthusiasm and commitment of IPF representatives has also ensured IPF's continued growth and success. |
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The IPF team in Ireland before the Head Office relocated to Australia. From left: Heather, Pat, Neil, Julie and Elsie.
Neil continued his great and tireless work for IPF until January, 2001when he retired. However, his deepest wish was for IPF to continue and in February 2001 Julie Delbridge, the former IPF representative and Australian Coordinator since 1990, took over the role of President and relocated IPF´s Head Office to Australia.
Sadly, Neil died in August 2007, aged 75. He has been a great inspiration to us all, and is greatly missed. Neil lived up to the ethos that he would quote from Stephen Grellet:
'I shall pass thru' this world but once. Any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show any human being, let me do it now and not defer it. For I shall not pass this way again.' |
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New Initiatives
Since moving to Australia, Julie and the IPF Head Office team and worldwide representatives have worked on various initiatives to continue IPF´s growth and success. These have included the re-launch of IPF´s magazine People & Places into a dynamic full-colour publication, the publication of a booklet on letter writing and penfriend hints and the development of a new state of the art computer database. The new database provides many enhanced features for all members, and has given IPF the opportunity to greatly expand its School Class Service .
International Pen Friends looks forward to providing an ever-increasing number of people worldwide with the opportunity to enhance their life through the countless dimensions of the penfriend hobby.
Enrich your life by joining thousands of others who have already discovered the world with us? Apply now!
Most of IPF's representatives originally joined IPF as members and have been inspired by their own experiences of writing to penfriends. For eaxample, Ming-Jiing from Taiwan joined IPF 30 years ago and has now recruited over 25,000 members. Pamela Walker, UK and Nikola Hahn, Germany , have similar experiences. Martine Darroux, France; Lorrin Lee, Hawaii, USA; Petr Ondrousek, Czech Republic; Joina Moura de Almeida, Brazil and Lionel Mutua, Kenya are other representatives with outstanding achievements.
The work of all IPF's representatives helps ensure that the widest possible country choice for penfriends is available to everyone who joins IPF.
International Penfriends (IPF) has its head office in Australia, and has no connection with the American organisation, World Cultural Foundation.
