Kragerø Red Cross Youth invited us to help them improve their local youth branch from our experiences, not only as Rwanda Red Cross Youth volunteers, but also as youth delegates in Norway. Tuesday 26th February 2009, was the day we went there. Geir, the local branch leader sent his wife to drive us there. Hardly did we know her, but we interacted like we had been friends for so long as she drove her way through the snow.

The snow filled up the road, and we could not help but think what a beautiful place it must be in the summer.  We arrived there after one hour on the road. Wow! At our arrival, we found 15 youths present. To our surprise, they had mobilized 4 Rwandese from around and across Kragerø to be a part of the meeting. Being  a new  youth section, they need motivation, support, and experiences from other youths to improve their branch. This recycled through our minds we thought.

They waited anxiously to see what we had brought them. And off we started with an Ice breaker (putting a bottle in the middle facing one person , and then rotating it randomly until it stops facing someone and then telling  the person opposite to him/her to do something he/she wants etc). Just a good motivation to start the session and warm up participants… It was.

Rwanda Red Cross was created in 1962. Since then, passing by the critical period of the genocide in 1994, up to now, Rwanda Red Cross aims for a society where human suffering is alleviated and promotes the respect of life without any kind of discrimination, by mobilizing and supporting the communities, especially vulnerable communities. Rwanda Red Cross Youth works under the Organisational Development Department. Youths are involved in many activities (first aid, disaster management, HIV/AIDS fight and prevention, etc.).

This was some of the information we gave them:

“How many youths do you have in Rwanda Red Cross?” asked one of the participants. I answered: “from the statistics of last year, the whole number of volunteers was 33056, the half is the youth (spread all over the country)”.

“What do you do to keep them active?” asked another. We answered that we organize them in groups according to their sections and occupy them by activities.

There was a pause before we finalized, and what was called a pause turned out to be a question and answer period. They asked us lots of questions. Like how we came here, what we thought before coming and how we feel. We answered them and continued with the program.

At the end, we encouraged them to work hard to get new members through announcements and to take interest in the youth activities, and following the guidelines. We also encouraged them to become active in all the activities in order to improve their group and become the best in Telemark and above all to gain experience which they can later use to apply for the youth delegate’s post.

We would like to thank Kragerø Red Cross Youth and Geir the local branch leader He really played a big role for us to be invited.