SUDANESE YOUTH DELEGATE IN ÅLESUND (Norway)

Møre og Romsdal Red Cross Annual Meeting,

2010-04-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

The Annual District Metting Banner Hanging Above The Entry To Union Hotel In Geiranger

This has so far been the biggest Red Cross happening that i have attended so far in the District of Møre og Romsdal in Norway. 125 people gathered all over the district and in some parts of Norway as well, it include various Red Cross groups i.e. Red Cross Youths, Red Cross Rescue Team, The Visiting group (Besøkstjenste) staffs of Red Cross, this Gathering took place from 16 - 18 of April.

Benedicte Olsen taking a session with Red Cross youths on saturday 16th morning.

The date was 17th april 2010 of saturday morning at 09:30am when we started the long awaited district meeting, participants were divided according to their status in the Red Cross Red Crescent movement as I have meantioned above, after

The youth taking attending sessions about International Humaniterian Law (IHL). While on the other side the hjelpkorps where also busy discussing issues at hand, (see picture below).

Arne Fausa, leder D-råd Hjepkorps(District leader for Rescue Team)

Being a Red Cross members is really good in one's life u get chances to meet new people with new ideas and views too and so much fun associating with the youths during course, weekend gatherings and so forth.

From left top to below Red Cross youths refreshing with games and cup of tea and coffee, down:- Irene, Terry, Turunn and a Rescue team member.

After Tea Break, all the participants had to all gather in the same conference Room for the Big event of the weekend that is the Annual meeting discussing issues concerning the future of Red Cross, successes during the year and progress in Haiti and other main issues as well.

Participants attending the Annual meeting in the conference room.

I and my co-delegate having a presentation about what we have done in the district during our 8months period so far.

THE SECRETARY GENERAL FOR NORWEGIAN RED CROSS, BØRGE BRENDE (left and Down-left) THE DISTRICT OFFICE, MANAGER, TORE NEDREGÅRD.
I have two more blogs coming up soon about the nature of the place and the Annual meeting dinner, so keep watching on this page.
But before you log this page off i would like to ask you some question.
ARE YOU A MEMBER OF RED CROSS?
IF NOT, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT?
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE WORK RED CROSS, RED CRESCENT IS DOING FOR THE WORLD?

The Role Play "På Flukt"

2010-04-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

On the weekend of 26th - 28th Red Cross youths from parts on Norway gathered together in Molde in Møre og Romsdal District to participate in the 24th hours role play “På Flukt”
We arrived in Molde around 6pm (18:00) on Friday with the Role play instructors - the participants were to come the following day since the role play started at 12:00pm on Saturday, 27th march.

Friday night the instructors sat on round table planning the game and giving out roles to each instructor which has to be kept secret from the participants.

As the participants arrived they were introduced to a short movie clip of the political background from the country of the participants origin, for instance Somalia in this case.

The participants were divided into various families with passports. They had to remember all members in the family with all their given names. The game started at 12pm Saturday 27th and ended on Sunday 28th at 12pm, with 20 instructors and eight families.

The main point of this role play is to make the youth in Norway feel what refugees all over the world feel and experience, in a life with hard struggles like no food, clothing, clean drinking water and a long distance travelling to safer zones.

In the role play little boiled rice were given to the participants once, around 1am
That is a practical knowledge about the refugee life that you are not taught in class.
You role plays the experience and feel deep inside you how it is to live 24 hours walking long distances with a heavy bag pack.

After 24hours in the play,the participants finally were be given some food to eat. As they eat the instructors were allowed to sit with them and share what they experienced in these 24hours and how the instructors acted upon them.

I and my co-delegate had 10mins of introduction of what we do here in Norway as youth delegates.

The instructors during the weekend role play. 26th - 28th March 2010.
Finally but not the least, thanks to Matilde and the crew for arranging such a wonderful Role play (På flukt) - let us join hands together as we continue fighting for this world to be a better place. :)

Kevin Klæboe Larsen and Matiilde Etholm
The Role play had been so stressing and there were too many responsibilities to handle, but all in all it went well and turned out to be a successful Role play!!!

FUND RAISING FOR HAITI VICTIMS

2010-02-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Haitain woman emergies from rubbleOn january 12 a 7.0 magnitude the largest ever recorded earthquake struck carribean nation Haiti, it hit 14 miles just from the capital city.The Haitian president and his wife escaped with injuries but dozens of people have been killed and some being burried under falling buildings. its a very devastating event and basically so many buildings in the carribean haiti is poorly built and major buildings callapsed.

After the Haiti earthquake, witnesses described "general mayhem" in the impoverished Caribbean city, which has no electricity, phone service, or passable roads, This has left hundreds of thousands of people home less, many have been killed, thousand seriously wounded and some are minor injuries. people are left with no choice other thansleeping on streets and safe places.

Thousands of Haitian sleeps on streets

As the dust settles following the Haiti earthquake, experts expect "catastrophic" damage and loss of life, A third of Haiti's nine million people may need emergency aid, according to the International Red Cross.

WHAT DOES RED CROSS RED CROSSYOUTH'S DO FOR HAITI?

Ålesund Red Cross youth organised Stands to raise fund to support the victims of the earthquake, we had three different stands and raised about 30 thousand Norwegian kroner which will go to Haiti.

Though the Ålesund Red Cross Youth is still new we were so happy that we did our best to go out to people living in Ålesund and their willingness to help Haiti is very greatful and we shall always stand as one body to make the world a better place.
we also had interview from local media about our activities and talked more about Haiti and how desparate help is needed in Haiti.

The youth are fighting to make the world a better place for living and this will be achieved through struggle and commitment of the youth. We are the future leaders.

Red Cross is using the fund raised in helping Haitian providing immediate issues such as food and medications.

Norwegian Red cross doctor along side Canadian doctors

Ladies and gentlemen thanks once again for reading about Haiti and Red Cross work in Haiti.

My next blog is going to be about how we recruite youths in to the Red Cross youth organisation.

Marking the world HIV/AIDS in Ålesund (Norway)

2009-12-29T06:21:00.000-08:00

as the world is marking this day 1st of december world wide we in Ålesund also had a stand at Moa shopping mall which started from 4pm to 7pm.

we started by matcing from Møre Romsdal Red Cross office 200metres walk with fakler fire burning to Moa shopping mall where we had our stand.

We as the youths in Ålesund chose to dedicate all our efforts organising for this day, we believe that working as one body with one spirit gives out better result.

Though the Ålesund Red Cross youths is two weeks old now since we formed it, they showed good participation and had strong spirit of work which beautified this day and our stand in general was perfect,

We had christmas tree as a stand being decorated with red ribon by people who were coming in to the shopping mall.

we would have decorated the x-mas tree our selves but we thought that it could be good for people to participate in this by hunging red ribon on the tree and makes them know what the red ribon simplefies.

I was so curious from the start of the program but as it continued i get loving it becuase there was positive response from people who where going to shop and they were our prey as we catch them right from the entrance

we had both the old and young people coming for te program this is to show that no matter how old you are, old, young you can still get HIV/AIDS

Before December I had also called Norwegain Church Aid ( NCA) to find out if they will have a stand? Its always good to have pertnership with other Organizations and we had stand at the same point with Norwegian Church Aid in conjunction with Change makers(youth groups under Norwegian Church Aid)

Believe me I loved it, they were so good we shared views and ideas as we were working and not forgetting fun too, becuase in Red Cross Red Crescent we always have to have fun to easy our work load.

Always have a goal and target and surely you will reach it,they say one is better than nothing and we did recruitted one new member in to the family of Ålesund Red Cross youth which was one of our forcus during the stand.relaxing the body with Pizza is always good to get freshen up. i feel that this is my family. what else can someone think of when you have great people around you and you are far from your family?..... WELL FIND OUT THE ANSWER IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF MY ESCAPADES IN NORWAY...

October weekend course with red cross youths and rescue team and red cross volunteers

2009-11-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome you again.....for this wonderful experience i had during the last weekend of october at Radisson hotel in Ålesund......

Its was clocking to 5pm when we reached the hotel, it has beautiful rooms and good ambiance. we were treated with love and respect, i was excitted from the warm reception that we got...

We started saturday morning with breakfast from 7am to 10am and the program started at 11am.. The course comprised of 3 different red cross groups, RED CROSS YOUTHS, RED CROSS RESCUE TEAM & RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS.

I and my co-delegate Ahmed had a presentaion at 11am about sudan and the challenges faced here in Norway during our stay...which includes (very cold weather, food, language and mingling with norwegian communities-the norwegians are closed to them selves).

Mrs Bitten linge nominated Mr Nils christie as the volunteer of the

district and thanked him forhis hard wrok.

being in red cross is as well as having great fun and its all about sharing and one family...we call it children of HENRY DONUT'

The red cross youths, posting for a group picture after the last day of the course

During dinnar time we had a wonderful show from this groups (down pic) and the picture up in the middle is a poster

sunday was the last day for the course and i had discussion with the youths on how to participate in t celebration of world HIV/AIDS day 1st of december 2009.

KEEP YOUR SELF FORCUSED ON THIS SITE AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RED CROSS YOUTHS AND BEING AS AYOUTH DELEGATE ABROAD WITH RED CROSS....... I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST OF LUCK.......

BYEEE........

TIME FOR NYNORSK AND BOKMÅL....come and ride with me!!!

2009-10-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

I was so eager to start my Norwegian language classes, being in Norway means I have to speak the language to easy my work and while on stay in Norway. there are two (2) written languages the Nynorsk and Bokmål all are very interesting.

Though there are some Norwegian words which are related to english never think that the pronounsation will be the same its qiut different to pronounce and the language has this funny letters that you can write but you can not pronounce them when speaking for example letter (å,æ,ø,j,y...the list continues)..

I am in a class of very wonderful, intelligent and beautiful young people from different countries like Brazil, Chile, Bulgeria, England, Spain, Philipines, Denmark Sudan and so on.....

It really feels so good sharing different cultures and experiences in Norway and at home countries with this wonderful people.......

One of my friends in the class called Amy adviced me to read children books to make it more easier to learn Norwegian language and its working with me now.....more interesting is learning the slangs like (Hva skjera..which means wats up.....). it just gives me the love for the language.

On the left... is my teacher Christine,she is very nice, kind and so charming teacher and i love the way she teachers us in the four hours lecture..........she gives us pratical tests during the four hours which makes learning more interesting and easier to know what one has not understood during the lectures............... She drivessome one in to the moods of learning the language when she tells us that its easy though its not with the pronunciations.......

Remember I told you before that the class comprises of very intelligent and beautiful young people, i think you can agree with me thats true...

I just love the way people socialise themselves in the class, it takes away the lonelines that i feel inside me. They are like my family and i always long for wednesdays to come so that i get to see every body with new Norwegan words, its realy impressive with this youths....

Being happy makes the brain become fresh

my co-delegate Ahmed working out the practicle tests
background every body is bust trying to forcus!!!

Beautiful girls with smart brain

The love to Work as youth delegate in Norway

2009-09-25T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend i and my co-delegate were invitted to join the local youth groups (Øsrta & Volda) and had a very beautiful welcoming party, not forgetting we celebrated Idd Mubaraka...after a long fasting days for my co-dalegate Ahmed Zakaria......

The first day when we reached we had presentations about our own country Sudan
and the work of the national society sudanese red crescent society and the youth structure in sudan.

it was a wonderful presentation from both the local groups too and we were very happy to learn someything about the youth groups here in Møre og Romsdal and thier work as red cross youth........

After all the days schedule we had a wonderful dinnar at the venue red cross building in Øsrta, it was incredible becuase it was the last day for my co-delegate Ahmed Zakaria to be fasting after one full month of fasting..........he was extremly happy to break fasting for the last day

I made jokes about my co-delegate telling him " NO MORE HUNGER STRIKE..."

After a woderful delicious dinnar, Astrid Lindvik drove us for Bowling game with all other youths, you can't imagine its my second week to be Volda and meeting the youths, having great fun with them and all are very nice and lovely people we shared alot on our way to the bowling building.

It was funny when we entered inside i had to change my shoe and put on bowling shoe, it was really really funny for me and i had to do that becuase it was my first time to go bowling and even entering bowling room.

Well the game kicked of imediately of which we were four in our group I, Ahmed, Ingvild and Espen......Guess what??????????

Though iwas my first time playing the game i became a genius after bad start which means " A BAD START MAKES A GOOD ENDING" I had to make mydream come true, becuase one of my goals during the youth basic training course was to learn new games and i think iam doing that.....whereby i won all the two games we played that night....iam really very happy for being the winner. Believe me we really had good and nice time while with the youths in Volda................................................

The following day (sunday) was short for I and Ahmed, we loved to stay long but on the other hand we were looking forward to going back to åslesund our home. Becuase there is HOME IS SWEET HOME....

HAR DET BRA

WEEK END COMPETETION IN VOLDA

2009-09-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Finally , we are in the right place and this is what we have been longing for. you can see iam having real good time in Volda with red cross youth. Volda is 45mins drive from our district of host Ålesund and the youth leader in Volda invitted us to Volda over the week and and we joined them in a competetion called "violent struggle".

The red cross youth in volda are very good and lovely and they showed us humanity and togetherness in the family of HENRY DONUNT which was very much pleasing whereby me and my

co-delegate are looking forward to partnership with them and do our best.
its really good seeing Volda youth very young and active the age is between 13-17 which gave me some impressions about their courageness and braveness to offer their rights and duties. it was a wonderful competition and the video footage shows the matching of the particpants to the centre point.

I and my co-delegate was a guide during the competition, we had to make sure that contestants had life jacket and well dress and ready for the game.

The gane involved carrying a person with a wheelbarrow, canoeing and then the finish line.

This just gave me a brief idea of how youth in Volda carry out thier activities and iam looking forward in working hard to creat a strong youth group in Ålesund.

please i would like you to know that Ålesund is avery beaytiful district with alot of nature and wonderful people and experience people in the society also. I LOVE THE PLACE.
"....REMEMBER BEING IN RED CROSS RED CRESCENT IS HAVING FUN......"

sending in my application as youth delegate

2009-09-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

It all started as some thing funny and unreal..........but i started to believe that this is not what i thought its like dream and on world Aids day i recieved a call and the caller told me that iam asked to come for an interwiev the following day 2nd of december 2008...........