On Tuesday 3rd November, Marianne Andresen kindly hosted a drinks reception at her house in Bygdøy as part of RCN’s 2015 Jubilee celebrations. The hosting team consisted of Marianne, Larry (Rektor), Tove (Chair of RCN’s Board), Arne (Director of Development), Elisabeth (UWC Norge) and three students: Balder (Norway), Bassie (Sierra Leone) and Emma (the Netherlands). Over 50 guests gathered at Smedbraaten for this wonderful occasion – from committed supporters to Oslo-based ambassadors, from representatives of the Storting to fellow educators, from members of UWC Norge and the wider UWC community to our partners in the Norwegian Red Cross. Guests from the Storting included Olemic Thommesen (President of Parliament) and Elisabeth Aspaker (Minister for Nordic Cooperation), Laila Bokhari (State Secretary for Security and Terrorism), Liv Signe Navarsete from the Centre Party. It was a very special evening with a series of short speeches by Tove, Larry, Arne and Elizabeth and a song by Bassie.

Please click to read the speeches from Larry and Arne.

A delegation from RCN attended the ‘Resilience for Real’ Conference in Oslo with over 300 participants from the Red Red Crescent, the UN, European Union, NGOs, universities, research institutions and the private sector. The conference focused on the need for a shift in humanitarian action towards the proactive tackling of risks rather than just reactively responding to crises.

Avis (Red Cross Coordinator), Emma (Red Cross Student Rep) and Balder (Board Rep) represented RCN at the conference and met with key note speakers including Elhadj As Sy, Secretary General of the IFRC, and Hugo Slim, Head of Policy for the ICRC.