Last Saturday, 4th of April, UWC Red Cross Nordic had its first campaign for the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. Under the motto: ‘Less pity, more AWARENESS’, students of the RCN Survivors of Conflict programme and those from countries affected by land mines led different activities to raise awareness about this often ignored issue.

Our main goal was to make people in the College understand that being a victim of a mine does not make anybody different and that we need to be exposed to more information about the problem of mines. Our thoughts were that disabilities reside in each person’s mind and that it is possible to go beyond them, as our fellow students have already proved.

The organizing group decided to hang up  flags of some of the countries affected by mines: Colombia, Western Sahara, Ethiopia, Angola, and some more. They created a wall with information about mines and painted a red X on our hands, which represented awareness of the problem.

Through an art session during brunch, an archery tournament, Colombian dance lessons and even a photoshoot we all showed our commitment to involve the community and educate more people about the dangers of land mines. The support we received from everyone was incredible!

More photos from the day can be seen here.

UWC Atlantic College Alumna Ulrika Bjørkstén yesterday visited the College and showed her prize-winning film ‘Dirty Waters: Discovering the dirty truth about the future of the Baltic Sea’. It provided a great case study about the problems of international co-operation in dealing with environmental issues. The film was well received by the students and the follow-up discussion was lively with good questions and thoughtful comments. The evening was much appreciated by the many students who attended. Thank you, Ulrika.

Extracts from the film are available here.