Nobel Peace Prize 2015

2018-10-16T09:32:53+01:00December 15th, 2015|

Inside the HallFor twenty years our college has attend the world`s most prestigious award ceremony in Oslo City Hall on the 10th of December. Unfortunately for the selected RCN ambassadors this year (Narender (India), Anna (Finland), Karma (Tibet), Maja (Poland), Maria (Colombia) and Abdul (Syria/Sweden) the school seats this year were overbooked. However, that did not prevent Karma and Anna from wearing their national customs.

This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian national dialogue quartet to their contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia. The Tunisian national dialogue quartet is a coalition of civil society groups that came together in the summer of 2013 when Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring, was at a crossroads between democracy and violence. The quartet comprises the following organizations in Tunisian civil society:Abdul with one of the prize winners

  • The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT).
  • The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA).
  • The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH).
  • The Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

Although not being able to attend the ceremony as such, a couple of our delegates had an exciting opportunity to attend the press conference and meet the winners in person. They also had a short conversation about the transition towards democracy in the Middle East with Abdessattar Bin Moussa, the President of the Tunisian Human Rights League.

The winners talked about the importance of the education among people, the effectiveness of tolerance among civil society representatives, the consequence of economic and living conditions and most important their role in promoting peace in Tunisia. It was interesting to follow their perspectives on the Jasmine revolution of 2011 and how they will manage to keep promoting peace in the future.

Written by Abdul Abo Shokur

 

To our local supporters

2018-10-16T09:32:54+01:00December 11th, 2015|

Dear Host Family / local supporter,

As you know each year, the College puts together a Winter Break Programme for 25 students who are unable to go home due to financial reasons or political instability in their home countries.

It is very important to us that we put together a programme which is stimulating and supportive – and compensates for the fact that they are unable to return to their families as the other students do after a busy and challenging term at UWC. This year, we have planned a programme after the end of term – from the 9th to 23rd December – which includes a visit to Oslo and Lillehammer and a stay at the Red Cross Cabin at Langeland.

The students will be based on campus from the 23rd December to 11th January (when term resumes). I appreciate that this is a special time for Norwegian families but ask that you consider inviting a student or two for a short visit (a day trip or overnight stay) during this period. This will give the students on our Winter Break Programme an invaluable break from their daily life on campus and an opportunity to meet local people in a friendly and homely setting. In return, our students offer friendship, good company, an introduction to their language(s) and culture(s), a bit of help around the house, a free child-minding service and much much more.

We are hugely appreciative of all the support we receive already and hope that some of you will open your homes in this period to students who are a long way from home.

The students can come individually or in pairs. If you would like to support our Winter Break Programme, please contact Hildegunn on nc12hbar@staff.rcnuwc.no / 5773 7098 – and she will coordinate the logistics.

God Jul –

With best wishes

Richard D A Lamont
Rektor

World Human Rights Day 2015

2018-10-16T09:32:54+01:00December 10th, 2015|

Members of the College Amnesty International group

Members of the College Amnesty International group

Today is World Human Rights Day 2015 – as part of RCN’s commitment to this special day in the annual calendar, some of our students are in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize and last Sunday evening a group of students set up an Amnesty International stall on campus:

Magnus við Streym (Faroe Islands) reports on the Amnesty event:

Amnesty RCN had a booth in the Safuge Café last Sunday, where locals and students alike could go and write letters to people in need and to their respective governments. The group focused on girls being forced into marriage in Burkina Faso, Waleed Abu al-Khair who is a journalist from Saudi Arabia, and the Burmese protester Phyoe Phyoe Aung. Amnesty managed to gather 60+ letters from the event, and hopefully the letters will help to release these individuals from captivity. We wanted to write to these individuals to show that we care, and that there is still hope and justice for them. Overall, we are very proud to have organized this event, and hopefully it will manage to help people to break their shackles and pave their way to freedom.

A New Partnership

2015-12-07T11:35:28+01:00December 7th, 2015|

We are delighted to announce a new partnership between UWC Red Cross Nordic and 100 LIVES and Near East Foundation.

On Friday 27th November 2015 at the UWC National Committee Regional Middle East North Africa Conference, the 100 Lives Scholarship Programme was announced to the gathered National Committees and other members of the UWC community. UWC Maastricht, UWC Red Cross Nordic and UWC Robert Bosch colleges have been chosen as the first beneficiaries of the scholarship programme for 2016 student entry.

100 LIVES and NEF have launched an eight-year-long educational scholarship programme meant to benefit 100 at-risk children from the Arab Middle East. 100 LIVES and NEF have jointly developed the programme as a way to express gratitude on behalf of the global Armenian community to the people of the Middle East, who offered shelter and food to those displaced by the Armenian Genocide a century ago.

One hundred years later, Armenians are expressing their gratitude to the Arab people and other peoples of the Middle East. Valued at nearly $7 million, the 100 LIVES and Near East Foundation Gratitude Scholarship Program will provide children affected by conflict, displacement and poverty the opportunity to study at UWC’s network of schools and colleges around the world, including in Armenia-based UWC Dilijan.

This is an exciting development in the historical partnership between Norway and Armenia. Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) – famous Norwegian explorer, author, statesman, Nobel Laureate – requested in 1921 in his capacity as High Commissioner for Refugees (appointed by the League of Nations) that the League validated the “Nansen Passport”, which gave the stateless people the right to enter different countries. Thanks to these passports 320,000 Armenians won the right to move freely to their preferred country. Nansen was also responsible for resettling 7,000 people in Armenia in 1925 – refugees who had been displaced during the First World and ill-treated up until 1925 when Nansen drew up and implemented a plan for resettlement.

UWC Red Cross Nordic remains wholeheartedly committed to providing an educations to students affected by conflict, displacement and poverty – and our College is very much looking forward to welcoming in August 2016 its first student selected as part of the partnership between RCN and 100 Lives / Near East Foundation. For further information, please find the announcement of the 100 LIVES and Near East Foundation (NEF) Gratitude Scholarship Programme here.

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