An RCN delegation was invited to attend the opening of UWC Changshu, the first UWC in mainland China – an exciting development. It has been a long journey – starting with the founder (Mark Wang) meeting HM Queen Sonja, our patron, in a Beijing rehabilitation centre in the late 1990s when he was learning to walk again after a plane crash, his selection to attend Red Cross Nordic and the ambition to open a UWC in China. Our College and the Norwegian MFA provided support and funding for the initial stage of the project.

Svein Ole Sæther, the Norwegian Ambassador to China, kindly joined our Norwegian delegation for the event. Mark Wang spoke very generously in the opening ceremony about HM Queen Sonja’s engagement with UWC and his own experiences as a student at RCN. It is certainly a tremendous achievement to open a UWC in mainland China with our values-based educational model at the heart of it.

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.

Today is the official day set aside in Norway for the 150th anniversary of the Norwegian Red Cross – students on campus have designed a special programme as part of our College’s contribution to the nationwide activities. It is with great pride that our students and staff have observed the Norwegian Red Cross taking a leading role in supporting those refugees arriving here in Norway. The desperate and haunting images of the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe remind us on a daily basis of the need for international and intercultural understanding and education for peace.

Gratulerer med dagen, Røde Kors Norge! Vi er stolte over samarbeidet med dere!

De beste hilsener fra RCN

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.