Stop Human Trafficking Project Week was dedicated to active Human Rights campaigning. We started by studying cases of Human Rights violations in the countries of the participants: Ecuador, Bangladesh, Georgia, Western Sahara, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Niger, Russia, Armenia and Iceland. There were many personal stories and much engaging debate, often finishing with “…but what we can do to stop these violations?

This was not a rhetorical question. We followed up with a workshop offered by the RAFTO foundation in Bergen on “Modern Slavery”. We then turned to campaign preparations making posters and other visual material for the final Action in cooperation with the A21 organisation. We prepared a street action in Førde, the “March for Freedom”, with a flash mob attracting attention on the issue of Human Trafficking. At the happening we read the Declaration of the 21st century Abolishment Movement and shared information about modern slavery.

We gathered over 60 participants and apart from being totally wet due to the torrential rainfall, we managed to spread awareness of the Human Trafficking issue.

Fri-vanns-liv means something like, ‘living free in open water’ – in other words diving in the sea by holding breath (apnea). For this project there were seven of us – six students: Chisato, Pei-Yu, Fabiana, Vicky, Leon, Steinar; and teacher Jelena. Part of the project was that the students were in charge of organising the daily schedule and meals – tasks that they took on with enthusiasm!

On the first day we worked with basic equipment and spent three hours in our swimming pool mastering the necessary apnea diving skills, plus some important theory. On the following day we were welcomed on island of Mjømna by an old friend of RCN, a leader of Norwegian Frivannsliv, Hans Martin Martinussen, who brought with him the diving suits, weights, long fins and other equipment. Everyone was literally soaped into those tight, fancy, camouflage wet suits! The first attempts at diving in seawater were challenging. For safety reasons the students were diving in pairs, connected by a long string and a red buoy. We dove for about three hours each time.

UWC Red Cross Nordic was invited to send two representatives – Larry Lamont as Rektor and Arne Osland as Director of Development – to the Norwegian Red Cross’ Landsmøtet (annual general assembly) 2017 in Haugesund (the 40th anniversary of this event).

Alongside representation from all the Red Cross districts in Norway, the Norwegian Red Cross had also extended an invitation to the Presidents and other representatives of their partner Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies including: Burundi, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Macedonia, Mali, South-Sudan, Sweden, Syria.

Arne Osland and Odd Grann, former General Secretary of the Norwegian Red Cross (instrumental in establishing the partnership between the College and the Red Cross)

Khaled Hboubati of the Syrian Red Cross and Red Crescent gave an opening address to provide an insight into the role of the Red Cross in Syria and to thank the Norwegian Red Cross for its support on the eve of signing a partnership agreement.

Prime Minister, Erna Sølberg, gave a powerful address on the value of volunteering. Margareta Wahlstrøm of the Swedish NC – one of the candidates for the Presidency of the IFRC – gave an insight into the refugee crisis in Europe.

During the course of the assembly, Robert Mood was elected to be the new President of the Norwegian Red Cross. He is the former head of the United Nations’ Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS). He was previously Inspector General of the Norwegian Army and Chief of the United Nations truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).

Our region Sogn og Fjordane was represented by 40 delegates and Mawra Mahmood, the leader of Red Cross Youth and a visitor to RCN last April, was one of the keynote speakers.

The conference was a reminder of the the importance and potential of our College’s partnership with the Red Cross.

(The main photo shows: Sven Mollekleiv (President of Norwegian Red Cross); Åsne Havnelid (former Sec General of Norwegian Red Cross); M. Pamphile Kantabaze (President of Burundi Red Cross); M. Abdourah Mane Cisse (President of Mali Red Cross)