Our Diploma Coordinator and English/Theatre teacher, Pete Wilson recently spent a week at LAMS school in Faisalabad. The school was established to provide free education for the children of factory workers in Sultan Town. The factories produce rugs and other cotton goods for export, including to Norway. Currently almost 700 children from 3 to 16 years of age are accommodated by the school. There are 29 teachers and staff at the school (see below). From kindergarten upwards, much of the teaching is bilingual in Urdu and English.

Pete visited the school by invitation from Laila Bokhari, a deputy member of RCN’s Board and State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose father was one of the founders of the school in 1996. The school is funded via profits from the factory, donations from private individuals and sponsorship from the likes of the Rotary Club.

Boys must leave the school aged 12 and enroll in other local schools, as the school’s philosophy is to concentrate on girls’ education at the secondary level. Long-held beliefs and cultural traditions have meant that until very recent times, girls’ education in Sultan Town has been a low priority for families. Pete was also able to visit local families to witness at first hand the difference in local living standards that having educated daughters can bring about. Pete’s hosts also organized a visit to COMSAT University, Lahore as well as to Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort.

Pete intends to pay a return visit next year to work with the LAMS teachers on staff and curriculum development and to explore further possible links between our two schools. The students at the school have high expectations of their teachers – as the picture shows!

Queen Sonja (patron of UWC RCN and former Vice President of the Norwegian Red Cross) and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were patrons for this year’s annual Norwegian fund raising event (TV Aksjonen) for the Norwegian Red Cross and their efforts to help victims of war and other conflicts from the following countries: Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Myanmar, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The money also will be used in helping refugees who have come to Norway. 130,502 NOK was collected in Fjaler and RCN will contribute a further 13,065 NOK to the Fjaler fund following an auction and bake sale. Thank you to all students and staff who took on this challenge to raise money for this year’s TV Akjsonen.

On 1 November twenty visitors from Sørbøvåg Mottak joined us for an afternoon of canoeing and hiking. Half the group canoed to Raudbua while the others trekked through glorious mud to reach our destination. After making a fire on the rocky shore, the leirskule staff, who organised the afternoon, made hot chocolate which helped to warm cold hands. On the return journey walkers and canoeists changed places and miraculously, nobody capsized!

Warm thanks to leirskule staff, Outdoor Leaders and others who joined us for the afternoon.

Last week a delegation from RCN attended a conference at our sister college, UWC Adriatic, and then the two day UWC Congress in Trieste.

Our Deputy Rektor, Alistair Robertson, co-led the conference held at UWCAD for education specialists and students from all sixteen colleges. The focus points included discussion on the UWC Educational Model and the education pages of the draft UWC strategic plan – the feedback from staff and students will be passed onto the UWC International Office.

On the same evening, there was an event / opening reception at the main conference centre. 30 RCN alumni had registered for the Congress (with many of them representing National Committees) – we invited them by letter to join the RCN delegation at the
opening reception and we thoroughly enjoyed connecting with them.

Sven Mollekleiv, President of the Norwegian Red Cross, delivered an outstanding keynote speech to launch the Congress under the title of ‘Why the World Needs UWC’. He received a standing ovation from over 500 delegates. We could not have hoped for a more relevant and thoughtful start to the event which fully underlines the value of the shared mission we have with the Red Cross..

Later that day, the RCN team ran a 90 minute workshop on the theme of ‘deliberate diversity and inclusion’ in tandem with the Waterford Kamhlaba delegation. Please click here for Rektor Richard Lamont’s introduction to the session. Students Mohammed Swadi Al-Bazoon (Iraq) and Tess Luttikhuis (the Netherlands) made important contributions to the success of this workshop and contributed to a student-led session on the UWC of their dreams on the final afternoon.

The Congress focused on three streams: Education, National Committees and Strategy.

It proved to be a great opportunity for connecting with RCN alumni, our colleagues at other colleges, our partners representing NCs, and many others.

A huge thank you to our Board and Council members who made it to the Congress for their contributions and ongoing support of our College.

And finally, well done to the International Office and UWC Adriatic teams for designing and implementing a superb programme which lasted over a week and included council, congress and the international board meeting.