Two Red Cross instructors spent two days on campus last week, and as a result, we have an eager group of first-year students with valuable training to do voluntary work.

“UWC Red Cross Nordic has a group of wise, engaged, and friendly youth that give me faith for the future.” That is how instructor Anders Ekeland and Dina Tjelmeland Adeler from the Norwegian Red Cross Youth sum up two hectic days of Red Cross courses on campus in Flekke. All the first-year students got the chance to do the Red Cross Start course last Monday. This is a compulsory course for anyone who wants to volunteer for the Norwegian Red Cross. It provides an introduction to the history, the principles, the organization and basic skills for Red Cross volunteers. A dedicated group of students went further on their volunteering training with the Treffpunkt (Meeting point) course on Tuesday. Treffpunkt is the main activity of Red Cross Youth. Treffpunkt are open and social spare time activities, that are adapted to what youth are missing in their local community.

With having all first years completing the basic Red Cross course, we can proudly say that all form this year group became volunteers of Norwegian Red Cross,  that is an important milestone in the cooperation of the College and our most important partner, the Red Cross!

#The Treffpunkt course gave us tools to host groups of youths with various needs and taught us a lot about what it involves being a volunteer. During the course, we brainstormed ideas for Treffpunkts of various types, and discussed topics from how to approach organization in rural areas to how to deal with crises.” – Felix Klevnäs and Emilia Berndtsson explain. Two of the 19 students who successfully completed the course and now have a Red Cross Treffpunkt diploma in their hand, summed up their experiences:

“The activities should create inclusion, friendships and meaningful experiences for youth, and can be anything from a movie night to a youth club, volleyball or excursions. Treffpunkt are for youth between 13 and 30 years, and organized by volunteers in the same age group. The course is meant to give new volunteers the knowledge, tools and motivation they need to organize activities in Treffpunkt. In the course, you learn more about Treffpunkt, the role as a volunteer, and how you can create safe and inclusive activities for other youth.” – said Felix.

“It felt very positive to learn about an initiative combating loneliness, and we hope we can in the future use our fantastic campus to host a Treffpunkt with the skills we have learned.” – explained Emilia.

“The students were actively taking part in the course. They were good at listening and discussed in groups and in plenary. It was very nice to hear so many points of view and also to experience how the students treated each other with respect” – concluded Dina their experiences at RCN. And we

would like to thank them their visit and see them soon again!