Volunteerism in seven languages

When the Danish Red Cross Youth arranged the week-long course DRCY Leadership Academy, thirty young men and women from seven countries gathered in the north part of Sealand, Denmark for a week of learning, cultural exchange, and new friendships.

By Kira de Hemmer Jeppesen, April 2011.

DRCY Leadership Academy educated the participants from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Jordan, Palestine, Serbia, Montenegro, and Denmark in the areas of project development, project management, management of volunteers, negotiation techniques, the principles and values of the Red Cross movement, the rules of war, and advocacy work.

But part of the schedule was also cultural evenings, workshops in dance from Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, and the formation of new friendships across nationalities. The following short articles were written as part of the writing workshop of the course. They recount the experiences of the participants during the seven days – stories about volunteering, about learning to write articles, and last but not least, stories about the future.

Seven countries in one night
While oriental music is playing out loud, seven cultures are dancing in a circle on the floor. The Palestinian guys are trying to teach other youth leaders their national dance - Dabke. Though everyone is doing their best you can easily hear that feet are not moving synchronically. In Isterød Højskole, seven cultures are gathered for a leadership course.

Lucki a youth leader from Zimbabwe tells us about the atmosphere on the course:

“We have a very good relationship with eachother. I feel like we are all friends and we already tease each other.”

Lucki loves the cold weather in Denmark, and though it is minus 1 degrees today, he is wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and long stockings. Even though he likes all of the youth leaders, he feels a closer connection to the Serbian girls:

“I like the Serbian girls because they are just like me. They are very talkative and open, and I like to talk a lot”.

Samuel Opio from Uganda feels more connected to the Danes:

“We have had a long partnership with the Danish Red Cross Youth and therefore I have an internal love for Denmark.”

Samuel finds Danes very friendly and open:

“The Danes listen when you speak with them and they are willing to share any experience with you”.

Regarding the relationship of the participants, he is not so positive:

“I think there should have been more interaction between the different cultures - especially because the Jordanians arrived later. I fear they will go home without even knowing my name.”

At the same time, Samuel would also like to share his room with someone from another culture.

As I leave the room, laughter is spreading and everywhere I look I see the smiling faces of the young leaders.

By Anja Brødbæk, Danish Red Cross Youth, february 2011.

Being a volunteer in Africa
There are many different approaches to being a volunteer and many different points of views of what you can learn from it.

Lucki, a youth leader from Zimbabwe, says about being a volunteer.

“One of the advantages of being a volunteer is to see other parts of life. I have learned to be humble by visiting the poor areas in Zimbabwe. They have no electricity or water and live in a very primitive way. They still have a very old African culture and a low moral. My biggest challenges as a volunteer are the assumptions other people have of me. Their first impression of me is usually that I'm very proud of myself and do not want to be seen with poor people. Another challenge is that I am not fluent in Shona, which is the national language of Zimbabwe.”

Samuel Opio from Uganda has a different approach to being a volunteer:

“I find it beneficial because I can develop my capacity through the good training I get from being a volunteer. It is a good start in life for me, because it gives me career opportunities.”

But there is also downside to being a volunteer:

“The challenges of being a volunteer in Uganda come from the community because they undermine me”.

Despite of their differences, both Lucki and Samuel love being volunteers. They both like to help and be close to others.

“It makes me happy,” Lucki adds. They agree that being a volunteer has been a good start in life for both of them.

By Anja Brødbæk, Danish Red Cross Youth, february 2011

A Step Further
Since I was a little boy in high school, the hardest and most boring subject to me was writing articles. But… Marie-Louise, a young volunteer from the Danish Red Cross Youth and member of the Jordan group, was selected to facilitate a session on writing articles, and after an interesting interview with her, I found out, that a simple and exciting article can make a big difference.

We in Jordan Red Crescent have recently started the second phase of our partnership project with Danish Red Cross and Danish Red Cross Youth, which aims to empower youth in Jordan. After finishing phase one with great success, we felt that we had to share the results with our community and also with our donors. Thus we had to take our project one step further, which can be done by different means of media communication, and of course through articles.

Why are articles important? If you want to recruit more volunteers, raise awareness of the local community, collect funds, and advocate your ideas to government officials, you should present your work in suitable way. Writing articles is one good way to do that.

Finding your story, picking a creative title, interviewing the right people and, of course, having access to the right ressources, are the ingredients of a powerful article. So now, at this point of my life, I wish that I paid more attention to my “writing articles” teacher.

By Mohammad Al-Hadid, Jordan Red Crescent, february 2011.

Palestinian youth fighting their way
Palestinian youth lives under hard conditions - under the hard circumstances of war. However, a new sun shines, a sun full of love hope and dreams for the future.

I have met a Palestinian youth from the Palestine Red Crescent - a young volunteer full of hope and desire to help his community and his beloved country. Ma’moun Shram (the Palestinian hope), says:

“I travelled all the way from Palestine to Copenhagen in order to participate in the youth leader workshop to learn something that I can use when I return back home and help my community and my neighbors. Some of the tools I learned were project planning, volunteer management, international humanitarian law and negotiation. Hopefully, when I return back home to Palestine, I will start planning projects and activities that will help my fellow Palestinians.”

By Ala’a Khlouf, Jordan Red Cross, february 2011.

With these words, the Danish Red Cross Youth says thanks for a succesful Spring course, and look forward to another one in the Fall.

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