Celebrating the World Aids Day

The 1st of December is a very special day world over, people from all over the world unite to make their voices heard against HIV/AIDS. According the USAID official website, about 32 million people have died from aids since the beginning of the pandemic; about 5,500 people die every day because of hiv/aids. Approximately 95% of people living with hiv/aids live in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most hit, and currently eastern Europe and central Asia have the highest hiv/aids growing epidemic rates in the world. It is also important to note that about half of all adult HIV infections occur among 15-24 year olds.

  Ribon used for World Aids Day

World Aids day campaign in Akershus district

The theme for this year's world aids day was "universal access and human rights" so together with volunteers from akershus we organized for a stand at the lillestrøm train station on the 1st of December. Here we gave out condoms packed in Rode kørs packs, brochures and about Hiv/ aids, did condom demonstrations, and talked to many people as possible about this pandemic. We also gave out cookies, and served a warm drink to every body that visited our stand.

 

         serving cookies and condoms..fify and i


We also visited sandvika high school in bærum where we talked to the students about hiv/aids, made condom demonstrations, and answered so many questions from these inquisitive students. Many of them were astonished by the how serious the hiv/ aids scourge has destroyed the world, and we managed to get 4 new volunteers willing to join the Red Cross Youth in order to help educate fellow youths through active choice.

 

                 together with Rita at the stand

Quick facts about hiv/aids in Rwanda

• population by 2008 9,900,000

• people living with hiv/aids, 2007 150,000

• women(aged 15+) with hiv/aids, 2007 78,000

• Adult HIV prevalence(%),2007 2.8

• AIDS deaths, 2007 7,800

    photo of people celebrating world Aids day

This year, the widely spread gospel on world aids day in Rwanda was to advice people to use condoms, and not to be afraid to buy or talk about condoms and sexual health. Usually the youth volunteers are involved in talking to other young people about hiv and aids in schools, and also getting involved in public campaigns that are organized on this day. Given the fact that 70% of Rwanda’s population is made up of youths and women, I hope the youths can go a long way in fighting this scourge not only in Rwanda or Africa but around the world!

Youth delegate a.k.a Rwandese ambassador to Norway!!

Last week my co-delegate and i had a presentation at our work place in kjeller. It was attended by the district employees at the office and members of the district board.

Hans Martin & other employees can't wait

It was a very interesting presentation as we presented how the rwanda red cross youth functions, and also made a presentation about rwanda as a country and we got so many interesting questions as many people were interested in finding out more about this small country that is widely known for it's horrific history.

Fify(co-delegate) together with Naomi making food

We later served a sumptuos rwandese buffet and not only did this presentation make me a little home sick but it also made me realise that i should campaign to be appointed as the rwandese ambassador to norway because i am literally doing an ambassador's job!

 Employees enjoying rwandese food

The district employees clearly enjoyed the rwandese food and the presentation and asked us to organise more presentations like this with in our district in order to enlighten people about our country Rwanda and how far it has come.

Presentation time(Fify and i)

Thank you so much everybody that honoured our invitation. We really appreciated your presence.

saying bye to october actively!!!

On friday 31st of october, we were invited to participate in an active choice instructor's course in oslo. It was really nice to be back at haralsheim hostel because it brought back a lot of good memories that i shared with the other youth delegates.

Youths playing with dildos at the seminar

 The seminar also had IHL(international humanitarian law) and rules of war instructor's course. It was well attended with over 3o youths showing up. It was very informative, and we got to interact and learn from these really active and vibrant youths.

taking a break from the intensive presentations

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end so after everybody was now officially either an active choice or IHL instructor, what better way to crown it all up than partying....huh?? so we had a small farewell party on saturday and left sunday after noon....

save the last dance...before we left for home

I am pretty sure that wherever these youths will go, they will positively influence their peers  because they got all the potential and skills that they need. Thanks guys and it was a pleasure to meet you all at the seminar.

Great trek to tromsø

Last week on friday i took a flight to tromsø to attend the Red Cross youth autumn camp. The flight lasted about 2 hours, which is nothing to compared to the almost 20 hrs you would spend by train.

making a snow angel

Before my trip i had heard a lot about the north; like how cold it was, and how they had a lot of snow, and i just couldnot wait to check it out for myself.

together with the sudandese delegates chris & ahmed

The camp for this year focused on human traficking and the ongoing project of supporting the human traficking campaign in Nepal.

Red Cross workers in the role play

I also made a presentation about Rwanda as a country, Red Cross in Rwanda and how the youth volunteers there work.  I also participated in på flukt(on the run role play),which was quite intensive though it lasted for just 6hrs!!

Crossing the border in role play

The volunteers were great, and we had a good time in the cabins because i also got to see the youth delegates from sudan, chris and ahmed after a long time so you can imagine how much we had to chat about!................

Chris(sudanese delegate) & I

Tromsø is absolutely beautiful and like they say" pictures say a thousand words!!"

Work without play makes Kenneth a dull delegate

"Work without play makes john a dull boy" goes the common english saying. This sunday fify and i were invited to Oppegard youth branch for an activity which is dealing with young assylum children.

                                                                  Playing hide & seek

These kids were so cute, young and so full of life! i kept asking vibeke the redcross youth leader if these kids were actually from the assylum because i had a completely diffrent mentality of depressed, sad and worried kids.

          eating pop-corn while watching a movie

We had alot of fun with the kids, played games, ate pop-corn, watched a movie, the list is endless. In the begining it was kind of hard for us to interact with them because they hardly speak any english and you know "jeg snakker litt norsk", but that is also one of the most amazing things about children, the fact that they just want to have fun, and enjoy themselves and dont really care about what language you speak and where you come from.

                                      enjoying the movie

Having fun with these kids on sunday reminded me of that time when each of us was once a child, when you are so innocent, sweet, crazy, and always have some body to take care of you.

                                                                                                                                  play time!!

Wouldn't we all love to re-live those moments just once? kudos to oppegard red cross volunteers for giving these kids an opportunity to just be kids and have a goodtime!!

Old is Gold!!

Last week, on tuesday we had the honour of being invited to the lørenskog red cross branch which was celebrating the 60th anniversary since the inception of the besøkstjenesten activity. The besøkstjenesten activity is basically an activity which involves care for the elderly or "senior citizens" as they are respectfully refered to.

mama Toril making a speech

In this activity, volunteers either go to the homes of the elderly people and have a one to one chat with them by talking to them, visiting them and getting to give them company or the red cross branch can organise activities like trips to the museum and other fun things where the senior citizens living in the homes of the elderly are invited.

senior citizens having  a chat

Just like any other anniversay we had speeches from the branch leaders, a presentation about the activities of the redcross especially in war ravaged areas like afghanistan, congo, sudan, rwanda(after 1994) e.t.c which had some very emotionally moving scenes. We also enjoyed music and lots of cake!! Just before we left, one of the "senior citizens" told me " thank you for coming and now you have witnessed for yourself that elderly people in norway have a good time" and honestly, i couldnot agree more!!

Weekend in the woods!!!

Last weekend really was a splendid one! The youth delegates (fify and i) together with about 13 akershus volunteers headed for a cabin in the thick woods of Kolbotn. We arrived at about 21:00 pm in the night and my first impression of the woods was quite creepy! it was so scary i couldnot stop thinking about all the horror movies i have watched.

Having fun with Martina

 But the next days Saturday and Sunday were beautiful, nice weather, beautiful site of the lake, and we got to Interact with the different volunteers who were really nice people. We exchanged views and made a presentation about Rwanda as a country ¨ and how the youth volunteers work.

On the lake side with other volunteers

We did some first aid training and also got to discuss about some of the activities that we can do together with the different youth volunteer groups. I also celebrated my birthday and had one of the best cakes ever .....

Peace and love with the youths

In a nutshell, it was a weekend well spent!!

One on One with Akershus

Akershus or lillestrøm for that matter is amazing. It is just 10 mins away from Oslo by train and it is so beautiful, and most importantly i think this is the best climate i have experienced in Norway for the past month. I have already settled in and i are looking forward to working with the district office staff who have been very nice, i must say and i can not wait to finally meet the volunteers and get the Red Cross volunteer spirit going!!!