One day Boss

Every year the British Red Cross will give 10 young volunteers the opportunity to take over British Red Cross Headquarters! You will be able to experience first-hand how the British Red Cross operates at the executive level, and gain insight into how the Red Cross effectively delivers its services across the UK and worldwide. This is the official description from the organisation. In the most part they have it right, but they forgot the most important thing: That you will meet people from all over the UK with different background, different stories and full of energy and ideas.

Wednesday… Day One: The TOK challenge started for me after a long drive with crying children on Wednesday evening. At 10 pm I arrived at Kings Cross Station (little HP head heartbreak). Anna-Marie who organised the event and Gary, a fantastic guy and coordinator, also Felix’s mentor, picked us up from the station. Together we went first to a pizza shop and after that to our hostel and home for the next two days.

On the next morning… 8:00 am… Breakfast: simple suits this event probably the most. With an amazing selection of different jams, brown and white bread and not to forget kids cereals we started the day. Invigorated and full of motivation we started our journey through the London underground jungle. £12 seems expensive for a one day travel card, but you get great service for this price. It starts by amazing long lines before the station, (where you have enough time to think about life and death), a Maze out of the tunnel and ways that every man sweats (and loses pounds) and don’t even forget the incredible cosy carriages which you drive from A to B. But anyway, we survived and arrived at 9:30 the headquarter office in London.

9:45 am… conference room… 7 floor: It started with an introduction to everybody and some ‘funny’ ice breaker games. I’m sure everybody knows this game where all people have to fit on a blanket (sorry no I mean island) and every time it’s get smaller. On one site I really like to watch this situation and to show how a group of new people interact together but after I was used as tie bar, I decided that, when I will ever get my own island: ACCESS TO NOBODY!  After the little role plays we continued with the some really interesting presentations. The first section  was about Henry Dunant and the RC generally. I love the story of the foundation of the Red Cross, but I cannot understand why they always forget to say that Dunant was an arms dealer and people died through his hand by the Battle of Solferinio…? I think that would change the story and is more important in my eyes Dunant is the real Tony Stark just without the superhero powers and the Pepper. Anyway.

A couple of hours later: We discussed new ways to improve the youth engagement in the Red Cross and it would be better if it wasn’t a separate body. In my mind this is a really interesting and difficult question. To this point I have experience in the German Red Cross so it was hard for me figure it out. We used a lot of fancy brainteasers like 6 Thinking Hats, where we all pretend to wear hats (I felt very fashion- conscious and smart). I am not sure we find the ultimate solutions for this complex topic but we gave a lot of food for though. I think that time will show what happens with our ideas, because the youth needs a new voice. There are so many young people who want make a difference but they feel invisible and not important.

In between this we all had interviews with the important heads of the Red Cross. I spoke with the chair of the Fundraising office and also the Media and News Manager. Two very engaged and passionate people. At these appointments we had time to ask questions and get in touch.

Afternoon… 4 pm… hungry: Lydia, a colleague of mine, held a presentation about how we can develop our CV, plan a way for the future and don’t have to be scared to make mistakes. For me this was the highlight of the day. With her unique and smiling attitude the time flew by.

5pm: The first day end and we decided to walk around the corner until we would go for dinner. I have never been to London, it was so exciting for me. London has this undesirable charm and we were not even in the cool parts. But we saw this awkward egg building.

7pm…Indian restaurant…dying: There is nothing really to tell you but I am so disappointed that nobody saw my culinary sophistication - Ice Crème and Fries – I call it ‘foodgasmus’. And after hard discussions if we would choose £ 100 000 and no time Ice and Fries or Ice and Fries forever. Absolutely ridiculous: Ice Crème and Fries I can get rich without any help. The rest of the evening we spent time in the courtroom of our hostel. You hear right court room! Our hostel was an ex-prison. So I decided not to take a shower, because all the bad memories of showers in prison came over me.

8:22 am… London underground… alone: with our entire luggage we stood in the underground. Busy businesspeople, students and worker scurried through the ways. We looked like strange objects that did not suit the fast way of life in London. We do not all fits in one of the carriages and reached my hand to Felix and screamed "please don't leave me alone" but he just pushed me away and laughed (or not). So I was alone, shortly before a mental breakdown. But I took a deep breath and stepped in the next carriage and drove the 3! stations by my own. Surprising I was the first person in the office although I used the later carriage.

The second day started calm, we listened to a very interesting presentation about the emergency response, and how the Red Cross interacted in situations of crisis.  Also the diversity team had a presentation about fairness and how different backgrounds enrich the work life and ideas development.

Also we continued our ideas about the Youth engagement elaborated more ideas about how we can catch young people and talked about the social media competencies of the Red Cross. Do you know that the RC has his own YouTube channel!? I didn’t. Also we talked with some very important persons, ate lunch and had a good time.

In the end I can say, this days was very exciting! You see the Red Cross from a different side and understand how complex it is. When you are a volunteer or normal staff member you live sometimes in your own small world, and can not see over the edge. The Red Cross is so much more, with many talented and inspiring people, who work every day to realize the idea of one big man: Henry Dunant without who the Red Cross, the Genève conventions and much more wouldn’t not exist. But also we should remember with every contribution we do for the Red Cross we keep this idea alive. And we should be proud of it! And so I can say we actually do make a DIFFERENCE.