For this volunteer in Honduras, giving freely of her time and passion offers a chance to teach and learn.
Volunteering is an enriching experience that provides the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others while, at the same time, offering a sense of personal satisfaction. Such is the case of Stephany Isabela Perez, national youth director of the Honduran Red Cross in the department of Marcala, who in 2022 was recognized as the regional volunteer of the year.
Her passion, motivation and the deep bond of friendship she feels towards her team is a reflection of the volunteer spirit of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. “A volunteer gives everything they have of themselves without expecting anything in return,” she explains, adding that this selfless giving allows volunteers to experience an emotional payback that goes beyond any material remuneration.
The love and attachment between members of a volunteer team becomes a source of support and well-being, even in the midst of troubling situations, she says. The ability to learn and grow alongside peers is another highlight of being a volunteer and, she adds, in the Red Cross, you learn something new every day.
To play is to learn
Stephany’s interest in adolescents and children in the community motivated her to create a game called “Safe Education Centres and Honduran Red Cross” to help children and adolescents understand fundamental Red Cross values and principles.
For Stephany, the best way to learn is to play, and it was this motivation that prompted her to design a dynamic board game so that students can advance, form groups and compete while gaining knowledge. This game has become an innovative tool to promote education, creativity and safety among students.
The questions posed in the game are directly related to the Safe Schools manual, which has been applied during Red Cross Youth interventions in the school community. The game not only entertains, but also provides an opportunity to consolidate learning and reinforce key concepts related to safety and well-being.
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This story was produced by Josué Manuel Montez Díaz
a talented storyteller from Honduran Red Cross
It’s the stuff of science fiction: machines that make decisions about who and when to kill. Referred to as “autonomous weapons”, they’re already in use to some degree. But as more sophisticated systems are being developed we wanted to an expert in the field about whether such systems comply with international humanitarian law and what it means for humanity to give machines the power over human life and death.
In this episode, we talk with humanitarian communicator Kathy Mueller who produced our first magazine podcast series, The Wildfire Diaries, about massive wildfires in Northern Canada in 2017. We talk about that series, her many international missions, and the big changes in humanitarian communications since she began with the Canadian Red Cross almost 20 years ago.
In this episode, we talk about the power of storytelling to inform and inspire. “Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of human communication,” says our guest Prodip, a volunteer and multi-media storyteller for the Bangladesh Red Crescent. “It inspires us to be a hero of our own community.” We also speak with one such community hero, Dalal al-Taji, a longtime volunteer and advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities in emergencies response. “In disasters. persons with disabilities sometimes get forgotten.”
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