Youth Engagement Diaspora Conference

At the conference, the meaning of belonging has been explored throughout every activity, and we came to the conclusion that the sense of belonging doesn't only have one meaning, but it is generally identified as representing a vast diversity of feelings.

From traditional food, music, dances, clothing, hairstyles, beliefs, tales, and many other elements - to purely feeling a sense of community around people that speak the same language; belonging is an emotion that the people that identify as diaspora experience and appreciate.

We've also been joined virtually by Béatrice Butsana-Sita that has recently stepped into her role as the CEO of the British Red Cross. Unfortunately, she could not make it in person due to her traveling to Ukraine for a meeting with the Ukrainian Red Cross’ leaders, but she left a message recorded prior to the Diaspora Conference.

Béatrice gave an empowering talk about diaspora communities and the (British) Red Cross, and how our experiences bring us all together no matter our backgrounds.

One of the main subjects she touched on was the Red Cross and its main purpose: a movement that is specialised in emergency and disaster response, but not only, as we understood that no matter which department of the organisation(s) you're engaged in, we're all a big society spread across the world.

War, Disasters & Emergencies are the main cause of Displacement and Migration, making us - diasporans - much stronger and experienced, by developing our skills, cultivating our mindsets and understanding of the world around us.

Béatrice also mentioned how she is truly "impressed how young people are really interested in the topic of humanity", and that no matter our backgrounds, we all join together to contribute to a better world.

This discourse was truly inspiring as these values that make us all unique also bring us together to fight for our world, no matter the scale.

Later on during the session, Tania Kisserli, the Diaspora Programme Manager at the British Red Cross, provided us with more details about the programme overall and its findings.

The key pillars of the programme being the need to "hear from diaspora, learn from diaspora, connect and reach out to diaspora" as a humanitarian organisation; Tania has worked alongside many amazing people from a variety of backgrounds to ensure that the voices of diasporans are heard and taken into consideration by the BRC and the RCRC movement as a whole.

She believes that "Diaspora isn't a box people have the right to put you in.": it is the way we, as individuals in a society, may identify as, according to our backgrounds, cultures and beliefs.

The Diaspora Humanitarian Partnership Programme has been a really impactful movement in the BRC and not only, by bringing people together no matter how they identify diaspora as. "There are over 70 definitions of diaspora", but only one general term, making us - the diasporans - a diverse collective of amazing people with different experiences and perspectives. Conclusively, the Diaspora Programme has been focusing on making our experiences at the BRC "more relevant, more meaningful and impactful" - by engaging with diaspora communities across the country.

Hanan El-Wandi (Diaspora Young Women & Girls Programme) gave us insights about the programme she has been working on, with support from DEMAC (Diaspora Emergency Action & Coordination) and Save the Children. One of the main findings is that there tends to be a lack of opportunities close to everyone’s homes, causing people to refrain from volunteering due to travel requirements. Also, being a young woman could also increase the risk of traveling to considerable distances, which can cause the hesitation to volunteer. The programme aims to identify and address these barriers hindering young people’s engagement in humanitarian action. Therefore, one of the conclusions they reached is that the organisation(s) should analyse and improve the volunteering opportunities in order to allow more people to volunteer and engage.

As a concluding activity, a Q&A with three amazing young women that have been engaged in the programme has been organised, so that they could share more information about their experiences in life and why they got engaged in this programme. This has offered us great examples of real-life experiences that young women go through and why they chose to embrace the change by getting in touch with Hanan, despite any difficulties they might’ve gone through. This pure interest in changing the society for the better led them to advocate for women's rights, especially those from diaspora backgrounds.

Another great moment at the event consisted of an overview of the opportunities & placements for young people at the British Red Cross, but also the wider RCRC movement. Sidra Iftikhar gave a great speech about young people and diaspora origins, sometimes impacting their accessibility to opportunities.

Although the focus should be on lived experience, sometimes this is not the case, affecting the amount of viable opportunities available for young people, especially if they come from diaspora backgrounds. As a part of the Diaspora Programme, the complexity of diaspora has been explored, and the findings are invaluable: Coming from a diaspora background creates this element of duality in people’s lives, belonging to more than one place, having mixed backgrounds based on heritage or life experiences. These unique perspectives and experiences make us all invaluable members of the society, and our personality and skills should be appreciated no matter our backgrounds and beliefs.

After the lunch break, a choice of three amazing workshops has been given to everyone at the conference, each exploring the feeling of belonging and the wish to express our true selves.
Verónica Posada Álvarez, currently studying a PhD in Cultural Studies whilst working with the Latin American Diaspora in London, delivered a creative and recreational workshop on Belonging & Identity through crafting collages. This has been an introspective moment when participants had the chance to devise their own piece of art and explain what memories it brings back to them and the meaning of them. Everyone had the chance to share and reflect on their culture, memories, and life experiences.
The two other workshops have been based on Self Promotion, and Resonating Messages, hosted by Teira Rogers (Intersectional Feminist Leader), and Stefanie Sword-Williams ( Motivational Speaker).
These workshops have been truly empowering thanks to the facilitators’ experience and positive attitude, encouraging young people to continue expressing themselves freely and embrace the change in our society as diasporans.

After a short break, Hibah Awan and Charlotte Burt spoke about British Red Cross on Campus societies bringing young people from diaspora backgrounds together, to drive change in disaster response. The Diaspora Student Project has analysed the engagement of diaspora students in humanitarian action, exploring what activities they currently take part in, what their areas of interest are, and possible barriers or enablers impacting their engagement. “Diaspora Students are taking action in incredible ways”, engaging in direct humanitarian response in different RCRC societies as well as the BRC, fundraising by organising events supporting a variety of causes and appeals, and many more. Some motivators discovered when interacting with students from diaspora backgrounds are: lived experience, having a positive impact on the society, empathy, personal & professional development, culture/faith.
The main enablers of youth humanitarian and social action have been identified to be: online spaces, university environments, Red Cross culture, positive student experiences, as well as people’s identities and skills. This feeling of community in universities, being surrounded by other like-minded people and supporting each other is one of the key factors encouraging students to volunteer and take humanitarian action. On the other hand, there are some other factors that act as barriers, almost blocking their accessibility to volunteering opportunities: not trusting or being unaware of the movement, the availability of opportunities and access to them, feeling like their experience isn’t valuable in the UK, biases and lack of networks to connect with, and other intercultural factors. Contrastingly, other people found that sourcing volunteering opportunities in the UK is a lot easier, as well as culture being an advantage rather than an impediment.
Of course, in order to address these impediments, recommendations of opportunities have been collected, including work around: Climate Change, Refugee Support and Integration, local action through food banks and community centres; and facilitating different activities such as: Internships, Creating Blogs, taking action in local areas.
Following all of this amazing progress, the findings of the DHPP will be disseminated with the wider IFRC in February 2024.

Leading up to the closing session, Hira Aftab, the Founder & Director of Our World Too and Strategic Communications Lead at the British Red Cross, presented the movement that she initiated to advocate for the rights of refugees and displaced people. Our World Too aims to provide a safe platform facilitating discussions and helping create a more welcoming environment for refugees globally.

Hira truly believes that the change is possible, step by step, from the smallest actions to the bigger outcomes, as no one is born thinking that they would have to abandon their homeland to seek safety.