YABC Trainning in Bracelona-Spain
Profile of a volunteer: Konan Salimata
– August 3, 2009Posted in:YOUTH
My name is Salimata, I am 24 years-old. I live in Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
I have been a Red Cross volunteer for the last 4 years. It all started when violence broke out in my country. I could see the pictures of displaced people fleeing with no belongings. Among them, there were children who were totally left on their own. I decided I needed to do something to support these people. It made all the more sense for me since I have a mixed ethnic background. I am Baoulé but also Malinke, with origins in Sierra Leone. My great-grand mother was Ashanti from Ghana, so I know what ethnic diversity is about.
I talked to my parents who advised me to get involved with the Côte D’Ivoire Red Cross. I went to the Red Cross office the next morning and I started to help with various projects. One of them was called “Redten”. It had been designed to reduce ethnic tensions by conducting sensitization campaigns with traditional and religious leaders.
Since I started to get involved with the Red Cross, I believe I have provided a lot of support to community members. I have also been rewarded in many ways, as I benefited from a number of trainings. I consider the Red Cross as a real family with strong solidarity links among volunteers themselves.
Now that the political situation has improved, I have new ambitions. I have already started to work as an actress. But what I really want to do is become a film maker. I have started to write scenarios for public service announcements, passing on sensitization messages through radio and television. But I know that whatever happens in the future, I will stay with the Red Cross which has already done so much to help me become the person that I am.
Editor’s note: Salimata participated as a Youth as Agents of Behavioural Change program in both Barcelona, Spain and Solferino, Italy.
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