As a parent of two committed CISVers I have often wondered what the ‘activities’ that the young people do might be, and this month I really got a chance to find out, as I was the designated over 21 on the Zoom call for CISV Junior Branch. Due to Covid the Junior Branch (JB) meetings have not been able to happen for nearly a year now, but this has not deterred the Leeds and Hull participants who have got together to have a monthly meeting by Zoom, and if the January event was anything to go by then our young people are to be commended by their determination, inventiveness but also commitment to the meaning of CISV. And of course they have had plenty of fun along the way.
This year the focus of CISV is Human Rights, and so with that in mind the leaders, a group of 5 LJRs (Local Junior Representatives) and older JB participants arranged a Zoom activity to look at how this is affected by natural disasters around the world. They designed a game that split the group into 3 countries using zoom breakout rooms, each of which was suffering from a natural disaster and each of which had a budget to deal with humanitarian aid. But of course neither the disasters nor the budgets are equal. The groups had to decide how much aid to offer other countries and how much to keep for their own people as the situation changed throughout the game. The groups all got stuck in and of course the game ended with a CISV debrief where everyone discussed how Human Rights are affected by natural disasters.
The zoom call also had lots of fun with a Let’s Dance energiser and a Kahoot quiz on 2020 to round off the meeting. The young people who joined and particularly those who organised the session were impressive and had great fun.
There will be another meeting next month so anyone who is interested in joining should get in touch with the branch.