Anna-Clara Azzoni

I started volunteering at the Red Cross of Brussels in 2022. I pursued this activity for my last two years of highschool. I have always been very passionate about the issue of refugee protection, and homelessness, due to having lived in Africa for nine years: I got acquainted with the poor living conditions that a big part of individuals have to deal with, and it got me passionate to find a way to help them improve their life. This passion to help was the main reason behind pushing me to volunteer at the Red Cross of Belgium at the age of sixteen. During the span of these two years and a half, I have taken part in helping to manage the ‘’vestiboutique’’, which is a second-hand shop that belongs to the Red Cross; I have helped running the ‘’Colis Alimentaires’’, which consists of handing out food that has been either donated by the European Union or bought by the Red Cross through the money collected by donations; I have also participated in the Maraudes, an activity which consists of giving food to homeless individuals, providing them with coffee and tea and providing them with clothes. However, funding for clothes comes solely through donations: the government does not pay for them, as the activity was intended to only provide food and drinks. Individuals are especially in need of clothes during winter.

A project that I undertook during my time volunteering in the Red Cross was to raise awareness in my school, BEPS International School, about the struggles faced by homeless individuals. I did a presentation in which I described my volunteering experience and the fact that a great number of homeless individuals need clothes to survive winter. I managed to assemble two full bags of clothes. However, it turns out I was not the only one with the idea: when I arrived at the Red Cross meeting place, I saw there were another three full bags of clothes. This made me incredibly happy, as it meant that the Red Cross community was bent on helping those in need, and more clothes meant more people equipped to survive the cold. Regarding the clothes that I collected, most of them were taken, except a couple of sweaters too small.

I worked as an assistant in Ruysschaert for a week in July 2022, and July 2023. My job consisted in supporting the management and the teachers in their daily work.

I was in charge of ensuring that each teacher had the materials they required, especially photocopies: teachers would bring their work to be copied along to the secretarial office with a note stating the time they would require it. While my job consisted mainly in assisting the teachers, I was also a point of reference for the students if they needed a practical question answered. I was also in charge of monitoring students during lunch periods, recess, and other non-instructional times to maintain safety and orderliness. My responsibility also relied on planning evening activities for the students, ensuring that the spaces were clean, everyone had the necessary supplies and the technology required was appropriately set up. Overall working as an assistant in Ruysschaert allowed me to develop and cultivate key skills such as organisation, time management, multitasking, but also core values such as kindness, respect, compassion and integrity.