Global Dignity Day at Ullern Videregående Skole, Oslo Norway, 20th October 2009.

For the first time, Global Dignity Day was organized at Ullern High School, which is ranked as one of the best high schools in Norway. 150 students in their senior year participated Bjarte Reve (Young Global Leader - WEF) organized the event along with PhD students in medicine from University of Oslo, and a team from Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Principal Pål Riis opened the event with a personal story about dignity: When he started out as a principal at Ullern, the school facilities was characterized by being run down, and the students didn’t care to keep the premises in order. There was no dignity for our students when it came to having school facilities that inspired for learning. He started in collaboration with the students and teachers to clean up the school, and also put more emphasis on good leadership and discipline in the school.

When Pål Riis started out as a principal, there were few students in all of Oslo that applied for Ullern high school as their first priority. Today, in collaboration with the students, parents and teachers, the school is ranked in the top-tier in national tests for academic excellence.

Bjarte Reve (YGL) shared the story of fellow YGL Orzala Ashraf Nemat, from Kabul, Afghanistan. Orzala is an activist who works to improve the lives of Afghan refugees, and knows them well, having been displaced as a refugee herself for many years during the invasion from Sovietunion. Orzala has for many years started small school classes for women and children in refugee camps and inside Afghanistan, with a great risk that Taliban would discover the schools. She sent a message from a refugee camp in Iran to the students at Ullern on Global Dignity Day:

“Your message came to me during my mission to Iran to see the life of Afghan refugees who are living here due to war and insecurity in Afghanistan. Some are newcomers, many have been here for almost 20-26 years.

What leads me in life is to respect the dignity of people, for me going and visiting refugees, as one who herself lived pretty much the same conditions for 14 years, is very different than many others in our group. It is different as I can feel what they say but also because I am here not to simply tell them we are here to prescribe what is good for them, but rather ask them how do they see their future, how do they see things change in their own life. I see the people with whom I work, not as subject but rather as those who have the right and deserve the respect to decide about their own present and future, and the ones of their children.” Orzala is there to talk with them about their future - not to them.

The students at Ullern shared their stories of Dignity after discussing The Dignity Principles in their classrooms. A couple of stories that also was shared in our main national newspaper VG that covered the event: “The most important thing is to help others, when you help others it also gives a good feeling says Petter Kræmer Vigestad (18)If someone is discriminated, I can help them by spending time together with that person.”

Ingerid Lundin (18) shared the following story to her fellow students: I was sitting on the bus when a man shouted racist remarks to two women with hijab. I went over to him and demanded that he stopped. I was a bit afraid since he had been drinking, but the bus driver supported me and he had to exit the bus.

I hope we can organize Dignity Day on all high schools in Oslo next year, and hopefully in many places around Norway. More information can be found at www.globaldignity.org

You can follow me on twitter at @BjarteReve