INDONESIAN YOUTH RED CROSS TO ATTEND INT'L MEETING IN ITALY

Jakarta, June 20 (ANTARA) - Five members of the Indonesian Youth Red Cross (PMR) will participate in an international meeting of Youth Red Cross and Red Crescent to be held in Solferino, Italy, June 23-28, 2009.

The five youths had been selected by the Central PMR office to be delegates in the meeting, Juliati Susilo, head of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Headquarters' PMR and Volunteer Division, said here on Saturday.

"They have met a number of criteria, including on knowledge about PMR, creativity and ability to make a presentation in English," she said.

The selected PMR members are Dorkas Mada Ali of West Sulawesi Province, Prasetya Arif of Bengkulu Province, I Gusti Ngurah Mayura of Bali Province, Ima Fatma Yunita of Central Java Province, and Rina, head of the PMI Headquarter's PMR sub division.

"The meeting's participants are expected to issue a declaration on behalf of PMR and volunteers in the world emphasizing their roles in addressing humanitarian issues," she said.

The meeting in Solferino is held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement initiated by the late Henry Dunant.

The meeting to be organized in a camping style will be attended by 600 participants aged between 16 and 30, from 180 Youth Red Cross and Red Crescent societies throughout the world.

From Solferino, the Indonesian delegates would go to Geneva where they would visit The Red Cross Museum, the International Federation Headquarter, and the International Red Cross Committee.

The idea of what would become the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement was born after the battle of Solferino in northern Italy, in June 1859. Henry Dunant, a young Geneva businessman, witnessed the suffering and agony of tens of thousands of wounded soldiers on the battlefield.

He later mobilized the inhabitants of the nearby village of Castiglione to care for the soldiers, whatever their nationality. Horrified by what he had witnessed, Dunant wrote "A Memory of Solferino" proposing an idea that changed the world: "Would it not be possible, in a period of peace and tranquility, to constitute relief societies, whose purpose would be to have care given to the wounded in wartime, by zealous, devoted and well-trained volunteers"?