“Before engagement, there is always a meeting”

The Red Cross Youth Team of the Belgian Red Cross wrote a tribute to Déborah Stomp, Youth Coordinator for the Belgium Red Cross from 2010 to 2019 who sadly passed away after a long battle against illness.

Déborah Stomp smiling

When Déborah joined the Belgian Red Cross, she immediately demonstrated her high level of commitment, engagement and energy. It was the wealth and richness of her experience on the ground in youth movements that left the greatest impact on the Youth Red Cross.

It is thanks to this young woman leader, full of creativity and energy, that the Belgian Red Cross focused on the training of youth facilitators within the realm of first aid and education for global citizenship. She didn’t only initiate and participate in the creation of this training, but thanks to her natural facilitation abilities, she made it possible to envision the role of a youth facilitator in a new and different way.

”Déborah’s work allowed for hundreds of young people to meet and reinforce their sense of belonging”

Déborah Stomp

Passionate about international affairs, she will be remembered for her contributions to conversations between young people throughout the RCRC Movement. Whether with the National Societies of Burundi or Rwanda, or throughout the "Move for Africa" projects, Déborah’s work allowed for hundreds of young people to meet, exchange ideas and reinforce their sense of belonging to this big Red Cross Red Crescent family. As she always liked to say: "Because before engagement, there is always a meeting".

Colleagues of the French-speaking European youth network of the French, Monegasque, Luxemburg and Swiss National Societies would like to thank Déborah for her great investment in bringing their network to life. Her determination and conviction, through teamwork, led to the establishment of the international training of ‘young leader’ trainers and to the deployment to the Belgian Red Cross. The links she has forged with the members of the network will remain forever in their memories.

Déborah has been and will remain a young leader of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, for us and for all those who were lucky enough to cross paths with her. She used to compare the qualities of young people to diamonds. She has left us many diamonds, not only the ones that she revealed in young people, but also the diamonds she left us herself. We want to thank you Déborah, for all your diamonds who, too, made all the difference in our world.

Déborah Stomp
Belgian Red Cross