The YABC program allowed Emilie to meet hundreds of incredible human beings, from various cultural backgrounds, who challenged her mindset. This presented an opportunity to question her own gender identity and expression. She realized that it could reflect on the discrimination and prejudices she faced since her childhood and later as a woman.

Her first mission with the ICRC in South Sudan as a Restoring Family Links Delegate was an important moment for her. She discovered an extremely harsh context, where women and girls were constricted to designated roles in society and experienced extreme physical and psychological violence due to their gender. Their strength and their capacity to find a way to survive inspired Emilie; they supported Emilie in her willingness to fight for gender equality.

Emilie also worked for a project called Family Reunion Integration Service for the British Red Cross where she helped facilitate the first steps of inclusion in British society for the families reunited with the people who were granted refugee status. It affected her to have to fight for the simple rights of children to access education, for people’s right to live with dignity and to be treated with such.

All the projects she has had the opportunity to work on within the Movement has allowed her to meet dedicated and inspirational individuals working tirelessly to accompany and support others. She has learned a lot from the women she has met and discovered several ways of being a leader in both daily life and in critical situations.

Emilie’s experience within the Movement has helped her to be more resilient, to feel empowered and trusted. She gained and improved skills and competencies. She discovered that she could inspire others and that she loves to empower women. She believes our Movement proved that nothing is impossible, despite the challenges we still face posed by gender and intersectionality.

She has learned to try to be strong but also not to hide who she is and what she feels. She has discovered that we are much more than we think we are and that we can learn and grow together in a peaceful way. She is very thankful for inspiring women who gave her a hand, supported her and opened doors for her to become a leader.
Emilie regrets that women are still not accessing the same positions as men, especially at management and decisional levels, and that the system of quotas is still necessary. She wants to try to influence, to inspire positive change, and moreover to denounce sexist speeches and behaviors, even when it is hard.

Fighting for less discrimination takes a lot of effort and means, as it requires going against mainstream ideas. It is a long path to take and by acting this way, we are perceived as trouble-makers, disturbing a deeply rooted system of domination hard to destabilize. It is crucial to act against it daily and change behaviors by working on our own prejudices.

For Emilie, promoting gender equality and disseminating educational programs that explain the roots of these gender-based discriminations and violence is essential. Our international Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has to give the same opportunities to women, men and non-binary people by helping them work with their self-confidence.

Emilie’s dream is to live in a society which recognises gender equality and that does not judge or act violently towards the people who do not “fit in assigned roles". A society where we can be free to be who we want and who we feel, without fear or self-censorship.