Linley COURONNE Coordinator at Amnesty International

> What is your role within Amnesty International?

I am the coordinator of training and development at Amnesty International Mauritius section. Recently I organised a seminar bringing all the main points together regarding the course.

> What does this training involve?

There are basically 15 Amnesty International groups in Mauritius. My aim is to train youngsters aged between 16 and 20 years old to help them become leaders of their groups. In the meantime, we give them a basic training in human rights because we think it is hard to find people able to explain what human rights really means. The training session started in July and ended in December. It finished with the seminar.

> Was it possible for you to assess how much the youngsters have learnt from this course?

At the end of the programme, we gave everyone a form to fill in. It will help us to see how much they have learnt and what was missing in the course. But in reality it is quite hard for us to know right now how much they have learnt because I think education cannot be assessed very quickly. We will be able to see results in the future.

> Did you encounter any difficulties during the programme?

Not really. Everyone was eager to learn and we just made the most of it. Their desire to learn really helped to make a success of this initiative.

> Do you think this initiative can be useful to our society?

Indeed, I am convinced that this course can help the participants first of all in their own lives. It will help them become responsible citizens. On the other hand, it can also help them to be more flexible and to work with other non-governmental organizations. Having such people in our country can help promote peace.

> Why did you choose youngsters rather than adults?

Youngsters are more receptive than adults to the language of human rights. Training youngsters will help create a society where basic human rights are respected in the future. Here at Amnesty, our ambition is to produce a young generation of Mauritians with a basic human rights culture. I personally think that human rights education is fundamental and essential in order to create a tolerant society.

Vanessen TIRVASSEN