Red Cross Volunteer makes international headlines for traveling the world over

Red Cross Volunteer, Torbjorn Pedersen, who also goes by the name Thor, has been making the headlines in many countries for his mission to travel the world. The thirty-five-year-old resident of Denmark, in the northern part of Europe, is on a “saga,” the Viking word for traveling and adventure. Pedersen is traveling to one hundred and eighty-nine countries, each with Red Cross base. But the trick is that with twenty US dollars daily, Pedersen covering his single journey without flying, which is something that no one has ever achieved. It’s an arduous expedition that will see him away from home for a total of four years. Starting in his home country in October, it is now eight months and Belize is his forty-fourth country. Pedersen entered the country through Mexico on Wednesday night and today he met with the media at the Red Cross Headquarters.

Torbjorn “Thor” Pedersen, Goodwill Ambassador, Red Cross Denmark

Torbjorn “Thor” Pedersen

“I’ve been awarded the honor of traveling as Goodwill Ambassador for the Danish Reed Cross. The Red Cross is today present in one hundred and eighty-nine countries and there is more or less two hundred countries in the world—it is difficult to say how many exactly because it is political; depending on which country or nation that you belong to. But about two hundred countries and the Red Cross is in one hundred and eighty-nine of them. So I am writing one hundred and eighty-nine stories about the Red Cross. I am writing them under the title of always present, the Red Cross is always present, which for me is absolutely true. I came from Denmark, throughout most of Europe with trains and buses and I got over the North Atlantic to Canada United States through Mexico and came down to Belize making Belize country number forty-four on this journey. I started on the tenth of October last year so I’ve just came to eight months of traveling now. So I’m rushing all the time. But I’m rushing because I do have a girlfriend back home that I want to get back to also and if you are traveling to every country in the world, about two hundred countries, and you spend about a week in every country, then it will take you about four years to complete the journey. But if that slips and you are spending a month in every country in the world, then it takes sixteen years to travel and then I have no girlfriend when I go back home.  It’s a little bit like running a fun marathon I think; that in the beginning, it is not so interesting—you are running one mile, two miles, who cares—but you start getting to the half way marker or two-thirds, but you start getting to the end and you see the marathon runners are tired and their knees and are they going to make it, are they running slower. And I think there is the magical limit where it gets interesting with a marathon and there is also a magic line where it gets interesting in this project and I think I saw that around thirty countries. About thirty countries people realized that this is not normal; this is out of the ordinary and that’s when the media started to follow more. And as soon as the media got involved, the message gets out because like it or not, the media is the gateway to the people and sometimes that’s a good things and sometimes that a bad thing.  I do find that people get involved with it, definitely they do. And it opens their eyes. A lot of people do not know that the Red Cross is present in so many countries and they don’t know how old it is. It’s one hundred and fifty-one years today and it is consistent; it keeps on doing good throughout the world and that for me personally is absolutely amazing.”

Pedersen remains in the country for three days before traveling to Guatemala.