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Earthquakes don’t come with built in warning systems. For millions of people in many of B.C.’s largest cities, Tuesday’s quake was a wake up call. What will yours be?

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2016. Many of us are starting off the year by making some resolutions to make 2016 great. Looking for ideas? 

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.

For the past 26 years, Phyllis Wiscombe of Arnes, Manitoba, has given her time to help people affected by disasters, train future disaster responders and improve the Red Cross’s capacity to help people in need. For her outstanding contributions to the movement, Wiscombe recently received the Order of the Red Cross, the highest honour the Canadian Red Cross can give a volunteer.

The start of the year is a perfect time to check your emergency kit to make sure everything is ready to go if it’s needed. 

Diane Story, Master Educator in First Aid, shares about her recent experience at the International Trainer of Trainers project in Paris -  and how the recent events there gave her new perspective on the work of the Red Cross. 

End of mission is a time of deep reflection and slow adjustment. When I was deployed to Germany as a Canadian Red Cross delegate, my life changed drastically. Working as an interpreter in a German Red Cross transit camp for refugees, I experienced a complete shift in lifestyle. I went from a quiet 9-5 to non-stop 12 hour shifts, welcoming a thousand refugees every night. I adjusted quickly because the rapid pace of response left no room for easing in. When the end of my mission came, I braced myself for another major life change: going back to normal. 

Islem Cheriet is a physiotherapist from Montreal who has been working for the ICRC in Yemen since January 2015. Islem recently helped a little girl, fitting her for a prosthesis and teaching her to walk again.
 
Hayat means "life" in Arabic, but at the age of three, little Hayat has experienced more sorrow than most adults. Her home in the Al-Qaflah area of Amran governorate in Yemen was destroyed in an airstrike. Her much-loved younger sister Dunia was killed. Hayat suffered severe shrapnel injuries and her right foot was so badly damaged that it had to be amputated.