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A couple of years ago, Gwen Schick retired. She discovered that she missed meeting people in the course of her travels for work. So, Gwen started volunteering as a Friendly Phone volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross in Saskatchewan.
The Friendly Phone program pairs volunteers with seniors who feel they could benefit from weekly phone calls. That’s it. 

Normally, when someone loses everything they own in an apartment fire, the Canadian Red Cross Personal Disaster Assistance Team (PDAT) arrives on the scene with blankets and teddy bears to offer warmth and comfort. That’s how it worked before COVID-19.

Lolita and her husband of 40 years set out for a 29-day cruise, and the word “quarantine” was certainly not on their minds. It came as a huge surprise when they found themselves caught in the epicentre of a Coronavirus outbreak onboard the Diamond Princess, but as they would later tell family, “quarantine has not been bad at all.”

As Canadians across the country are being asked to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, you have probably heard some different terms on the news, such as isolation, self-isolation, self monitoring and social distancing/physical distancing. Using the right terms is important because the right practices protect vulnerable people and help our health care workers. Let’s go through each of these terms and what they mean.

 

Many Canadians have been home for a week or even longer by now, and we all know that can get a little boring. If you’re worried about staying entertained while isolated, then we have a list for you, whether looking to be entertained by performing arts, in need of kids’ activities to online education or even mental health support, there’s something here for you to enjoy.

Many of us are feeling it – the loneliness of working from home. Here are a few simple tips to spruce up your home office and keep you connected to your colleagues.
 

“Do you think you can get a birthday cake for my wife?”
Under normal circumstances, the answer would be simple. But these were not normal circumstances.
The man who made the request and his family were under quarantine at CFB Trenton. They were among the first two plane loads of Canadians brought home by the Canadian government from the epicenter of the coronavirus in China.

For International Women’s Day, we’re taking another look at some of the amazing work being done by our staff, volunteers and delegates – it’s inspiring work, by women, for women, and for their communities.