Red Cross Talks (Page 92)

Last June, Catherine Sonpon came home to find her Surrey apartment building surrounded by fire trucks. The rental suite she shared with her young family had been gutted by fire.
“I remember feeling sadness and pain,” said Sonpon. “My family was safe, and material losses are not as important, but I was still sad to lose all our stuff. You never know when you may need help.”

​The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world. Here is an update on Red Cross response to flooding in Peru, delivering aid in Syria, and the drought in Africa.

With spring nearing, many of us winter-worn Canadians are looking forward to warmer temperatures. While spring is in the air, it’s still important to keep ice safety in mind, especially as milder weather affects most ice conditions.

It was early on a Sunday morning in January last winter when the message began to sound over the loudspeakers of a 17-storey apartment building on Rebecca Street in Hamilton, Ontario. Due to flooding, tenants were being asked to evacuate.

​Ethiopia is currently experiencing a number of disasters, including drought and conflict, especially in Eastern and Southern Ethiopia are currently in the grip of a severe drought, the result of failed spring and autumn rains in 2016. Millions are impacted. The Canadian Red Cross is working with the Ethiopia Red Cross to help strengthen their capacity to respond to disasters and emergencies. 

When his mother first brought Munir to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent malnutrition clinic in Al Tal, Rural Damascus, he was so fragile the doctors couldn’t measure him. Munir was five-months-old but weighed just over 2 kilograms – less than his own birth weight. He looked exhausted, worryingly thin, and was unable to sit or hold up his head without his mother’s help.

With severe drought threatening the lives of millions of people in eastern Africa, urgent food assistance will be needed for an estimated 15 million people in the three countries of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya alone. It is considered the worst drought in decades. David Fogden, Canadian Red Cross disaster management delegate, was one of these team members to visit hard-hit areas and saw how the drought has a cascading effect on livelihoods, families and communities.

We have lived in this country known for cold climates for generations, but every winter when the mercury drops below -20, we wonder what our ancestors were thinking settling in these frigid lands. Here are 10 signs to alert you to freezing temperatures and tips on how to deal with it.