First-time Canadian Red Cross delegate Dr. Michael Boroditsky of Winnipeg shares his experiences working in a rural emergency field hospital in Dhunche, Nepal.
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The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.
Adeola Adebayo, a nurse in Halifax, recently returned from Germany where he assisted in the refugee response efforts. For a month, he worked in Feldkirchen and Erding refugee camps run by the German Red Cross.
On Saturday, October 3rd a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was attacked in an aerial bombing. 30 people were killed including MSF staff and patients, and dozens more were injured. The bombing made headlines and raised questions – specifically, what does International Humanitarian Law (IHL) say about hospitals?
Two weeks ago, our world looked a bit different. We were providing psycho-social support at a transit camp for refugees near Munich in Germany as part of a Canadian Red Cross team assisting the German Red Cross. There we witnessed the best of humanity, the resilience and the courage of refugees, as well as the devastating effects of conflict in home countries, and the consequences of trauma during migration.
Picture this: You’re at home, and suddenly someone you love collapses from a heart attack. It can be a scary and overwhelming experience, but being prepared to respond with CPR can make a huge difference. Most heart attacks happen at home, so knowing what to do can truly be a life-saving skill.
While Germany continues to take in thousands of refugees fleeing violence in their countries, the German Red Cross welcomes them into reception centres and camps. Canadian Red Cross staff member Esther Laforte, Deputy Director, Disaster Management in Quebec, was deployed to a camp in Erding, Germany, to support the German Red Cross' refugee response efforts.
How do some countries and regions escape relatively unscathed from major disasters, while others struggle to recover from these events? Many factors are at play, and while it’s impossible to compare one disaster with another, it’s clear that the level of preparedness and the local capacity to respond quickly to the disaster can significantly improve the outcomes.