English Blog Categories 171

As communications staff at the Canadian Red Cross, we often get the opportunity to meet some of the many amazing individuals who contribute to our humanitarian work worldwide.

For parents, back to school means a lot of different things such as school supply shopping, back to work, extracurricular activities, homework and more work/life juggling. 

It also means the return of the sniffles.

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

This week, the Red Cross (IFRC) opened its first Ebola treatment centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone, a district hard-hit by the outbreak. The centre can house up to 60 patients when at full capacity. The centre has so far admitted 5 patients, including an 11-year-old girl. 

How many times did you touch someone today: a family member, a friend, a colleague, the person beside you on the bus? How many times did you rub your eyes, touch your lips, scratch your nose? A world without touch is strange thing, and a humanitarian mission where you’re not allowed to touch other people is both physically and mentally challenging.

What better way to celebrate World First Aid Day than with some fun tracks with a first aid twist? We’ve come up with our top 10 songs inspired by first aid. From rock to hip hop, artists have been singing about a surprising number of first aid scenarios, from bleeding to broken bones. Check out this eclectic playlist and some useful tips and the life saving actions to take when faced with common first aid emergencies. 

At any given time, skills learned through first aid training could help someone in need or even save a life! Take for example the recent news story of two Toronto men who spent their flight to Beijing keeping a man alive who was suffering from a cruising-height heart attack; or the story about an EMT volunteer who saved a newborn baby’s life, after being notified of the nearby emergency through his smartphone app.

Sometimes getting there is half the battle. In reality the journey is more like one per cent of the battle, but when flights stand between you and your mission, it can feel like the biggest battle of all. I'm five flights into a seven-leg journey to Conakry, the capital of Ebola-affected Guinea, with every flight bringing me closer to supporting the regional Red Cross team providing services to the West African countries affected by the outbreak.