International 12

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, many families and individuals in Haiti had their livelihoods destroyed overnight. Severe damage to both the agricultural and fisheries sectors meant the majority of the population lost their primary sources of income. In addition to these challenges, poor households in Haiti allocate a high percentage of their budget to energy expenditures, especially when they use poor-quality and energy-inefficient equipment.
 

Visiting Deir es Zor, as the second largest of the 14 governorates in Syria, was memorable for a number of reasons. It is not unlike other locations we have visited, particularly Douma in Eastern Ghouta, but shocking just the same. This is a first opportunity for the Canadian Red Cross to visit the city since it was besieged.

For the last ten years, armed conflicts and violence has caused an unprecedented level of human suffering in places like Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The Red Cross and Red Crescent is on the ground, providing impartial and life-saving aid to those who are caught in these conflicts - including surgical care. 

Read about the 2018 World Disaster Report, which examines those who are not being reached with critical humanitarian assistance, and how they can receive aid.
 

More than 30 years ago, Dr. Praphan Phanuphak diagnosed the first three cases of HIV in Thailand. It was February of 1985, and he was 35-years-old at the time. He was working at a hospital run by Thai Red Cross at. Four years after those first few cases, he co-founded the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre, where he stills works today as its director. 

The Canadian Red Cross is working with the Honduran Red Cross to help build their capacity as part of the CERA program. This program, with support from the Government of Canada, means that the Honduran Red Cross will be better prepared to respond to disasters and emergencies. Here are some ways the program is making a difference in Honduras.

In Mali, every year between July and September, heavy rains fall across the country. Some regions, such as Sikasso, are hit harder than others and the damage goes far beyond material goods. Families are left homeless, flooded areas quickly become breeding grounds for diseases such as malaria, which is a leading cause of death in children under five. One of the essential roles of Red Cross volunteers is to support people affected by disasters.

Tamara Begin, a medical logistician from Canada, shares her experience working at the Red Cross Red Crescent field hospital near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The field hospital opened one year ago, to provide health care to the more than 700,000 people who fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar.