Canadian Red Crosser Dr. Mausam Bohara shares her experience working on the ground in Bangladesh, providing care for people who are fleeing violence in Myanmar.
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High school student Ibrahim Ali Muse joined the Somali Red Crescent Society's response to an outbreak last year. He and other volunteers were a part of a treatnent centre which was supported by the Canadian Red Cross and the Government of Canada.
The image of a group of women heading out to the makeshift camps in Bangladesh, their Red Cross t-shirts visible beneath their lightweight headscarves, remains in the mind of Denyse Bourgault. Bourgault was on the ground in the Cox’s Bazar district as a psychosocial support (PSS) delegate from the Canadian Red Cross to help those who crossed the border fleeing violence in Myanmar.
The moments, days, and years following a disaster or emergency will be felt differently by each person who was affected. Some groups of people are more vulnerable to the impacts of these events than others – recognizing those unique vulnerabilities is an important part of preparing for, and responding to disasters and emergencies. The Canadian Red Cross is working with partner National Societies and the IFRC to help ensure the needs of the most vulnerable are met during times of emergencies and disasters.
On a stifling and humid afternoon in November, Julekha ‘Juli’ Akter sat on the floor of a small tent for families in the transit camp for vulnerable people arriving in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar. The 18-year-old Bangladesh Red Crescent Society volunteer held the hand of an elderly woman, never breaking eye contact as the newcomer tearfully explained her journey.
A tiny baby, wrapped tightly in blankets, his face just peeking out, sleeps tucked up against his resting mother, under the watchful eye of his grandmother. It’s a scene that plays out all over the world, but in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh on Nov. 25 this story nearly had a different ending.
Amid swirling dust clouds and gnarly thorn bushes in the dry, arid landscape of northern South Sudan, a water point is enveloped with women’s laughter. A group of women catch up during their morning errand to collect nearby water. It hasn’t always been like this in Pacyic village. Before the water point was rehabilitated by the Red Cross, women and girls would trek more than two hours by foot to the river side three times a day, often risking their safety and security for a few litres of water.