International 28

Last spring the Canadian Red Cross welcomed three communications delegates from other Red Cross societies. Degsew Amanu from Ethiopia Red Cross, Marial Mayom Riak from South Sudan Red Cross, and Carlos Romero from Honduras Red Cross, joined staff and volunteers from across Canada to participate in an Emergency Response Unit (ERU) training and learn valuable skills that they could take home with them.

Immediately after Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti on October 4, the Haiti Red Cross Society and other Red Cross partners rushed staff and volunteers to the worst affected communities to assess needs and deliver emergency assistance. Canadian Red Cross aid delegate Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell was part of an IFRC assessment team that was among the first to reach many storm-battered towns and villages and had a key role in supporting the health response that followed, in coordination with Haiti’s Ministry of Health, the Haiti Red Cross and other health responders. These are some of her reflections:

“Wintery mix” weather forecasts. Icy road conditions. Christmas shopping rush. Public transportation delays. Rising grocery prices... It all sounds like home to me and I’ve dearly missed it here! I’m catching up with friends and family, enjoying good company and the simple pleasures of life in Montreal – what I have missed most while on mission in South Sudan.

For the past week, more than 100 personnel from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the ICRC have been facilitating the evacuation of people from Eastern Aleppo. As of yesterday, tens of thousands of civilians had been successfully evacuated in this complex operation.

Spirits were high from the first few moments of the aid distribution in Jérémie, Haiti, when Red Cross volunteers and staff provided residents with much-needed tarps and hygiene kits.
 
Prior to the distribution, Red Cross teams visited the city to identify those left most vulnerable after Hurricane Matthew and ensured that their immediate needs were met.

This year, over 17,000 people from 16 different countries were asked what they thought about International Humanitarian Law and the limits to war. The exact same questions were asked nearly 20 years ago, which means we can get insight into people’s views on International Humanitarian Law, and how those views have changed over time

The Canadian Red Cross team is continuing to visit villages and remote regions of Haiti affected by Hurricane Matthew to provide medical care through the mobile health clinic. Last week, the mobile clinic visited four communities including Cap à Fou which had been previously inaccessible to aid workers due to severely damaged roads. 

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 Dominican Republic, earthquakes in New Zealand and conflict in Iraq.