International 40

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

The Canadian Red Cross is shipping 20,000 relief items (cots and blankets) to support the German Red Cross response to the refugee crisis.

While on a planning mission in May this year, Maya Helwani, from the Canadian Red Cross, along with a volunteer from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), were in Homs, Syria.  Astonishingly, they found a small white flower growing amongst the rubble, and they shared a moment of hopefulness together.

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

My first impression of Philippine Red Cross staff and volunteers when I arrived straight after Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 was of dedicated and hardworking people who deeply believe in the mission and ideals of the Red Cross. They never shy away from harsh and difficult conditions to ensure that assistance is delivered to those who truly need it, when they need it.

August 30 marks International Day of the Disappeared – a day to remember those who have suffered  from the traumatic experience of a disappeared  family member and to provide help and hope for those still searching.

When Heather Cousins, a community health nurse from Woodstock, N.B., was recently on assignment with the Canadian Red Cross at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone, she and her co-workers let off steam by dancing and singing songs that pleaded for Ebola  to “go away”.  Today, their wish seems closer to being realized, as Sierra Leone has marked its first week of no new Ebola cases nationwide since the outbreak began nearly 15 months ago.

It may seem contradictory that Canadian Red Cross aid worker Nicolas Verdy first got a degree in anthropology, and then went on to study computer technology, but for this Montreal native, it is proving to be an ideal basis for his humanitarian career.