While most of us will be spending the holidays with our families and friends, we wanted to highlight the special individuals working with the Canadian Red Cross who have sacrificed their holidays here at home to help those in need overseas.
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Social worker Lindsay Jones recently arrived at the Red Cross Ebola treatment centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone. The Ottawa resident is there to provide psychosocial support to patients being treated for the virus. She describes some of the heartwarming and heartbreaking moments she has experienced.
Since Typhoon Hagupit made landfall in the Philippines earlier this month, the Philippine Red Cross has been busy providing emergency relief and assessing damage in the hard-hit area of Samar Island.
The Red Cross has set up a basic health care unit in Dolores, Eastern Samar Province to provide services until health care facilities in the area can resume normal activities, with technical support for this clinic being provided by the Canadian Red Cross.
The days are flying by, a blur of highs and lows. We move from gut-wrenching tragedy to clapping, dancing celebration in the three steps it takes to cross between patients. Three steps more, back to tragedy again.
Yesterday, we had a six-year-old girl arrive in an ambulance full of suspected Ebola cases. She came with no contact information. We weren’t even sure of her name. Today, she died with one of our team, dressed in full protective gear, holding her hand.
Looking around Azraq refugee camp, in Jordan’s north-eastern desert, life seems peaceful, if rudimentary. Children run and play in the camp’s streets, parents shop at the central supermarket, and social and religious activities are growing as refugee families re-establish connections with neighbours. Some Syrian residents can be seen with crutches or other medical equipment, recovering from lingering wounds or long-untreated chronic illnesses.
Despite contracting Ebola, many patients in West Africa are recovering from the virus and returning to their lives with joy and a bit of fear due to stigmatization.
Mamadou and Patricia share their journey to recovery and reintegration into their community.
Patrice Gordon, a British Columbia nurse practitioner and Red Cross delegate, is currently working at the Red Cross Ebola treatment centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone. She writes:
"I want a magic wand to get rid of this virus. But I'm glad I'm here. We are helping to give people their greatest chance for survival. It's hard to feel fully human inside our PPE (protective gear), but people can feel our touch, hear our voices, and see our eyes caring for them. We are helping people to still hope, when they have many reasons to feel hopeless."
Yasmin sits in the paediatric ward of the Red Cross Red Crescent hospital in Azraq refugee camp, holding her two-month-old twin boys as they cough and wheeze. She appears calm and composed as she rubs the back of first Nadim and then Mohammed Nur. Both boys have developed an infection in the airways that lead to their lungs. The twins were born in Jordan days after Yasmin, 28, crossed the border as a refugee with her husband and two children.