International (Page 30)

The Canadian Red Cross is deploying its Emergency Health Clinic and a team of nine aid workers to Haiti jointly with the French Red Cross in collaboration with the Haitian Red Cross and the Haitian Ministry of Health. 

This year’s World Disasters Report, released by the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) examines the importance of building resilience in order to meet the growing needs for humanitarian action around the world.  

Elmita Nodeis sits on the ground in the courtyard of Philippe Guerrier school in the town of Les Cayes in Haiti. The school's been turned into an evacuation centre since Hurricane Matthew hit, and she's been sleeping there with eight members of her family ever since.  The 51-year-old has a few buckets in front of her, and she's busy scrubbing clothes. 

While the damage from a Category 4 hurricane like Matthew can be severe no matter where it hits, some countries are more vulnerable than others to the impacts of storms. One of the countries hit hard by Matthew is Haiti – and at this time the extent of the damage is not fully known. 

Students today are bombarded with images and headlines of humanitarian crises. The Syrian refugee crisis and violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) around the world have made humanitarian education in the classroom more relevant than ever. The Canadian Red Cross offers Exploring Humanitarian Law Educator Trainings to teachers across the country, where participants learn the basic rules of International Humanitarian Law, also known as the law of armed conflict.

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 disasters in Syria, Niger and Korea.

The Capacity Strengthening for Emergency Response in Africa (SERA) program is part of a partnership between the Canadian Red Cross and the Government of Canada. A large part of the SERA program involves training local Red Cross Societies in partner countries to help them be better prepared to handle disasters. 

What does it mean when we say we are responding to a silent disaster?

Thanks to social media and 24-hour news it’s pretty easy to stay informed. But despite all this media coverage around the world there are events that happen every day that are not reported, or are underreported. Some of these events are serious, like famine and outbreaks of disease. We call an event like this a silent disaster.