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As an administrator of a series of emergency-type hospitals in remote parts of the world, Erwan Cheneval has had to supervise, plan, develop, and monitor them and maintain appropriate standards of care. Meeting these challenges in abnormal circumstances is doubly hard.

Five years ago, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti impacting millions of lives, and leading to the largest single-country emergency response in Red Cross history. Today, the work continues through long-term projects to support communities on their path to recovery.

Recently, Canadian Red Cross volunteer and photographer Johan Hallberg-Campbell travelled to Haiti to document that progress. His work, Haiti five years on: An Fòm!, is a stunning collection of images of some of the people and places that tell the story of Haiti’s recovery. 

It's hard to believe that 2014 has very nearly come to a close. Nostalgia has officially kicked in and we’ve started to reminisce over all the notable events that occurred in the last twelve months. While many top 10 lists focus on the newsworthy stories from pop culture, sports and science, we thought we’d also take a minute to look back at the year in Red Cross Talks posts. So, without further ado, here are our ten favourite posts of 2014 in no particular order. 

From Nicaragua to Newfoundland and on to Alberta, Aliusha Benoit follows her heart when communities need help, particularly after a disaster.

It isn’t always the easiest path to travel, but since Aly first joined the Red Cross as a disaster relief volunteer in Nicaragua more than 20 years ago, she wouldn’t live any other way.

 

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. 

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. 

I’m not sure how many people know that I am a Personal Disaster Assistance volunteer with the Red Cross in Ottawa, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the amazing work I get to do, and how you can support a very worthy cause.

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.