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At the Rigaud public library, a dozen people impacted by the floods have come to meet Red Cross volunteers in order to register and receive emergency assistance. In the waiting room, the mood is unpredictable. Laughter can quickly give way to sorrow, and for good reason. This is the second flood in three years for most of the residents here.

One of the best ways to be flood ready is to have an emergency kit in your home with enough supplies to meet your family’s needs for at least 72 hours. Most people remember to put the basics in their kit like, a first aid kit, non-perishable food, and water but there are things you may not think to include that you and your family need.

In Ethiopia, volunteers are being trained as branch disaster response team members, to help build the Ethiopian Red Cross' capacity to respond to disasters and emergencies. A key part of this includes having impacted communities participate in all stages of the response - that way, the help being provided is the help that is the most needed. 

Yasmine Farret is a Risk Management and Security Advisor at the Canadian Red Cross. Through her young career, Yasmine has demonstrated her passion for humanitarian work through her dedication and work ethic. Yasmine kindly agreed to tell us more about her journey and her career.

A generator delivered in a wheelbarrow is just one of the pieces of equipment that recently helped save the life of a mother and baby during a power outage at Nhamatanda hospital in central Mozambique.

Elizabeth (Liz) McMahon has a big job at the Red Cross field hospital in Mozambique – she makes sure the doctors and nurses have all the medicines and medical equipment they need. It’s busy​ from the moment she, and the 3,000 various medical items associated with the field hospital, arrive in country.

Louise Carson is an Emergency Management volunteer in New Brunswick. She lives in Saint John and is retired with one grandchild who was born this summer. Volunteering is both her hobby and her passion, and she volunteers with various organizations in her community.
 

An obvious sense of pride washes over Abebe Dotamo when he talks about his homeland. He describes Ethiopia as a country with a long history of people from different ethnicities, religions and cultures living and working together in harmony. That pride and passion is something that Abebe brings to his work as the local branch manager of the Kembata Zone for the Ethiopian Red Cross.