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

When a CN Rail train derailed last week, resulting in fire in several petroleum tank cars and the evacuation of more than 100 people from homes in a rural area in northwest New Brunswick, a team of Canadian Red Cross disaster volunteers was in place within hours to help.

The Red Cross worked out of a community centre in the nearby village of Plaster Rock, NB and supported evacuees and responders around the clock for nearly five days.

This week, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer went to South Sudan to assess how to assist people who are affected by the latest conflict.

Since the outbreak of violence in mid December, thousands have died or have been wounded, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes fearing for their lives.

Denyse had always wanted to do humanitarian work but the opportunity didn’t present itself until a few years ago, after she raised her two kids and the Canadian Red Cross began deploying psychosocial support delegates after the Haiti earthquake.

Haiti was Denyse’s first mission with the Red Cross. Since then she’s been back to Haiti a second time to provide psychosocial support during a cholera outbreak, and to Pakistan to provide that same support after a flood. Her latest deployment  as a member of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) has taken her to the Philippines, to help out after Typhoon Haiyan.  

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

We’re barely into January and this winter season has already left us yearning for tropical getaways and the relatively balmy days of spring.
Terms like frost quakes and polar vortex are being tossed about in the media to explain what we’ve been experiencing. These phenomena are not new, but what exactly are they?