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In late November 2016, the Ecuadorian Red Cross, with support from the Magen David Adom (MDA), the Israeli National Red Cross Society, conducted mass-casualty incident (MCI) training in Ecuador. An MCI is a situation – natural or man-made – where emergency crews become overwhelmed by the number of casualties. Many Red Cross National Societies respond to MCIs in their home countries; these Societies then share their knowledge with other Societies to improve their response capabilities.

Did you know that the Red Cross is governed by seven Fundamental Principles? The first principle is humanity, which can feel a little vague - we're all part of humanity, right? Here's what we mean, and why it is important to the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. 

The Canadian Red Cross receives many calls for assistance, but this call, from one of the evacuees from the Alberta Fires in May, was a bit different.
Kim Matchem contacted the Red Cross for a teddy bear. Kim was eight months pregnant with her daughter Tenley when she was evacuated from Fort McMurray. 

Immediately after Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti on October 4, the Haiti Red Cross Society and other Red Cross partners rushed staff and volunteers to the worst affected communities to assess needs and deliver emergency assistance. Canadian Red Cross aid delegate Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell was part of an IFRC assessment team that was among the first to reach many storm-battered towns and villages and had a key role in supporting the health response that followed, in coordination with Haiti’s Ministry of Health, the Haiti Red Cross and other health responders. These are some of her reflections:

Spirits were high from the first few moments of the aid distribution in Jérémie, Haiti, when Red Cross volunteers and staff provided residents with much-needed tarps and hygiene kits.
 
Prior to the distribution, Red Cross teams visited the city to identify those left most vulnerable after Hurricane Matthew and ensured that their immediate needs were met.

In the spring of 2016, Leonie Bree says she was happily in the process of starting her own business, and she and her husband had recently bought a home in the neighbourhood of Abasand. Her daughters, Vanessa and Katrena, who were starting their own families, had also just bought homes in Beacon Hill and Waterways. However, that all changed after wildfires swept through the city in May, forcing the family to evacuate. Unfortunately, all three homes were lost to the flames.

The Canadian Red Cross team is continuing to visit villages and remote regions of Haiti affected by Hurricane Matthew to provide medical care through the mobile health clinic. Last week, the mobile clinic visited four communities including Cap à Fou which had been previously inaccessible to aid workers due to severely damaged roads. 

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 flooding in Dominican Republic, earthquakes in New Zealand and conflict in Iraq.