Driving through communities in La Lima, the damage is harrowing to witness. A family photograph, a child’s backpack and a stuffed bear are some of the belongings that families had to abandon as they rushed to evacuate.
The flooding that followed the two hurricanes devastated entire communities who were already dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and the pre-existing humanitarian crisis.
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Around the world, over 35 per cent of women have been affected by sexual and gender-based violence. While many countries aim to combat this type of violence through legislation, engaging communities is often a very effective way to promote a change in behaviour.
In November, the Canadian Red Cross sent an emergency health clinic and aid workers to Honduras to provide much-needed health services after Hurricanes Eta and Iota devastated the Central America region.
On a sweltering day in late February volunteers from the Haitian Red Cross are trying their best to focus on Dr. Sherley Bernard despite the heat. Her energetic demeanour and the bare grey concrete walls help, but it’s the subject matter that captures their attention. The task at hand, among other things, learn how to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak — recently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
Around the world childbirth is seen as a joyous occasion. It marks the beginning of a new life, full of possibility and hope for the future. In many countries we take this process for granted. There’s pain, certainly, but afterwards women can typically expect to recover with a happy, healthy child. However, in Afghanistan that is frequently not the case. In fact, childbirth can be a death sentence.
Jean-Baptiste Lacombe is a Rapid Response Manager with the Canadian Red Cross and recently shared with us how his latest mission went supporting the Africa Region for the International Federation of the Red Cross during COVID-19.
One member of the Far East Welfare Team was Jacqueline Van Campen, now a resident of Victoria, BC. She was recruited by the Canadian Red Cross in 1953 when she was working on her Master of Social Work at Laval University. She spent a year in Japan and three months in Korea near the front, where she worked in various Maple Leaf Clubs.
As we get ready in ring in 2020, we're reflecting on some events from the past decade that brought together international aid workers, inspired innovative solutions to complex challenges, and showed the amazing capacity for resilience humans have in the face of disasters.