Dr Deborah Swallow - Global Cultural Diversity » red cross

World Red Cross Crescent Day – May 8th

guest — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:00:36 +0000

Today’s date marks the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, and the recipient of the world’s first Nobel Price. Today, May 8^th, is the World Red Cross Crescent Day, and days from May 6th to 12th mark an annual Red Cross week.

Today, Red Cross has approximately 97 million volunteers, members, and staff members world wide. National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies exist in nearly every country in the world… Currently, the International Committee of the Red Cross recognizes 186 National Societies. The Red Cross describes its self as a “volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are.” The Red Cross gives the means to “vulnerable people at home and overseas to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their own communities, and… help people recover and move on with their lives.”

Red Cross is the largest independent humanitarian network in the world, so to list all of its activities would make a thick novel. At the time of writing this article, some of the Red Cross events in the media are the following: A UK charity worker, Michael Coleby, is doing a ten-day cycling marathon from Coventry to Geneva, Switzerland, to the home of the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to raise money for the organisation. American Red Cross volunteers are helping victims affected by the North Texas Tornadoes, and in Gaza Red Cross has begun to deliver fuel to the city’s 13 public hospitals in order for the hospitals to maintain essential health services.

Ways you can help or contribute on this World Red Cross Crescent Day are listed here.

Also in May:

World No-Tobacco Day - May 31st

International Day for UN Peacekeepers - May 29th

Africa Day – May 25th

The Day of Cyrillic Alphabet – May 24th

International Day for Biological Diversity – May 22nd

Cultural Diversity Day – May 21st

Cultural Diversity Day: A Special ‘Hello!’

World Day Against Homophobia - May 17th

World Telecommunications and Information Society Day – May 17th

Mastering the Art of Cheek Kissing

International Day of Families – May 15th

World Fair Trade Day – May 12th

Europe Day – May 9th

Wesak – May 5th

World Press Freedom Day – May 3rd

May Day – May 1st

UN World First Aid Day: 10th September

Deborah Swallow — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:30:06 +0000

In 2000, World First Aid day was introduced by The International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). It was brought into being to raise awareness of how first aid can save lives in everyday and emergency situations. Events and ceremonies are organised each year on the second Saturday of September.

Why is first aid so important?

First aid not only reduces deaths, injuries and impacts in disasters but it can be used in every day crises. It provides an immediate response to the emergency until professional help arrives.

What do the IFRC do to promote first aid education?

The IFRC has introduced a first aid education kit for UK schools and youth organisations entitled- ‘Life. Live it’. They also provide education to thousands of volunteers, making sure skills are up to date with changing health conditions. Web based and e-learning methods are also used.

More than 3 million people are trained by National Societies in Europe every day. In the Middle East and North Africa region in 2006, 13,000 volunteer first aiders provided training and assistance to more than 350,000 people. Furthermore, in Malaysia, the Red Crescent has embarked on a strategy to provide one first aider in every home, training 31,000 people each year.

International Day of the Disappeared: 30 August

Deborah Swallow — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:12:32 +0000

The 3oth August each year offers the world community the
opportunity to remember the victims of enforced disappearance. The day aims to draw our attention to the plight of those who have been imprisoned without their friends or relatives knowing where or why; the agonising of their families; and also to highlight the work of those organisations who campaign against secret imprisonment and work to support the ‘disappeared’ and their families. The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances has instigated this date as a commemorative day in a bid to bring about the effective implementation of an international convention to protect the ‘disappeared’. Watch the movingly illustrative video…

The International Committee of the Red Cross website has information about people missing as a result of armed conflict or other situations of violence. More information about the Day, and about the campaign, is on the website of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances.

The British Red Cross is currently trying to trace the relatives of more than 2,000 families separated as a result of conflicts in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, among other countries. At events across the country, the organisation is giving away symbolic forget-me-not bookmarks embedded with flower seeds and asking the public to sow them on 30 August in memory of those who are still missing.

The following short film from Amnesty International in 2008 movingly depicts this day in words and pictures: