Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It's a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work...

SYRIA: With continued fighting impeding relief response, the ICRC is urging the Syrian authorities and all others to implement a daily cease fire for at least two hours. A temporary halt in the fighting would allow the ICRC staff and Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded and the sick.

MADAGASCAR: On February 14th, tropical cyclone Giovanna landed in the district of Brickaville on the East coast of Madagascar, resulting in at least 16 dead, 65 injured, 10,856 people affected, 3,380 houses totally destroyed and 1,480 houses damaged. The Malagasy Red Cross responded well before the cyclone with 1,416 volunteers involved in an early warning campaign. A few hours after the cyclone, the Malagasy Red Cross volunteers started to assess the damage and the resulting needs.

NEW ZEALAND: Staff and volunteers from the New Zealand Red Cross took part in a variety of memorial events to mark the one year anniversary of the deadly 6.3 magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of 185 people on February 22, 2011 and damaged large parts of the city of Christchurch. In the aftermath of the disaster the Red Cross helped over 76,000 individuals and households, making it the largest relief and recovery program in the history of the New Zealand Red Cross.

MOZAMBIQUE: Late last month Tropical Cyclone Funso swept across the coastal areas of Zambezia province in Mozambique, leaving a trail of destruction to property and crops. Thousands of people were left homeless. The Mozambique Red Cross Society and the IFRC are launching an effort to provide relief to 10,000 families in need of shelter, food, mosquito nets and clean water.


GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

PHOTO:
Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers and members of the local community unload trucks of humanitarian assistance in Homs, Syria

Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It's a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work...

PHILIPPINES: Last week a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit western Visayas and some parts of northern Mindanao in the Philippines, claiming at least 22 lives with a further 71 people missing and 52 injured. Within hours of the earthquake the Philippine Red Cross, with the support of the IFRC, deployed 500 food packs, 1,000 bottles of drinking water, 1,000 sleeping mats, 1,000 blankets, 500 jerry cans, 30 tents and one mobile warehouse to serve as the temporary hospital.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Early this month a ferry carrying at least 560 passengers sank off the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Two weeks later, over 180 people were still missing with authorities believing the death toll could reach at least 200. Staff and volunteers of the Papua New Guinea Red Cross Society have been at the scene of the disaster since the accident occurred, offering counseling to relatives of the passengers waiting anxiously on shore and carrying out small distributions of emergency relief supplies.

SYRIA: Relief efforts continue in Syria as the violence escalates. Over the weekend Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoys reached the cities of Homs and Bloudan, providing much needed food, medical supplies, blankets, and hygiene consumables to thousands of people. The Syrian Red Crescent and the ICRC are planning further missions to continue providing humanitarian aid to people affected by the unrest.

BANGLADESH: Throughout the last decade, the ICRC has been working with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society to promote international humanitarian law to authorities in Bangladesh. Last week deans and department heads of 35 public and private universities in Bangladesh met to discuss the inclusion of international humanitarian law in their curricula. Additionally, this week the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an anti-crime force, is participating in an ICRC training course on humanitarian principles and international human rights law in domestic legislation.


GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

PHOTO:
Survivors of the 6.9 earthquake in the Philippines receiving relief support. Philippine Red Cross

Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It's a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work...

SYRIA: Violence in Syria continues with one of the latest casualties being the secretary-general of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr. Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro. Dr. Jbeiro was shot in a vehicle clearly marked with the red crescent emblem after attending meetings at Syrian Arab Red Crescent headquarters in Damascus. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, IFRC, and ICRC are renewing calls for an end to violence, while volunteers continue to administer life-saving first aid to the injured.

IVORY COAST: Following the second round of presidential elections in late 2010 where both candidates claimed victory, tension and violence grew into a full-fledged armed conflict in Ivory Coast. In the chaos, hundreds of children lost contact with their families. The ICRC and the Liberian Red Cross have registered around 600 children separated from their parents and are working to bring the children back their families.

PHILIPPINES: As tens of thousands of survivors in Mindanao, Philippines enter their second month of uncertainty, the Red Cross is announcing plans to drastically increase its support to communities affected by December’s Typhoon Washi. The revised operation will see the Red Cross provide 2,000 families with cash or other livelihoods support as well as reaching 15,000 families – an estimated 75,000 people – with food, water storage containers and hygiene kits. In all, the Red Cross now intends to reach 100,000 people through these various interventions.

SUDAN: For Darfur's pastoral communities, livestock is essential for their sustenance and constitutes the backbone of the local economy. The lack of rain, desertification and prevailing insecurity has stressed herding communities into animal overcrowding at the few options remaining, leading to increased risk of disease. The ICRC has been extending its support by training animal health workers and through large-scale vaccination campaigns in remote areas of Darfur, and in response herders are reporting a dramatic decrease in the number of animals they are losing to disease.


GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It's a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work...

SOMALIA: In response to ongoing armed clashes in the Middle Juba region of southern Somalia, the ICRC has sent urgently needed emergency medical supplies over the past few days to various medical facilities on both sides of the front line in Kismayo, Afmadow and Dhobley. In cooperation with local treatment facilities, the ICRC will continue to closely assess surgical and other medical needs in the coming days and weeks.

SYRIA: The situation in Syria has continued to deteriorate, especially in the past week, and violence is taking a heavy toll, leaving hundreds of people dead or wounded. Since June of this year, when the ICRC was granted greater access to the areas of unrest, the organization has been providing medical aid, food aid, and other basic items for the people affected. Over the past eight months the ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent have distributed at least 14,000 family sized one month food parcels, 30,000 school kits, 1,400 hygiene kits, medical supplies, hospital support, drought relief, and legal workshops concerning international humanitarian and human rights laws.

PHILLIPINES: An outbreak of the deadly bacteria Leptospirosis has highlighted the dramatic and ongoing needs of the tens of thousands of people in northern Mindanao, the most prominent island in the southern Phillipines, who were displaced and affected by Typhoon Washi. The Philippine Red Cross has deployed health staff and mobilized additional volunteers and resources in an effort to help limit the outbreak.

AFGHANISTAN: At the ICRC's Orthopedic Center in Kabul, playing wheelchair basketball is a welcome diversion for both patients and staff. The patients had been playing basketball together for some time, but it was more like 'buzkashi' – the ferocious no-holds-barred local equivalent of polo. Inspired by a training course they received in May of 2010 by West Linn-native wheelchair basketball player and coach Jess Markt, the players have practiced together every week since then.


GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies