All aboard!

Whoo-woo! Hear that? That's the swag train rolling in, courtesy of the Willamette Week Give!Guide (giveguide.oaktree.com/Donate.aspx). Donate $25 to the Oregon Red Cross via the Give!Guide, before December 31st, and receive a free large pizza, courtesy of Papa Murphy's. Donate $50 or more and also be entered into our drawing for a four-person emergency kit, worth $165!

And keep your eyes peeled for special incentive giveaway days, when your donation could make you the lucky winner of goodies from A to Z winery, Rogue Distillery, Kiehl's skin care, and more! We'll keep you posted.

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...

PAKISTAN: This year alone, more than 12,000 people have benefited from services in physical rehabilitation centers supported by the ICRC in Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. The centers provide custom-made artificial limbs and supportive devices, crutches and wheelchairs designed according to the needs of the patients. Physiotherapy helps patients learn how to use new devices and to regain their full mobility.

YEMEN: Violence in the Yemeni city of Taiz has had a serious impact on basic services in recent weeks, with life-saving medical services especially hard hit. The ICRC is reaching out to authorities, fighters and all others involved to respect human life and dignity and to allow first-aid and medical teams to treat and transport injured people in safety.

AFGHANISTAN: The ICRC's assistance activities are helping to create incomes for vulnerable rural communities by piloting a poultry rearing, food-for-work project with primarily women entrepreneurs. In the months since the scheme began more than 240 women have participated in the eight cluster villages. Each has raised around 15 chickens and collected an average of 20 eggs from each hen per month.

SRI LANKA: The war is over but now the people of Sri Lanka have the hard task of rebuilding their lives and homes. The Australian Red Cross is playing a key role in dealing with the acute housing deficit in Sri Lanka, but unlike many donors it is not building houses for people by contracting foreign companies and workers to do the job. Here, people build their own houses based on five specific cash grants, each one coinciding with the completion of a specific construction task.


GLOSSARY:

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

Stumped On A Gift?

Do you have an "impossible-to-read" family member or friend on your holiday shopping list? Instead of just forking out some cash, take the advice of Miss Oregon Caroline McGowan, who is inspiring people around the state with her platform of community resilience and preparedness through the Red Cross.

Pictured above, Caroline spent yesterday grabbing emergency kit materials and safety gear from our store as gifts for her sorority sisters (who I hope aren't reading this).

EVERYONE benefits from the gift of disaster supplies. The unthinkable could happen at any time, and you show your friends and family you care by adding to their home, car and "go" kits - gifts that keep on giving the whole year round!

So when you're making a list and checking it twice, be sure to borrow from our lists as well!

This Holiday Season, Give Where the Need is Greatest.

A fire or earthquake is never expected. It’s a traumatic experience for anyone, especially those who are left without a way to provide food for themselves or their loved ones. But in our area, the most common disaster this holiday season will be a single family house fire.

Imagine going to bed at night and waking up to your screaming smoke alarm hours later. You make it out of the house with your family, but you’re all in your pajamas. No one is wearing shoes and you don’t have your wallet. The reality begins to set in that you don’t have anywhere to go and you don’t have the ability to cook your kids breakfast in the morning. What will you do?

For thousands of disaster victims every year, this scenario is very much a reality. That’s why the Red Cross is there; to help disaster victims rebuild their lives by providing shelter and hot meals to give them strength for the difficult journey they may have ahead.

You can help provide quality meals for those in need by donating this holiday season. Your donation of $30 will feed three people, $50 will feed five and $300 will feed 30. Anything you are able to give will comfort those who are in the midst of a disaster.

Go to www.redcross.org/gifts to learn about the many ways you can help here at home, around the nation and around the world. Give Something that Means Something through the Holiday Giving Catalog.

On behalf of all of us at the American Red Cross, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season!

Get Best Buy Points for Donating Blood or Platelets!

Have you been looking to update your game or music library? Is your holiday shopping list bumming you out because you're strapped for cash?

Well now you can donate blood or platelets at any Red Cross blood drive and exchange your Donor Rewards points for Best Buy® Reward Zone® points - any number of points - anytime!

Yep - donating blood with Red Cross Racing just got better! You can help save up to three lives with every blood donation AND you can work towards some sweet Best Buy gear.

Here's how to convert points:
1. First, make sure you have a Best Buy Reward Zone member number. If you don't, visit myRZ.com and follow the easy instructions to create one today.
2. Give blood as often as you're able and report your donations online at redcrossracing.com
3. Log-in to your Red Cross Racing account and click on the Best Buy Reward Zone banner on the homepage and start converting your points.

Every time you report a donation you'll get points. You'll also get 100 points every time you refer a friend to join Red Cross Racing. Points can still be exchanged for exclusive prizes. And, like last year, you can support the Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces by giving back your points through Red Cross Racing.

Give Blood. Get points. Get the stuff you love! For more details visit http://www.redcrossracing.com/

Give the Gift That Saves the Day!

Now, more than ever, people want their gifts to really matter. In this season of hope, consider a gift that truly "keeps on giving". The Red Cross responds to 70,000 disasters a year. Please consider giving the gift of hope to a family in need this holiday season by choosing something meaningful for a loved one from our Holiday Giving Catalog. During checkout, you will have the opportunity to create personalized cards, letting your friends and family know you have honored them with a Red Cross gift, helping people in crisis-down the street, across the country or around the world-with a hot meal, a place to sleep or a shoulder to lean on.

Observe World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. Take a moment to remember that someone becomes infected with HIV every 12 seconds, about half of them under age 25. Every 16 seconds someone dies from AIDS-related causes. Thirty-one years into the epidemic, more than 34 million people around the world are living with HIV and many of these people are not aware they are infected.

Here in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released a new report showing that "only one in four Americans with AIDS has the virus under control."

The American Red Cross has been a key player in the fight against HIV globally for almost a decade and we continue to support comprehensive HIV prevention programs that reach people with the highest risk of contracting the disease in Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam, China, Guyana, Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. A large part of our work focuses on building the capacity of our sister Red Cross societies. We help them better target the services, as they help communities cope with the shock and stresses of the disaster that is the ongoing HIV epidemic. For more information, visit www.redcross.org/international

Please also check out this fact sheet on specific ways we're involved in the fight: http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/International%20Services/Fact_Sheet_HIVAIDS.pdf

Graphic courtesy of globalministries.org