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France Hurtubise, a retired Communications delegate living in Montréal, looks back on her experience in the humanitarian sector and shares her story with us. Over the course of 25 years working abroad, France traveled to four continents and worked in countries heavily impacted by conflicts and disasters. In May 2022, she published “Grandeur et dénuement”, an account of her years with the Red Cross (ICRC, IFRC and CRC) and the UN.

As of early 2023, Haiti continues to experience a major security, social, economic, and public health crisis. Despite the deteriorating security situation, namely tied to armed violence, the Red Cross continues its essential work in support of the people of Haiti. One approach we have taken is providing direct financial assistance for the people who are still recovering from the 2021 Earthquake. To date, the Cash and Voucher Assistance program has enabled 1,400 households in the municipalities of Corail and Pestel, in Grande Anse, to meet their essential humanitarian needs and provides much needed relief during these difficult times.

Mondays are always the busiest day for the psychology team at Lviv Clinical Hospital of Emergency and Intensive Care in western Ukraine. Follow psychiatrist Dr. Oleh Berezyuk and his team around the hospital as they meet with new and existing patients across the rehabilitation, intensive care, surgery and internal medicine units.

What does it mean to live through a year of armed conflict? For some, it means having to leave behind everything they know for somewhere safer. For others, it means spending hours in bomb shelters, or hours without electricity. For too many it means being separated from family, struggling to access basic medical care and not knowing what will happen next. 

Guy Choquet, the Red Cross Director of Operations, Alberta Fire Recovery in Fort McMurray was one of thousands of people evacuated when flood waters came into the downtown area on April 26, 2020.
Choquet was also instrumental in supporting the Flood Collaborative, a group of local community organizations that formed to identify and address any gaps in services as residents began the recovery process.

Sarah Parisio's role within the Canadian Red Cross involves supporting people impacted by disasters through leading teams of fellow humanitarians who respond to emergencies in Canada and around the world. Discover how she brought with her skills developed through responding to emergencies in Canada to an international context and what new knowledge she brought back home in return.

Last November, a delegation from the Canadian Red Cross visited the Mexican Red Cross team in Nogales, a city in the state of Sonora bordering the U.S. state of Arizona. Many of the residents of this arid desert town came from other parts of the country to work in one of the numerous cross-border manufacturing plants, or maquiladoras, that produce goods for international export.

In honour of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the Canadian Red Cross is highlighting our efforts to prevent and fight gender-based violence in our communities and around the world.