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The evening in February began as a celebration of the Okotoks Dawgs baseball team at its annual banquet dinner – and ended early when the guest speaker had a medical emergency.

Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame member and renowned sports journalist and author Bob Elliott was just minutes into his speech when he went into cardiac arrest and lost consciousness.
 

Suha immigrated to Canada and wanted to give back to her community so she volunteers with the Canadian Red Cross in the HELP program and has assisted in public education through emergency preparedness presentations. This is why she gives back in her own words:

Earlier in 2019, students came together to come up with innovative solutions for the complex response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this guest blog post, the winning team talks about their solution. 

Depuis la découverte du virus Ebola, en 1976, la République démocratique du Congo a connu dix épisodes d’épidémie. La plus meurtrière frappe en ce moment les provinces de Nord-Kivu et d’Ituri. On parle de milliers de victimes – des dizaines de nouveaux cas sont répertoriés tous les jours –, de l’accès difficile aux populations touchées, des groupes armés qui n’aident en rien à la situation et de la menace de plus en plus probante d’une propagation de la maladie vers les pays frontaliers. Mais ce dont on parle peu, c’est des répercussions réelles du virus sur les survivants, leur famille et leur communauté.
 

Since the discovery of the Ebola virus, in 1976, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has experienced ten outbreaks. The deadliest one yet is currently ravaging the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. We’re talking about thousands of people impacted – dozens of new cases are identified each day, limited access to affected populations, armed groups who are not helping the situation and the increasingly obvious threat of the disease spreading to bordering countries. However, what we are not hearing about are the real-life consequences of the virus on survivors, on their family and on their community.   
 

Joanna Stepien, a Canadian labour and delivery nurse, shares her experiences after going to Nhamatanda, Mozambique with the Red Cross transition team following Cyclone Idai.

We all know the importance of actively supervising children around water. Drowning is one of the leading causes of unintentional death for Canadian children ages one to four, and statistics show that two-thirds of toddler and infant fatal drownings happened during an absence in supervision. So what does active supervision mean when children are in, on or around water?

We all have unique needs, so it makes sense that your emergency kit will also be unique. Read how Red Crosser Mahmood Jafari makes sure his emergency plan includes plans for his mobility during emergencies and disasters, and how those with impaired mobility can be ready.