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Katherine Mueller is a Canadian aid worker with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Africa and was deployed to Sierra Leone to support the Red Cross response to the Ebola virus disease outbreak. Katherine discusses her experiences in a place of great need and hope.

C’est dans la souffrance et dans la peur qu’Amnah est arrivée au camp Azraq pour réfugiés syriens, dans l’est de la Jordanie. Âgée de 9 ans, la jeune fille venait de passer les 3 derniers mois à être trimballée d’une maison à l’autre, d’un village à l’autre, avant d’enfin traverser la frontière sud qui sépare la Syrie et la Jordanie, tout cela dans l’espoir de trouver un refuge et des soins médicaux.

Les bénévoles de la Croix-Rouge qui interviennent sur les lieux de sinistres s’efforcent de réconforter les familles touchées. On peut imaginer la tristesse d’un enfant qui perd tous ses jouets dans un incendie ou une inondation. C’est pourquoi nous offrons des peluches aux petits, en espérant que ce sympathique compagnon les aidera à traverser cette dure épreuve.

Last month, we told the story of Muggins, the famous Canadian Red Cross fundraising dog from Victoria, British Columbia.
During the First World War, he raised more than $21,000 (about $400,000 now), just trotting around town alone with two donation boxes on his back. He often visited ferries and freightliners arriving in Victoria, and grew so famous that overseas visitors would ask for the little white Spitz dog. When Muggins eventually died in 1920, his body was preserved by a professional taxidermist, and that is where the story seemed to end last time. But now we’ve uncovered more clues!

As December is upon us and we prepare to enjoy the holiday season with family and friends, sharing gifts, traditions and special moments with loved ones, and reflecting on the year that has passed, we also want to invite Canadians to help us bring warmth and comfort to people who are not as fortunate in communities across the country. 

In September, the Red Cross opened its first Ebola treatment centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone, a district hard-hit by the outbreak. Toronto nurse Kirsty Robertson is a Canadian Red Cross delegate on a short-term deployment in the centre to aid in the Ebola response.

Nine-year-old Amnah arrived at the Azraq Syrian refugee camp in eastern Jordan scared and in pain. She had already spent three months being bumped from house to house, community to community, before being shuttled across Syria’s southern border with Jordan in the hopes of reaching safety – and medical care. Now one of nearly 12,000 Syrian refugees living in the Azraq camp, she has yet to see her new home, meet her neighbours or visit her future school. Instead, she has spent her first 10 days at Azraq in the Red Cross Red Crescent hospital, where the medical team is helping her to heal from a three-month-old gunshot wound.

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.