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It takes a long time to grow an old friend.
 
You could call it the unofficial motto of the Dilke Red Cross Society, with close-knit friendships being one of the reasons why the organization has lasted the test of time.
 
The group from the small Saskatchewan community of Dilke is celebrating 100 years this year.

It’s humbling to speak with someone who refers to the Second World War as simply “the war,” as a real experience not out of a history textbook. For Red Cross volunteer Joan Chapella, this reality is simply a chapter in an exciting life that has taken her across the globe.

In the spring of 2016, Leonie Bree says she was happily in the process of starting her own business, and she and her husband had recently bought a home in the neighbourhood of Abasand. Her daughters, Vanessa and Katrena, who were starting their own families, had also just bought homes in Beacon Hill and Waterways. However, that all changed after wildfires swept through the city in May, forcing the family to evacuate. Unfortunately, all three homes were lost to the flames.

The Canadian Red Cross team is continuing to visit villages and remote regions of Haiti affected by Hurricane Matthew to provide medical care through the mobile health clinic. Last week, the mobile clinic visited four communities including Cap à Fou which had been previously inaccessible to aid workers due to severely damaged roads. 

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world. Here is an update on Red Cross response to flooding in Dominican Republic, earthquakes in New Zealand and conflict in Iraq.

As part of the Canadian Red Cross Healthy Youth Relationships curriculum, Saskatchewan runs two youth symposiums with the goal of empowering youth with leadership skills so that they are better equipped to serve their schools and communities.  We caught up with 14-year-old Olivia Scrimshaw, a student in Saskatoon, to find out what the symposium meant to her.

Brenna Brown is a Disaster Management volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross. She was most recently involved in the Alberta Fires response, setting up emergency reception centres and shelters in Calgary and Edmonton to provide services for the thousands of evacuees from Fort McMurray and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

Last week, I had the privilege of emceeing and providing a youth perspective at the 2016 Canadian Partnership for Women & Children’s Health (CanWaCH) Conference. The conference, held in partnership with McGill University’s Public Policy and Population Health Observatory and Institute for Health and Social Policy (IHSP), drew an audience that was as diverse as it was passionate.