For the past 26 years, Phyllis Wiscombe of Arnes, Manitoba, has given her time to help people affected by disasters, train future disaster responders and improve the Red Cross’s capacity to help people in need. For her outstanding contributions to the movement, Wiscombe recently received the Order of the Red Cross, the highest honour the Canadian Red Cross can give a volunteer.
116
Plus récents billets
End of mission is a time of deep reflection and slow adjustment. When I was deployed to Germany as a Canadian Red Cross delegate, my life changed drastically. Working as an interpreter in a German Red Cross transit camp for refugees, I experienced a complete shift in lifestyle. I went from a quiet 9-5 to non-stop 12 hour shifts, welcoming a thousand refugees every night. I adjusted quickly because the rapid pace of response left no room for easing in. When the end of my mission came, I braced myself for another major life change: going back to normal.
Islem Cheriet is a physiotherapist from Montreal who has been working for the ICRC in Yemen since January 2015. Islem recently helped a little girl, fitting her for a prosthesis and teaching her to walk again.
Hayat means "life" in Arabic, but at the age of three, little Hayat has experienced more sorrow than most adults. Her home in the Al-Qaflah area of Amran governorate in Yemen was destroyed in an airstrike. Her much-loved younger sister Dunia was killed. Hayat suffered severe shrapnel injuries and her right foot was so badly damaged that it had to be amputated.
Dr. Gwendolyn Pang, Secretary General of the Philippine Red Cross, recently paid us a visit at Canadian Red Cross offices in Ontario and British Columbia, where she reaffirmed the strong partnership formed with us in the wake of the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan which struck her country two years ago.
When Jillian Wright of Ottawa, Ontario was approaching her seventh birthday on October 23, she told her friends and family that instead of gifts she wanted money so that she could donate to the Red Cross to help Syrian children.
Toronto-based disaster management expert Sarah Oberholzer shares stories of two Syrian refugees working as translators during her mission at the camp in Erding, Germany.
The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.
First-time Canadian Red Cross delegate Dr. Michael Boroditsky of Winnipeg shares his experiences working in a rural emergency field hospital in Dhunche, Nepal.