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After almost two weeks away from her family, Kadiatu’s Ebola tests came back negative and she was allowed to return home where she was reunited with her family; everyone that is, except for her father, whose fate is still unknown. Like many families in Sierra Leone, the loss of the family breadwinner is having a profound impact on the family. Kadiatu recalls her experience and her hopes for the future.

Fortunately, the roads reopened within a week of the earthquake and we were able to begin transporting supplies by truck.  The team moved quickly to set up camp, assist the local medical staff with their workload and begin mobile clinics on foot to reach otherwise inaccessible communities around Dhunche.

Summer brings warmer weather but also an increase in frequency of tornado warnings and watches. On average, Canada gets 62 tornadoes a year and they can have devastating effects on homes and communities. Do you know the difference between a tornado watch and warning? Are you prepared if there is a tornado in your region?

Canadian Red Cross appreciates the ongoing dedication of volunteers across the country dedicated to helping in times of disaster, emergency, community health and training through various programs.
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Volunteers in Ontario will receive recognition from the Canadian Red Cross for their volunteer work on May 22; here are three such volunteers and their stories of volunteerism.

Farmers from western Kenya could not hide the joy on their faces last summer as they filled a large truck with watermelon they had grown themselves. Abdi Khalim was one of the only farmers to experiment with a horticultural crop within the first planting season using the irrigation scheme established by Kenya Red Cross in the Kerio Valley.

National Lifejacket Day – did you even know there was such a thing?  Just before the May long weekend every year, the Canadian Red Cross works to raise awareness about the importance of wearing lifejackets. Each year, my colleagues and I wear lifejackets to work for the day to prompt conversations about drowning prevention. But being wide and busty, the ones I used to wear sat too high and barely closed.
Until recently, the truth is I hated lifejackets.  

Every year, May 8 marks World Red Cross Day to commemorate the more than 150 years of humanitarian actions by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement around the world.

Large-scale disasters like the Nepal earthquake last week continue to remind us of the importance of being ready. Canada is not immune to disasters, as we saw with the Alberta floods and the Lac-Mégantic train derailment in 2013.

We mark Emergency Preparedness Week (May 3-9) here in Canada by encouraging everyone to be ready.