The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.
SIERRA LEONE: The Red Cross is responding to a growing cholera crisis in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown and surrounding areas. Sierra Leone's government has declared the cholera outbreak as a national emergency after 176 deaths and over 11, 000 cases have been reported since January. The Canadian Red Cross has deployed one community health worker to support Sierra Leone Red Cross who is responding on the ground with the help of 400 community based volunteers.
SENEGAL: The Senegalese Red Cross is distributing food to help families going through the lean season in Sagata. A total of 15 volunteers are working around the clock at a distribution site that covers 73 villages, a total of 810 households and 6,386 people, to make sure all of them can get their food ration to cover the most basics needs. This is part of the food distributions undertaken by the Senegalese Red Cross Society to assist almost 400,000 people in the most affected regions of the country.
COLOMBIA: Recent clashes between the armed forces and armed groups have disrupted health-care services in Toribío and Jambaló districts, in the north of Cauca department in southern Colombia. Over the past week, the ICRC and the Colombian Red Cross have stepped up their efforts to support the indigenous health-care service in the area by running mobile clinics able to treat more than 40,000 people.
GLOSSARY:
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross