At the request of the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Canadian Red Cross is operating vaccination clinics for businesses and communities in the Greater Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo areas.
We recently had the chance to catch up with three amazing staff working in mobile clinic sites. Read their stories below!
Mateus Azoubel Filho – Site Manager
What is your professional background?
I am from Brazil. I was a dentist in Brazil and worked for eight years in the Brazilian Air Force. I worked in an Air Force Hospital where we had dentists, doctors, and psychologists. This was in the north of Brazil in the city of Recife.
How did you become involved with the Red Cross and what resonated with you about the Red Cross?
A friend of mine and I went on to the Red Cross website and I read about the Red Cross for the first time. In Brazil, we do not hear often about the Red Cross. When I read about it, I knew I wanted to work here!
I have worked in health all my life - I have more than 20 years of background since graduating in 1998 as a dentist. I also love to help and take care of people.
I like to work in this area because nothing is better than helping people - the feeling is very good!
What does it mean to be a site manager?
This is the first time I am in an operation working with the Canadian Red Cross as a site manager.
This operation is great - I collect information, liaise with clinical and non-clinical people, and care for the people that come. As a site manager, I have to take care of my staff, the site we are in, and the organization and the relationships. I like all of it!
You have to know about healthcare, coordinating staff, and the connections between people. You have to take care of people - both staff and clients that come to our organization. You also have to report what is necessary, know when there is an incident, and be calm under pressure.
I always learn. The culture here is quite different - in Brazil, people hold each other! Here it is a little different, and now we must do social distancing! We do not see the faces of the people [we are speaking with], so we do not know if they are smiling or not. In Brazil or Canada, we are learning every day because of the situation that we are in. I have learned here at the Red Cross to include humanity in my performance better than ever before.
Joseph Tilahun – Operational Health & Safety (OHS) Advisor
What is your professional background?
I have a background in occupational health and safety. I went to Ryerson University where I got my degree.
I love communicating with people, and that is by far one of the most important things! I have no problem going up to someone and explaining what to do and what not to do in the workplace.
COVID-19 is all about health and safety. Cases would increase if there was less health and safety, and I think the pandemic is providing more OHS graduates a chance to work in this field.
How did you become involved with the Red Cross and what resonated with you about the Red Cross?
This job was created specifically for COVID-19 and long-term care. I started in December 2020 - at that time, we were active in long-term care. PPE was probably the most important thing - workers were always in full PPE, we would have to wear four-piece PPE with gowns, face masks, scrubs, and face shields.
From there, I shifted to vaccination clinics, which has the same idea behind it. I make sure people are safe. With the Red Cross, I am not just doing OHS. I am helping with a lot of different things, like doing inventory, lifting, and different jobs as needed.
This job was created during the pandemic and has given me an opportunity to broaden my horizons and get a different understanding of OHS in a field I was never in previously. I was in manufacturing previously, and this has given me a different perspective.
It makes me feel happy [to represent the Red Cross] - I am doing something positive and I want to make sure that everyone gets vaccinated, and everyone is healthy so that we can open up again.
Marissa Stringer – Deputy Operations Lead
What is your professional background?
I went to school first for a degree in social work, and I did some child welfare work. Then I worked for the Métis Nation of Ontario. I went back to school for nursing and did some work in mental health and in long-term care. I also worked for my city of Timmins, supporting fire and flood evacuations of Indigenous communities.
How did you become involved with the Red Cross and what resonated with you about the Red Cross?
I was really interested in the Red Cross because I had started doing some emergency management work with my city. Once I got involved with the Red Cross, I felt privileged to be able to have an impact on people’s lives, whether it be something small or with larger disasters. Right now, people are just so thankful to get a vaccine. You just feel really privileged to have impact and to be able to help people.
On my second day after starting with the Red Cross, I was deployed to a forest fire response, and then another forest fire response! It was one after another it seemed for the first year. Everyone was telling me, ‘This is an unprecedented year, and we won't be like this next year!’ That was 2019.
There is no better way to learn about the Red Cross than just going to work in a response. It was a way to learn quickly for me. Long-term care was my first major COVID response.
I was working in a small long-term care home before I got hired with the Red Cross, so I had the background in that environment, and I found that helpful! Having some operational background with the Red Cross, I was putting those pieces together.
I think the biggest thing with COVID is helping people to understand transmission and how to protect themselves. My clinical background has helped staff on the ground.
What does it mean to be deputy operations lead for mobile vaccination sites in the GTA?
When I first started, I was more hands on - supporting the teams and being there for setup and making sure I was there to answer any questions, because everybody was so new. I was working a little more closely with the community partners or businesses where we were hosting the clinics, which was new for our staff. Now, site managers are very comfortable with their role and can just take things and run with them, so we are able to step back into work a little more virtually.
I love working with the team, getting to know people and relationship-building. Also, I have seen some of the site managers and staff from long-term care come back to support mobile clinics and it is like we haven’t missed a beat! We have been able to hop right back into those relationships!
What does it mean for you personally to represent the Red Cross?
Companies that we support with vaccination clinics are just so thankful! They say they are so happy to have us, thank us for coming, and say they really appreciate the work that we do! There are a lot of positives.
The Red Cross is known to be there to help people when they need it, and that is a really important role! To have that reputation as soon as you put on that vest, I make sure to continuously have that in mind, ensuring that we are representing the Red Cross as best as possible and remembering our values.
For more information on available job and volunteer opportunities at the Red Cross, go
here!