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The Red Cross is often seen as a leader worldwide in disaster response, but too few recognize the critical development work undertaken by the Canadian Red Cross that helps millions of the world’s most vulnerable people every year. The Red Cross is committed to working towards achieving the targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Over the past seven years, the Canadian Red Cross has invested more than $70 million in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health projects in 20 developing countries, affecting the lives of 40 million people. We have been able to do so by taking advantage of the unparalleled network of Red Cross volunteers, who have a permanent presence even in the most remote parts of their countries. These efforts have made a significant impact on equity, making sure that the most marginalized communities have access to life-saving interventions and initiatives. The Canadian Red Cross is a leader in malaria prevention. Since 2003, with the support of the Government of Canada, we have helped distribute more than six million insecticide-treated bed nets in Africa. While bed nets help prevent malaria, they are only part of the efforts we undertake to eliminate this deadly disease. In Kenya, the Canadian Red Cross has implemented a home-based treatment project, which uses volunteers to determine the best, most effective strategies to ensure fast access to life-saving drugs. Our approach to eradicating malaria, with its impact on equity, has now been adopted by the Global Fund and other leading malaria agencies. In Honduras, significant gains have been made by the Red Cross in reaching thousands of women, men, and children, in an effort to ensure healthy pregnancies, safe births, a reduction in childhood illness, and an improvement in the nutritional status of children under the age of two. In the past two years, the project saw a 62 per cent reduction in the cases of infant mortality.
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