The Red Cross Round-up

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.

CHINA: Red Cross Society of China specialist teams are helping thousands of survivors affected by the earthquake in Sichuan’s Ya’an district, which left nearly 200 dead and many more injured. They have been providing immediate medical treatment, food, clean drinking water and latrines to earthquake survivors. The Red Cross has also received a lot of support itself from the local community.

KENYA: With brown muddy water reaching above their knees, people affected by flooding across Kenya wade to higher and drier patches of land. Mud and thatch homes have crumbled across the region. Acres of farmland have been washed away or submerged. Dams are overflowing and thousands are homeless. When the waters started rising, the Kenya Red Cross Society responded immediately, deploying scores of volunteers to assist with search and rescue operations. Now, with support from the IFRC, an emergency appeal has been issued to assist 52,000 people over the next six months.

SENEGAL: With support from the ICRC, 40 people displaced by the armed conflict in Casamance are about to participate in small income-generating projects. The projects, which have already benefited 36 mine victims and their close relatives, will now also involve 40 new participants who fled violence and are currently living in hardship in the Ziguinchor area.  The ICRC has been working in Casamance since 2004 to bring protection and assistance to victims of the armed conflict. In addition to visiting detainees, the ICRC upgrades and provides support for health-care facilities, helps villagers boost their farming capacity, improves access to clean drinking water and takes emergency action for people adversely affected by violence. It carries out some of these activities in close cooperation with the Senegalese Red Cross Society.

GLOSSARY:

IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies