The Red Cross Round-Up

Ethiopia: Since early December when violence erupted in South Sudan, more than 85,000 people have fled into the neighboring country of Ethiopia, arriving in Gambella, exhausted, sick, and in desperate need of support.
 
The Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the Swiss Red Cross Society, are supporting the refugees with improved access to medical care and clean water, along with hygiene promotion.
 
Plans are now underway to assist 12,000 of the most vulnerable refugees, especially pregnant women and refugees with disabilities, by providing fuel saving stoves, firewood, non-food items, and emergency shelters.
 
Serbia: On World Tuberculosis  Day, March 24, 2014, many of the Red Cross branches across Serbia organized local information campaigns held by specialized doctors that involved questionnaires and lectures to schoolchildren, elderly citizens, and Roma population.
 
This was all a part of their efforts to strengthen and expand the access to diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, by targeting vulnerable people and risk groups in communities.
 
On World Tuberculosis Day, more than 50 Red Cross branches in Serbia took part in the country-wide campaign to raise awareness and assess people’s knowledge about tuberculosis.