July 2015 (Page 2)

Red Cross volunteer Fabrice Vanhoutte loves putting a smile on children’s faces. So, he has plenty of tricks up his sleeve for the young people in a Saskatoon shelter.
 
“If I see a kid who is upset, I don’t necessarily go right up to them but I stay nearby and play my mouth organ or start showing a card trick,” says Vanhoutte.
 

It’s an exciting time for some of the people evacuated by the Saskatchewan wildfires who get to return to their communities. There are plenty of smiles as they board buses on their way back home. Most have mentioned looking forward to sleeping in their own beds; others are excited to see their pets.

Lynn MacLeod didn’t worry when she volunteered to fly across the country to help people affected by the Saskatchewan wildfires. She knew that she was well-prepared.

“I’m so happy for all of our Red Cross training! It means I can go anywhere in the country and know how to help,” says MacLeod, who is from Prince Edward Island.

Recovering from an emergency in any context is never as simple as dusting yourself off and returning to life before the disaster. After Ebola, Liberians are not only dusting off trauma and grief, they are also dealing with new and unknown health complications reported by Ebola survivors, stigma and fear, the impact on local economies, loss of jobs and livelihoods, the interruption to education, and shortages of crops and food production.

Medical help can sometimes be far away if you’re living in rural and remote First Nations communities in British Columbia. In the past, getting on-call emergency assistance to people in need could be a major challenge. The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) is working with the Canadian Red Cross to change that.

Selena and her son, Jade, were visiting Prince Albert when they heard people at home in Air Ronge were evacuating because wildfires and heavy smoke threatened their community.
The news meant they couldn't return home, not even for a toothbrush, Selena recalls.

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