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Farmers from western Kenya could not hide the joy on their faces last summer as they filled a large truck with watermelon they had grown themselves. Abdi Khalim was one of the only farmers to experiment with a horticultural crop within the first planting season using the irrigation scheme established by Kenya Red Cross in the Kerio Valley.

National Lifejacket Day – did you even know there was such a thing?  Just before the May long weekend every year, the Canadian Red Cross works to raise awareness about the importance of wearing lifejackets. Each year, my colleagues and I wear lifejackets to work for the day to prompt conversations about drowning prevention. But being wide and busty, the ones I used to wear sat too high and barely closed.
Until recently, the truth is I hated lifejackets.  

Every year, May 8 marks World Red Cross Day to commemorate the more than 150 years of humanitarian actions by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement around the world.

Large-scale disasters like the Nepal earthquake last week continue to remind us of the importance of being ready. Canada is not immune to disasters, as we saw with the Alberta floods and the Lac-Mégantic train derailment in 2013.

We mark Emergency Preparedness Week (May 3-9) here in Canada by encouraging everyone to be ready.

Defining a child soldier, determining appropriate treatment for prisoners of war, and negotiating peaceful resolutions were among the tasks completed recently by university students participating in a Red Cross club workshop at the University of Calgary.  

The interactive Paxium workshop focused on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and increased awareness of the difficult decisions political, military, and civilian personnel have to make during conflicts.

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

The Canadian Red Cross is part of a delegation visiting Ebola-affected areas of West Africa this week, accompanying Dr. Greg Taylor, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, in visits to various treatment centres and in affected communities. Canadian Red Cross President and CEO, Conrad Sauvé, and Stephen Cornish, executive director of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), were part of the delegation.

Floods are the most frequent and costly natural disasters in Canada. A flood is often caused by heavy rainfall and the rapid melting of a thick snow pack in the spring. During this time the majority of Canadian rivers, and other large bodies of water, swell, increasing the risk of flooding. The potential for flood damage is particularly high where there is development on low-lying, flood-prone lands.