Williams Lake grandmother Marlene Johnnie is the glue holding her family together during the B.C. wildfire crisis.

Jenna Atchison is a nurse from Ottawa. This year, she traveled to east Africa to work in a cholera treatment centre. Jenna took a moment to share her experience with us. 

Over the next days and weeks, thousands of evacuees from wildfires in British Columbia will be returning to their home and the Red Cross will be there to assist them all through recovery. 


 

Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, all countries with varying degrees of instability; all countries in which travellers expose themselves to a certain amount of risk; and all countries in which Colleen Laginskie has worked.

"Ecstatic", "grateful", "still standing" - just a few of the thoughts that were shared with us as people returned home to 100 Mile House after being forced to evacuate due to wildfires in British Columbia. 

“Babies need diapers. People need houses,” says 8-year-old Kamloops resident Jenna Kansky. 
Jenna and her 7-year-old friend Isabella Sharp set-up a lemonade stand to raise funds to support the Canadian Red Cross BC Fires appeal.  

It was a slow journey as people evacuated from Williams Lake on Saturday evening, with many driving all night to get to Kamloops. For some, the experience was almost overwhelming. After they arrive, the Red Cross is there to help register them and provide assistance. 

Bashiir sits upright on his cot inside a crowded cholera ward. “It is the first time I am sitting like this in a long time,” says Bashiir. “With my illness, I could not sit, I could not stand. For three days and three nights, I was vomiting. My entire body was aching. Those were black days.”
 Bashiir is at a treatment centre in eastern Africa for acute watery diarrhea/cholera set up by the Canadian Red Cross, with support from the Government of Canada.