Disaster Response (Page 6)

Since the start of this year’s wildfires season in British Columbia in mid-June, more than 1,600 wildfires were recorded in the province, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes throughout the province. The Canadian Red Cross sent close to 200 employees and volunteers from across the country to help support individuals, families and communities affected by the wildfires.

Most Canadian Red Cross international emergency health clinic deployments last four weeks.  In fall 2020, however, Garry Enns of Manitoba was the first Canadian Red Cross humanitarian worker to support the clinic from start to finish.

Meet Wegdan Rashad Abdelmoemin. Wegdan moved to Toronto, Ontario, just over two years ago, and started volunteering not long after. An international medical graduate, with training in psychiatry and mental health, she is currently studying to get licensed as a doctor in Canada.

This summer, Walmart and the Red Cross have worked together to raise $4.2 million across Canada through customer donations, Walmart internal fundraising, and a corporate match of $820,000 from Walmart Canada’s corporate office.

Sharla Kojima is a safety and wellbeing responder on deployment with the Canadian Red Cross in Manitoba working with First Nation members evacuated to Winnipeg because of air quality concerns due to wildfires. Her help has been very appreciated by those impacted, as shown in this comment card.

Hit by several significant emergencies in recent years, the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on August 14 caused more damage, destroying critical infrastructure resulting in more than 2,180 deaths, more than 12,200 injuries, and 298 people missing so far. The Red Cross has been working to meet the urgent needs of people impacted since the first moments after the earthquake occurred. 

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as information began to flow into Canada about how serious this disease might become, Alberta Health Services started ramping up their testing capacity. Some 10,000 kilometres away in Southeast Asia, the Philippine Red Cross took notice.

Lucia Lasso is one of two full-time Head of Emergency Operations with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which means she’s almost always thinking about disasters. But even when she’s not actively engaged in an operation, she spends her time thinking about how the Red Cross can respond to emergencies more effectively. This includes encouraging other women to aspire to positions of leadership.