International Aid Work (Page 14)

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.

Meet Erwan Cheneval, a rapid response manager with the Canadian Red Cross. Erwan works to address some of the challenges that happen when mobilizing humanitarian operations, details that are extremely important to the success of these operations. 

Martin de Vries, a Canadian Red Cross aid worker currently in Ethiopia as part of the Africa drought response, shares how the first rainfall of the year brings joy to a community, but doesn't mean the end of the drought.

A medical outreach team is a team of four trained healthcare staff headed by a clinical officer and comprised of a nurse, a midwife and a vaccinator. Equipped with motorbikes, medicines, vaccines and basic diagnostic tools, the teams enter communities to provide primary healthcare curative and prevention services to remote populations.

In late February, boreholes were handed over to the Wun-Ajok community in South Sudan. These boreholes are part of a Canadian Red Cross program to improve survival for mothers, children and babies, and are the first sources of water in these areas. 

​Ethiopia is currently experiencing a number of disasters, including drought and conflict, especially in Eastern and Southern Ethiopia are currently in the grip of a severe drought, the result of failed spring and autumn rains in 2016. Millions are impacted. The Canadian Red Cross is working with the Ethiopia Red Cross to help strengthen their capacity to respond to disasters and emergencies. 

When his mother first brought Munir to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent malnutrition clinic in Al Tal, Rural Damascus, he was so fragile the doctors couldn’t measure him. Munir was five-months-old but weighed just over 2 kilograms – less than his own birth weight. He looked exhausted, worryingly thin, and was unable to sit or hold up his head without his mother’s help.

Have you ever been curious about the doctors, nurses, social workers and technicians the Red Cross sends overseas when a disaster strikes? Who are they? What inspires them to do humanitarian aid work? On February 9, eight Canadian Red Cross aid workers answered questions like these, submitted by Canadians from across the country,