With 16 years under her belt in the Canadian Red Cross, Ottawa volunteer Debbie James is accustomed to focusing on others. Debbie’s can-do attitude has led her through more than 100 responses across the country and an array of roles supporting others.
“If I have the bandwidth and my help is needed, I’ll try to do it,” she says.

“Right away people are telling you, ‘I'm so thankful that you called. I was not expecting any other calls this week.’ They are happy to hear from us.”
That is the way Luisa Castro, the provincial coordinator of the Virtual Support Team describes the reaction of participants in the Friendly Calls program.

For over three years, Cheryl Horgan has been volunteering as an emergency management responder with the Canadian Red Cross in New Brunswick. She spent some her time volunteering with our Friendly Calls program in Atlantic Canada.

Fires are one of the most common emergencies experienced by Canadians in their home. Home fires can happen anywhere and any time, but most commonly occur between December and March. There’s a lot you can do to prevent it from happening, however. Here are some steps to follow before returning home after a house fire.

In 2018, Faith Okolie and her family arrived in Montreal as refugees from Nigeria. They were in danger and sought safe haven in Canada. They found it, and now Faith teaches newcomers in Winnipeg how they can stay safe in their new homes.

Sepideh Alvandi and Vahid Zolfagharimoheb are married physicians from Iran who arrived in July 2021 to make Canada their new home.
The couple wasted no time applying their professional skills and humanitarian drive to help others in need in their new country.

It’s one thing to plan and prepare teams to support children aged 5 to 11 years old for the COVID-19 vaccination, it is an entirely different experience to support your own children through this experience. Robyn Emde, mental health and psychosocial support lead at Canadian Red Cross shares her own experience with this.

Despite it all, this year brought about inspiring and touching stories that resonated with our readers. We looked at the most popular stories from 2021 and brought them together for us to enjoy again as we end 2021.