The Finnish Red Cross wants to contribute to everyone having an equal opportunity to be a part of Finnish society. Everyone should be able to operate as an individual or as a member of different communities without being discriminated against. Equality means treating everyone equally.
The Finnish Red Cross is donating 100,000 euros from the Disaster Relief Fund to help the victims of the Yemeni Civil War. Money and aid are not enough, however – only respecting the rules of war can turn the situation in Yemen for the better.
Lives have been saved every day since October 2017 at the field hospital in Bangladesh, managed by the Finnish Red Cross. Now, the hospital along with its equipment has been transferred to the local Red Crescent, which will continue producing health services together with other organisations.
This year, the donations collected in the Finnish Red Cross and the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare campaign helped a total of 28,000 low-income families with children. Food vouchers give many families a chance to have Christmas, but their situation must not be forgotten in everyday life.
In 2018, we worked hard to help people in Finland and abroad. The following images are excerpts of what we have achieved together. We wish to thank all our volunteers, employees, supporters, partners and friends of the Finnish Red Cross!
So far, nearly 844,000 euros have been donated to the Good Holiday Spirit collection for domestic low-income families with children. Approximately 1.1 million euros are still required to reach the collection goal.
A total of 2.8 million euros were donated to the Finnish Red Cross Hunger Day collection this year. The donations were indeed needed quickly as Indonesia was hit by an earthquake. Currently, Finnish Red Cross logisticians are making sure that help reaches the areas affected by the natural disaster.
World AIDS Day takes place on Saturday 1 December. On the themed day, organisations and decision-makers from a variety of different fields make appeals in favour of international HIV work Finland has succeeded exceptionally well in treating the HIV epidemic. According to organisations, it is possible to copy this success story all over the world.
In Finland, poverty affects about 110,000 children. Childhood poverty will affect young people’s transition into independence and have consequences manifesting during their adulthood. The Good Holiday Spirit collection by the Finnish Red Cross and the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare for impoverished families with children will be launched on 22 November.
The Finnish Red Cross is donating EUR 100,000 from its Disaster Relief Fund for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia. In addition to the acts of inter-communal violence that escalated in June, the people of Ethiopia suffer from malnutrition and lack of clean water in Kochere and in the Gedeo Zone.
The Finnish Red Cross continues the closure of reception centres. According to the Finnish Immigration Service’s plan, the reception centres at Kitee and Kotka will be closed at the end of June. From the beginning of July 2018, the Finnish Red Cross will run 21 reception centres for adults and families and 3 units for unaccompanied minors. The total number of residents is 3500.
Today, once again, on World Refugee Day, the UN refugee agency UNHCR reports the number of people trying to reach the shores of Europe and those drowned at sea during the journey. Images of drowned refugees catch the interest of people every once in a while, but the fate of these people is ignored more often than not.
Kristiina Kumpula, the Secretary General of the Finnish Red Cross, received the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe. Kumpula's selection is based on her exemplary work in promoting international solidarity and cross-cultural co-operation.
The children's joy is contagious as they cheer on their idol: "Kaisa is tougher!" On the final day of the Kontiolahti Biathlon World Cup event, enthusiastic little skiers from the Kitee reception centre are waving Finnish flags among the thousands of spectators.
A friend survey conducted by the Red Cross shows that volunteer friends help people trust themselves, others and society more. Volunteer friend visitor activity can effectively prevent loneliness and social exclusion.
Toini Niskonen has been working as a volunteer in Lempäälä for several years. She first met Maija-Liisa while taking out the bins, as Maija-Liisa lives in the building next to Toini’s block of flats.
Large-scale power outages in the beginning of January demonstrated the strength of the Red Cross volunteers’ aid in Kainuu. The situation was worst in Suomussalmi and Hyrynsalmi.
The multicultural day centre in Helsinki is visited by a dozen or so undocumented people every day. Inside, visitors can drink a cup of coffee or tea, enjoy a bowl of warm soup and chat with the day centre’s staff or volunteers. Advice and help is at hand for difficult situations.
World AIDS Day is on Friday 1 December. Currently there are about 600 people with HIV in Finland who are unaware that they have been infected. Various organisations play a significant role in the fight against HIV when the goal is to make contact with those individuals whom public healthcare cannot easily reach.
In the autumn of 2015, tens of thousands of asylum seekers coming to Finland needed food and a roof on their heads quickly. Managing the exceptional situation required exceptional measures from the Red Cross as well as from other actors. What costs were incurred by the government-funded reception operation carried out by the Red Cross?
The autumn of 2015 was a challenging time for the Red Cross workers and volunteers in Finland. Emergency accommodations for asylum seekers had to be established at a few hours’ notice, and there could be as many as three reception units set up in one day. How does the Finnish Red Cross assess the past two years?
The evacuation centre can be used in disaster situations in Finland or nearby areas. The centre was tested as part of a catastrophe exercise carried out on the Estonian island of Saaremaa on 14–15 September.
The Finnish Red Cross is prepared to support the authorities at all times in rescue and aid operations around Finland, in the event of a disaster. This collaboration was put into practice recently in Vaasa, with a fictional passenger ferry accident involving over 100 casualties.
Tens of thousands of refugees and immigrants are stuck in Greece. The Finnish Red Cross will send a specialist to support the international aid operation.
The Red Cross appeals to everyone to help Ethiopians. A severe drought means that millions of people in Ethiopia and in sub-Saharan Africa have no food.
At the moment, the efficient way to get help to those in need in Syria is via the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The local volunteers do significant aid work in live-threatening conditions. They assist the Syrian people every day by delivering food, medicine and blankets.
The trucks, carrying food, medical supplies, blankets, and other aid supplies arrived in the towns of Madaya, Foa’a, and Kefraya on Monday, 11 January.
Tun Tun Naign, 22, realised the significance of aid work in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar, in 2012, when he was sent there to support those living in a refugee camp.
The need for help is still great in Nepal, particularly in the remote areas. The mobile clinics of the Finnish Red Cross will be located in the badly damaged Dolakha district that lost half of its healthcare clinics in the earthquakes.
European governments are wrong if they think they can cut off the flood of refugees crossing the Mediterranean by sending fleets to destroy the vessels of human smugglers, said the Vice-President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Kenyan doctor Abbas Gullet.
The Finnish Red Cross has received numerous questions about how best to help the afflicted people in Nepal. At the moment, the most efficient way to get help to those in need is via the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The collected funds are used for emergency relief and acquisition of materials for people who have lost their homes.
Finnish Red Cross sent an emergency response unit, specialized in logistics, to Kathmandu airport, Nepal. This single international airport in the country is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a hub for incoming aid. There are only a couple of land routes into the country, and the roads are difficult to negotiate.
