Health care services in Syria have all but collapsed, and help is needed urgently. To this end the Finnish Red Cross is challenging everyone to participate in the Hunger Day Collection, to be held on 15–17 September.
The Finnish Red Cross opened a new Kontti Second Hand Department Store in Itäkeskus, in Helsinki, on 4 August. Even though the weather was rainy, the opening attracted a large crowd of Helsinki citizens.
The Amiri family, from Afghanistan, fled war and death, but were separated on the way. With help from the Red Cross tracing, the father and the eldest son were able to contact each other, but the mother and the youngest child are still missing.
The Finnish parliament will cast their final vote on the government’s motion on the stricter conditions of family reunification. A total of 17 non-governmental organisations are appealing to the MPs to abandon these cruel and short-sighted new conditions. The organisations include refugee organisations, human rights groups and children’s rights organisations.
The start of the “Summer Rubber” sexual health campaign and the festival season were celebrated at the traditional YleXPop event in Lahti on Saturday. This year, the event also featured a sexual health kiosk that provides the opportunity to pass a condom skills test or to ask any sex-related questions.
The asylum seekers living in Vantaa wanted to help Finnish people in return, and so they signed up as volunteers for the Finnish Red Cross. This friend group, jointly formed by the local branches in Tikkurila, Western Vantaa and Korso, visits an assisted living facility every week.
Two massive earthquakes struck Nepal a year ago. Almost 9,000 people died and nearly a million buildings were destroyed. Over five million people suffered from the consequences of the earthquake. The Red Cross has been there since the start of the disaster.
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 office of Amnesty International in Finland, the Finnish Red Cross, the Finnish Refugee Council, the Finnish Refugee Advice Centre, Finn Church Aid, Save the Children Finland, the Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters, and the Finnish Somali League have criticised measures which would make it more difficult to reunite families.
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.
Everyone has the right to get help. A person might need help at home or in the street, and the need for help is almost always sudden. During the Red Cross Week between 4th and 10th of May, the Red Cross emphasises the first aid skills of young people, in particular.
As migration increases, the number of missing persons has also increased in Europe. The national Red Cross organisations look for missing family members throughout Europe.
The Finnish Red Cross conducted an election survey for the leaders of the parliamentary parties in January. The leaders were grilled about their stances on supporting family caregivers and receiving quota refugees, for example.
In the international first aid group, language is not a barrier for learning important skills. The goal of the multicultural group is to get to offer aid in different events next autumn.
The media and the organisations must prove their reliability every day. This is forced by the increased flood of information and propaganda, as well as the increasingly difficult aid work. This is how Yves Daccord, Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross, summarised the reality in the seminar organised on 25 February in Helsinki.
A total of EUR 1 405 026 has been donated to the Good Holiday Spirit campaign. The annual campaign by the Finnish Red Cross and the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare was held for the 18th time. This year, a total of 18,000 vouchers, each worth EUR 70, were distributed to low-income families with children in Finland.
The Good Holiday Spirit campaign helps less fortunate families to forget their everyday troubles for a moment, at least for the holidays. Inka Poikela can still remember what receiving a food voucher felt like.
According to the school health survey of 2009, every tenth Finnish youth feels lonely and more and more young people do not have a single friend. The funds raised during the Common Responsibility for Youth (Yhteisvastuu nuoresta) project, ending at the end of the year, were directed at preventing the increasing loneliness of young people during the last three years.
Culture must be taken into account more carefully in preventing disasters and in rebuilding, says the new World Disasters Report published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The Finnish Red Cross needs you all to pitch in and help with the Hunger Day Collection from 18–20 September 2014. Everyone is welcome to take part in this year’s Hunger Day campaign. No previous Red Cross experience is required. Collectors and donors are needed all over Finland.
Micaelle Macabinquili, a young Filipino mother, gives a gentle push to her baby girl, babbling happily in a swing. Rainne Micaelle was the first baby born at the Finnish Red Cross health clinic in Balangiga in November, after Typhoon Haiyan.
Two aid workers from the Finnish Red Cross are involved in an operation to halt the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa. Healthcare adviser Tiina Saarikoski is working in Liberia, while nurse Leena Railimo-Saares is stationed in Guinea. The operation aims to get the Ebola virus under control.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is extremely concerned about spiralling violence in Ukraine, and about the lack of respect for medical and humanitarian work and for those carrying it out.
The Finnish Red Cross helps Filipinos who lost their livelihood to typhoon Haiyan and helps them to buy building supplies. The clinic that was sent from Finland is already run by local healthcare professionals.
‘I recognised the value of the work done by the Red Cross after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, so I decided to join as a volunteer,’ says general medical practitioner, Doctor Luo Xian Xin.
The Chinese Red Cross has just over two million volunteers. That’s as many people as live in all of Latvia. Volunteers are vitally important to the Red Cross, particularly in disaster relief and first-aid training.
‘My crops used to rot away under flood waters or fail to flourish when there was a drought. Now, any excess water is drained away from the fields into a channel, which then provides water for irrigation during periods of drought,’ Chinese farmer Tian Ruxiong rejoices over the help provided by the Red Cross.
'I would like to work less, but it’s just not possible. If I did, my family would not have enough to live on,' says Wei Xiuxue, a 70-year-old Chinese farmer.
He lives in southwest China in Guizhou province, one of the poorest regions in the country where an EU-financed Red Cross programme is improving the conditions of remote rural communities.
Over recent years Wen Xian Liang of China has learnt what to do if a natural disaster strikes.She regularly takes part in preparedness exercises arranged by the Red Cross together with the local authorities.
