Despite the radical cuts to development cooperation, the Finnish Red Cross will continue to help those who are the most vulnerable there where the need for aid is the greatest. The organisation asks the government not to further weaken the chain of aid by decreasing humanitarian aid.
July is often the busiest time for Voluntary Rescue Service, i.e. Vapepa, to search for missing persons, as the number of those who get lost or go missing increases during summertime. This summer, Vapepa is using a new search method which helps setting search missions in motion more quickly than before.
Late May Finnish Red Cross opened an Emergency Response Teddy Clinic in connection with the annual World Village Festival, celebrating multiculturalism in downtown Helsinki.
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.
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 launches an emergency appeal for funds on March 14. The Finnish Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund needs donations to prepare for helping victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Over a two-week period, Finns have donated some EUR 2,5 million to the Finnish Red Cross Haiti Collection. Until now, funded by the Finnish Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and ECHO, the FRC has sent to Haiti a mobile clinic, a field hospital operating theatre, a hospital ward with 100 beds, aid supplies, and 34 aid workers
The Finnish Red Cross continues its efforts in Jokela. The Red Cross stand-by team of psychologists provides support for students and teachers at the Jokela School Centre to help them carry on with their daily lives.
