World Red Cross Day: Celebration

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Celebration

Celebrated on May 8 th 2008

On Wednesday, May 8, join Red Cross around the world as it celebrates the birth of Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Dunant's foresight, humanitarianism and voluntary spirit led to the creation of the Geneva Conventions and a global network of organizations that have saved and improved millions of lives.

The American Red Cross works with a global network of Red Cross, Red Crescent and equivalent societies to restore hope and dignity to the world's vulnerable people. The American Red Cross partners with countless organizations to provide efficient and effective relief of human suffering and the empowerment of people in its six areas of expertise -- emergency response, primary health care, food programs, organizational development, tracing and Red Cross message delivery, and the dissemination of international humanitarian law.

Today the American Red Cross is helping to implement more than 90 projects in 45 countries.

Examples include:

· A three-year organizational development project in Grenada. The project helps the Grenada Red Cross to improve its ability to provide invaluable services to its own communities in such areas as disaster preparedness and response, HIV/AIDS youth peer education, and community development projects.

· Emergency food distribution in Russia. During the past three years, the American Red Cross has assisted vulnerable populations in Russia through a massive emergency food distribution. Funded by a U.S. government grant, the project has assisted two million elderly, disabled, institutionalized, orphaned and needy people throughout Eastern Siberia over the past three years.

· America's Fund for Afghan Children. Through the America's Fund for Afghan Children, the American Red Cross sent 1,000 school chests, full of pencils, notebooks, crayons, rulers and other school supplies, during the first days of classes in Afghanistan in April 2002. The American Red Cross is currently working with chapters across the United States to collect an additional 2,000 school chests for distribution in June. All told, these chests will provide school supplies to 12,000 children in Afghanistan.

· Addressing childhood illness and death. To help save the lives of more than 100,000 children, the American Red Cross, in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, UNICEF and other organizations, is spearheading a 10-country, five-year initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean. Teaching the principles of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) and the 16 Key Family Practices, the American Red Cross is actively addressing the most common causes of childhood illness and death.

World Red Cross Day

Celebration

History

Greetings

8 May

Jean-henry Dunant

Tracing Services. Utilizing a global network of Red Cross, Red Crescent and equivalent societies and more than 1,000 chapters in the United States, American Red Cross tracing services help people find loved ones around the world. As part of its tracing services, the American Red Cross established the Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center, a national clearinghouse for United States residents seeking the fates of loved ones missing since World War II and its aftermath.

· The Measles Initiative. The Measles Initiative is a long-term commitment to control measles deaths in Africa by vaccinating 200 million children through campaigns in nearly 36 Sub-Saharan African countries. Since the initiative was launched in February 2001, more than 21 million children have been vaccinated in eight countries.

Over 175 countries around the world have National Red Cross Societies, and many of the activities of these other National Societies are the same as those of the American Red Cross.

Day-to-day, over 250 million global members provide Red Cross services guided by the seven fundamental principles of Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality.

For more information on how you can become involved in the Red Cross at the local, national or international level, call the American Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley at (610) 865-4400.

The American Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley serves more than 660,000 residents in Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties. Last year the Red Cross provided health and safety education training and emergency relief services to more than 15,700 Lehigh Valley residents.