World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day 2019

WORLD Red Cross and Red Crescent Day (WRCRCD) is a celebration of the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) Movement. It is observed annually on May 8, the day in 1828 when Henry Dunant was born. Dunant is the founder of the ICRC and recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. The first Red Cross & Red Crescent Day was held on May 8,1948.

This year, the WRC-RCD focuses on the theme #Love. As in previous years, it “will celebrate the strength and reach” of the movement’s global network, and the contribution of its

staff and 11.7 million active volunteers. It intends to broaden the public’s awareness and understanding of and deepen appreciation for the ICRC movement by highlighting the diversity of its work and the universality of its approach.

The ICRC established a permanent presence in the Philippines in 1982, although the organization had been active in the country since 1959. The selfless men and women who make up the staff and volunteers of the ICRC deserve the world’s utmost respect, support, and appreciation for offering their time, skills, and resources for the welfare of humanity. A significant number of them have lost their lives while serving or saving others. Let us offer our prayers for them and the families they have left behind.

The Red Cross idea was born in 1859, when Dunant was moved by the sight of a bloody battle in Solferino, Italy, between the armies of imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian alliance. Seeing thousands of men dead or dying on the battlefield and the wounded lacking medical attention, he organized the local people to bind the soldiers’ wounds and to feed and comfort them. Later, he called for the creation of national relief societies to assist those who were wounded in war and pointed the way to the future Geneva Conventions.

The Red Cross was born in 1863 when five Geneva men, including Dunant, set up the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became the ICRC. The following year, 12 governments adopted the first Geneva Convention; a milestone in the history of humanity, offering care for the wounded, and defining medical services as “neutral” on the battlefield. In 1919, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which leads the celebration of WRCRCD, was founded in Paris. The IFRC initially focused on improving the health of people in countries that had suffered greatly during the four years of war. Its goals then were “to strengthen and unite, for health activities, the existing Red Cross societies and promote the creation of new societies.” The Federation is currently made up of around 190 individual national societies dedicated to the Fundamental Principles of Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity, and Universality.

As we celebrate WRC-RCD this year, we are urged to help harness the power of emotion felt toward ICRC Movement, by using a simple call to action: What do you #love about Red Cross and Red Crescent? One way of responding to this is by sharing an image or video showing love and support for the movement. Another way to express this love and respect for the ICRC’s work is through our generous support, in whatever form, that can help them in their fulfilling their mission. No one is too poor to share or do his/her share for the good of humanity.