Lets be Disaster Preparedness

Children are undoubtedly one of the most vulnerable groups affected by disasters. A large number of children are suffered, injured or even loss their life in various disasters all over the world. This vulnerability is a result of peoples limited understanding about hazard risks around their environment, which causes lack of preparedness in dealing with disaster. Disaster Preparedness Awareness in School To promote disaster preparedness and risk reduction concepts in school education, IRC mobilises members of Youth Red Cross (Youth Red Cross – YRC) networking and volunteers in 33 provinces. Started from the end of 2006, IRC has implemented Disaster Preparedness Awareness in School Program as its efforts to promote disaster preparedness and risk reduction concept for children and youth. IRC develops the program by taking benefit from the extracurricular education provided for YRC as well as using peer education approach.

Henry Pomeroy Davison

Henry Pomeroy Davison (June 12, 1867 in Troy, Pennsylvania – May 6, 1922 in Locust Valley, New York) was an American banker and philanthropist. The oldest of the four children of George B. and Henrietta Davison, Henry’s mother died when he was just eight years old. After completing his education he became a bookkeeper in a bank managed by one of his relatives, and at age 21 he gained employment at a bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the hometown of his wife Kate Trubee. Three years later he moved to New York City where he was employed by the Astor Place Bank, and sometime later became president of the Liberty National Bank. Several years later he was involved in the founding and formation of the Bankers Trust Company. In 1909 he became a senior partner at JP Morgan & Company, and in 1910 he was a participant in the secretive meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia that may have led to the creation of the Federal Reserve and has generated much speculation over the years.

From Solferino To The Birth Of Contemporary International Humanitarian Law

The early history of most institutions has been blurred by the passage of time. Even when their initial form can be clearly discerned, it often bears little resemblance to the institution as we know it today. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a striking exception – it can be traced back to a precise date, and its origins are relatively well known. This first phase is worth considering in detail, because it casts light on the entire subsequent development of the Red Cross.

On 24 June 1859 the armies of France and Sardinia engaged Austrian forces near the northern Italian village of Solferino. This decisive battle in the struggle for Italian unity was also the most horrific bloodbath Europe had known since Waterloo: in ten hours of fierce fighting, more than 6,000 soldiers were killed and more than 30,000 wounded.

From the battle of Solferino to the eve of the First World War

On 24 June 1859, during the War of Italian Unification, Franco-Sardinian forces clashed with Austrian troops near the small town of Solferino in northern Italy. On that day, a citizen of Geneva, Switzerland, Henry Dunant, was travelling to the area to meet Napoleon III on personal matters. On the evening of the battle, Dunant arrived in the village of Castiglione, where more than 9,000 wounded had taken refuge. In the main church, the Chiesa Maggiore, where thousands were lying unattended, Dunant and the local women strove for several days and nights to give them water, wash and dress their wounds and hand out tobacco, tea and fruit.

Dunant remained in Castiglione until 27 June and then set out again, returning to Geneva on 11 July. He was beset by financial difficulties, but could not forget what he had seen, and in 1862 he published a work entitled A Memory of Solferino. In it he described the battle and the wounded of the Chiesa Maggiore, concluding with a question:

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

In 1919, representatives from the national Red Cross societies of Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the US came together in Paris to found the “League of Red Cross Societies“. The original idea was Henry Davison’s, then president of the American Red Cross. This move, led by the American Red Cross, expanded the international activities of the Red Cross movement beyond the strict mission of the ICRC to include relief assistance in response to emergency situations which were not caused by war (such as man-made or natural disasters). The ARC already had great disaster relief mission experience extending back to its foundation.

The formation of the League, as an additional international Red Cross organization alongside the ICRC, was not without controversy for a number of reasons. The ICRC had, to some extent, valid concerns about a possible rivalry between both organizations. The foundation of the League was seen as an attempt to undermine the leadership position of the ICRC within the movement and to gradually transfer most of its tasks and competencies to a multilateral institution. In addition to that, all founding members of the League were national societies from countries of the Entente or from associated partners of the Entente.