Red Cross / Red Crescent Day

This week is Red Cross / Red Crescent Week and today (8th May) is World Red Cross / Red Crescent Day. On this day we are asked to remember the efforts that all National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies do worldwide to advocate for the relief of human suffering, whether from disease, famine, disaster or war.

Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies provide relief as the world's largest humanitarian network, with activities and presence in more than 170 countries. The National Societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent comprise more than 97 million members and volunteers - the world's largest volunteer force - assisting some 233 million beneficiaries each year. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement was born of a desire to bring assistance without discrimination to the wounded on the battlefield and to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day was born in 1922, just after World War I, when the Red Cross National Society in the Czech Republic proclaimed a three-day truce at Easter to promote peace. The idea behind the truce was to recognize one day every year during which the Red Cross would advocate for the relief of human suffering from disease and the humanity of seeing a world free from suffering due to war. 8th May, the anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was chosen to be that day and was called World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.

See here for more information about the work of the British Red Cross