Today’s date marks the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, and the recipient of the world’s first Nobel Price. Today, May 8^th, is the World Red Cross Crescent Day, and days from May 6th to 12th mark an annual Red Cross week.

Today, Red Cross has approximately 97 million volunteers, members, and staff members world wide. National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies exist in nearly every country in the world… Currently, the International Committee of the Red Cross recognizes 186 National Societies. The Red Cross describes its self as a “volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are.” The Red Cross gives the means to “vulnerable people at home and overseas to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their own communities, and… help people recover and move on with their lives.”

Red Cross is the largest independent humanitarian network in the world, so to list all of its activities would make a thick novel. At the time of writing this article, some of the Red Cross events in the media are the following: A UK charity worker, Michael Coleby, is doing a ten-day cycling marathon from Coventry to Geneva, Switzerland, to the home of the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to raise money for the organisation. American Red Cross volunteers are helping victims affected by the North Texas Tornadoes, and in Gaza Red Cross has begun to deliver fuel to the city’s 13 public hospitals in order for the hospitals to maintain essential health services.

Ways you can help or contribute on this World Red Cross Crescent Day are listed here.

Also in May:

World No-Tobacco Day – May 31st

International Day for UN Peacekeepers – May 29th

Africa Day – May 25th

The Day of Cyrillic Alphabet – May 24th

International Day for Biological Diversity – May 22nd

Cultural Diversity Day – May 21st

Cultural Diversity Day: A Special ‘Hello!’

World Day Against Homophobia – May 17th

World Telecommunications and Information Society Day – May 17th

Mastering the Art of Cheek Kissing

International Day of Families – May 15th

World Fair Trade Day – May 12th

Europe Day – May 9th

Wesak – May 5th

World Press Freedom Day – May 3rd

May Day – May 1st

Tags: Henry Dunant, Red Crescent, red cross, Volunteer

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under days of significance, General, social practices . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.