Antananarivo, October 1st 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Following a brief meeting with the President of the Malagasy Red Cross, I feel that now I have a better understanding of what the Red Cross principle of voluntary service really means. He told me a story that happened a few years ago in an isolated region of the country.
He was a volunteer with the Malagasy Red Cross when a wave of forest fires caused the displacement of hundreds of families. The local Red Cross didn’t have the funds to undertake a disaster prevention program, but there was an urgent need to educate families and protect them from natural calamities. His small group of fellow volunteers formed a community committee and started recruiting and mobilizing other Red Cross volunteers to implement a disaster preparedness program “without a cent,” as he himself put it.
Regardless of the program’s economical constraints, the volunteers were trained and went door to door to educate families on what to do to prevent and respond to major forest fires. They didn’t receive a per diem or a financial recognition to their work. But they did it because vulnerable populations needed their help.
I have seen similar efforts take place in different parts of the world and these examples give me the sense that the Red Cross is indeed an immense family. I don’t speak Malagasy, but at our office we all speak the same language. We all believe in the importance of protecting and providing assistance to vulnerable communities wherever they are, wherever we are.
Posted for: Nathalia Guerrero
Following a brief meeting with the President of the Malagasy Red Cross, I feel that now I have a better understanding of what the Red Cross principle of voluntary service really means. He told me a story that happened a few years ago in an isolated region of the country.
He was a volunteer with the Malagasy Red Cross when a wave of forest fires caused the displacement of hundreds of families. The local Red Cross didn’t have the funds to undertake a disaster prevention program, but there was an urgent need to educate families and protect them from natural calamities. His small group of fellow volunteers formed a community committee and started recruiting and mobilizing other Red Cross volunteers to implement a disaster preparedness program “without a cent,” as he himself put it.
Regardless of the program’s economical constraints, the volunteers were trained and went door to door to educate families on what to do to prevent and respond to major forest fires. They didn’t receive a per diem or a financial recognition to their work. But they did it because vulnerable populations needed their help.
I have seen similar efforts take place in different parts of the world and these examples give me the sense that the Red Cross is indeed an immense family. I don’t speak Malagasy, but at our office we all speak the same language. We all believe in the importance of protecting and providing assistance to vulnerable communities wherever they are, wherever we are.
Posted for: Nathalia Guerrero
posted by Alison Frehlich at 11:38 AM
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