ADVANCING THE WELL-BEING OF RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS IS THE FOCUS OF TODAY’S VIEWPOINT. IT IS WRITTEN BY HEAD OF EDITORIAL UNIT, YETUNDE OKE.
In 1863, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement was started.
The movement which was inspired by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, was as a result of the suffering of thousands of men on both sides of the battle of Solferino in 1859, which upset Dunant as many were left to die due to lack of care.
Dunant proposed creating national relief societies, made up of volunteers, trained in peacetime to provide neutral and impartial help to relieve suffering in times of war.
He also lobbied political leaders to take more action to protect war victims.
His two main ideas were for a treaty that would oblige armies to care of all wounded soldiers and for the creation of national societies that would help the military medical services.
It was established to care for victims of battle in time of war, but later, national Red Cross societies began to aid in the prevention and relief of human suffering generally.
Its peacetime activities include first aid, accident prevention, water safety, training of nurses’ aids and mothers’ assistants, and maintenance of maternal and child welfare centres, clinics, blood banks, and numerous other services.
Eighth day of May every year is also set aside to celebrate world red cross day, also known as red crescent day.
The date is the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, who was born on 8 may 1828 at Geneva, Switzerland, and died on 30 October 1910 at Heiden, Switzerland.
He was the recipient of the first Nobel peace prize in 1901.
And in Nigeria, the Nigerian Red Cross society actually began as the British Red Cross.
In 1960, the Nigerian parliament passed the Nigerian Red Cross bill into law and the Nigerian Red Cross society was born.
The Nigerian Red Cross society is Nigeria’s largest humanitarian organization with a volunteer strength of 800,000 spread across the 774 local government areas of Nigeria.
The major achievement of the Red Cross society over the years is its contribution towards humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
It provides essential assistance to people affected by conflicts, natural disasters and other emergencies.
It also works to promote and strengthen international humanitarian law and the rights of the most vulnerable people.
One of the most significant achievements of the Red Cross society is its role in the development of the Geneva conventions, which have established the standards for the conduct of armed conflicts and the protection of civilians and prisoners of war.
In recent years, many Red Cross volunteers have been attacked or killed while working in conflict zones and while this is unfortunate, volunteers still manage to perform considerable work in most conflict situations.
The unusual and particularly shocking aspect of the tragedies of these recent years is that those who died were killed in cold blood, despite being clearly identified and known as staff or volunteers of the Red Cross or Red Crescent, as well as other humanitarian organizations.
In Nigeria, challenges faced by Red Cross volunteers are mobility, protective equipment, heavy traffic in reaching the scene of incidents in time and welfare to motivate volunteers.
It is worthy to note that prioritising the safety and well-being of humanitarian volunteers is a top agenda.
However, many branches of Red Cross society face significant challenges in implementing these programmes.
As the world marks 2024 world Red Cross day with the theme “I give with joy, and the joy i give is a reward,” there is an obvious need for advancing the safety, security and well-being of volunteers.
Failure to carry out this could result in systemic deficiencies in the volunteers’ access to essential rights, such as proper insurance, other safety nets, and psychosocial support.
In conclusion, keeping volunteers safe and well is one of the most challenging ethical and moral tasks involving organisations.
Therefore, it is essential that the leadership of the Red Cross society would champion for the safety and care of volunteers through consistent actions, solutions and encouraging partners to support.
