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Cross Activities Is About: Virtually all American Red Cross services are given through the thousands of community volunteers who work every year in chapters. The annual average of volunteers serving in all Red Cross activities is about 2 million. Through them the Red Cross belongs directly to the people.Origins and History of the American Red Cross.—While Henri Dunant was urging his vision of voluntary relief societies at all the courts of Europe, an organization of the kind he foresaw was functioning in the American Civil War. This was the United States Sanitary Commission (1861-1866), organized largely through the efforts of Dr.
Virtually all national societies now have disaster relief programs. Several have blood programs. All have a large youth membership in the schools (Junior Red Cross). Since World War II, a number of the European and Asian societies have conducted extensive refugee relief activities. An increasing number of societies throughout the world are building community health and safety instruction programs.The League of Red Cross Societies.—The League of Red Cross Societies is a federation through which the national societies maintain contact with one another and assist each other.
National Societies.—Each of the 74 national Red Cross societies is independent, providing service programs to meet the unique needs of its nation's people. National traditions and conditions have determined the organization and functions of each. In some countries, the Red Cross society is an arm of government, supported in part or entirely by government and having responsibility for hospital, health, and social service work generally. In the United States, however, the Red Cross society is primarily a private organization that is supported exclusively by voluntary contributions from the public and conducts the majority of its activities through the service of community volunteers. |
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