Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It’s a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work…

WORLDWIDE: Each year, National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world observe World First Aid Day. The day is marked on the second Saturday of September and communities are preparing for it around the globe.

COLOMBIA: On Monday, September 5, 2011, ICRC and Ministry of Social Protection presented a guide in Bogotá for improving treatment for casualties of armed conflict. The victims of armed conflict include people wounded by improvised explosive devices and explosive remnants of war, and also the victims of firearms and other devices.

YEMEN: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Yemen Red Crescent Society have distributed food rations to over 17,000 displaced people and residents in the areas of Zinjibar, Ja’ar, al-Bateis and al-Husn in Abyan governorate. Armed confrontations have forced tens of thousands of people to hastily leave their homes in search of safer places.

SOUTH KOREA: The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement was well represented at the recent 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) held in Busan, the Republic of Korea. IFRC used the conference as an opportunity to call upon governments in Asia and the Pacific to provide universal, non-politicized and anonymous access to HIV testing as a key step towards the United Nation’s ‘Getting to Zero’ strategy.

GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies