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…

PAKISTAN: This year alone, more than 12,000 people have benefited from services in physical rehabilitation centers supported by the ICRC in Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. The centers provide custom-made artificial limbs and supportive devices, crutches and wheelchairs designed according to the needs of the patients. Physiotherapy helps patients learn how to use new devices and to regain their full mobility.

YEMEN: Violence in the Yemeni city of Taiz has had a serious impact on basic services in recent weeks, with life-saving medical services especially hard hit. The ICRC is reaching out to authorities, fighters and all others involved to respect human life and dignity and to allow first-aid and medical teams to treat and transport injured people in safety.

AFGHANISTAN: The ICRC’s assistance activities are helping to create incomes for vulnerable rural communities by piloting a poultry rearing, food-for-work project with primarily women entrepreneurs. In the months since the scheme began more than 240 women have participated in the eight cluster villages. Each has raised around 15 chickens and collected an average of 20 eggs from each hen per month.

SRI LANKA: The war is over but now the people of Sri Lanka have the hard task of rebuilding their lives and homes. The Australian Red Cross is playing a key role in dealing with the acute housing deficit in Sri Lanka, but unlike many donors it is not building houses for people by contracting foreign companies and workers to do the job. Here, people build their own houses based on five specific cash grants, each one coinciding with the completion of a specific construction task.

GLOSSARY:

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