Welcome to the Weekly Worldwide 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…

SOUTH KOREA:  The Republic of Korea National Red Cross, which is hosting World Blood Donor Day (June 14th), decided to raise awareness of the importance of blood donation by attempting to create the world’s largest human blood drop.  3,000 students from Baekseok University came together, all in red, at the Phoenix Park ski resort.  The resulting ‘drop’ broke the previous record and will go into the next edition of the Guinness Book of Records.

LIBYA:  Six months after the end of the Libya conflict, Libyan Red Crescent volunteers in Misrata are sharing stories from during the fighting.  At the height of the conflict, volunteers worked round the clock to evacuate casualties from the front lines, regardless of who they were, with ambulances frequently coming under fire.  During the eight months of fighting in Misrata, dozens of Red Crescent volunteers were injured and seven ambulances were completely destroyed.

AFGHANISTAN:  Continuous rains in mid-May, coupled with the snow melt across mountain ranges, have triggered flash floods affecting more than 80 villages in northern Afghanistan.  Affected families are sleeping in tents because their homes are still buried in mud, and hundreds of acres of farmland have been washed away making the lives villagers even more difficult.  The Afghan Red Crescent Society is working to reach the affected areas and distribute bread, drinking water and relief items.

KOSOVO:  Last week the ICRC handed over to the Kosovo Government Commission for Missing Persons its database software designed for the management, archiving and standardizing of data relating to missing persons.  With this handover, the Government Commission is taking the steps towards setting up a central registry for missing persons.  Of the 6,024 persons reported by their families to the ICRC as missing in connection with the events in Kosovo, 1,775 remain unaccounted for.

GLOSSARY:

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

PHOTO:
3,000 students forming a blood drop in recognition of World Blood Donor Day. (Korean National Red Cross)