Confederal Alliance of Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Shield of David Societies

From NSwiki, the NationStates encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search

The Confederal Alliance of Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Shield of David Societies, generally known as the Confederal Red Cross, is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the Resurgent Dream as part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Socieities.

In addition to disaster relief, the Confederal Red Cross offers services to the needy, provides support and comfort to members of the Danaan Armed Forces and their families, and participates in international relief efforts both for war and for natural disasters.

The Confederal Red Cross is governed by volunteers and supported entirely by community donations. It consists of 910 chapters dedicated to preserving life and to helping people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies. Millions of volunteers and 41,016 paid employees mobilize relief each year to bring relief to disaster areas, train people in lifesaving techniques, and help military personnel stay in touch with friends and family.

The Confederal Red Cross is headquartered in Tarana, Tarana and it is headed by President Juerg Henchoz.

Founders

The Red Cross Society of the Resurgent Dream was established on 24 September 1901 by Mrs. Cain Bach with the sponsorship of the Duke of Tasat and the Rev. Wasdewy Landeck. The name of the organization was changed to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society of the Resurgent Dream in 1981 under the leadership of then President Jabala Dalmiya. The name was again changed under the leadership of President Abate Gabra to the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Shield of David Society of the Resurgent Dream in 1991. It was also under Gabra's leadership that local chapters were given the right to decide which of the authorized, internationally recognized symbols to use. At present, all chapters in Amory, Bilbtoria, Corral, Fireforge, Holista, Kagerlund, Nerise, Pele, Sanero, Shieldcrest, Tarana, Thorlund, Wintermore, Wyrnsk and Zutern make use of the Red Cross. All chapters in Alekthos, Amalad and Kar use the Red Crescent. In Carasia and Selinia, some chapters use theRed Cross while some use the Red Shield of David. Chapters in the remaining principalities tend to use the neutral Red Crystal.

Cain Bach

Cain Bach had been a nurse before she married Baden Bach in 1871. She retired from nursing to become a homemaker after her marriage and she and Baden had seven children, four sons and three daughters. However, her oldest son and two of her daughters were tragically killed in the Lady's Virtue fire of 1891 in large part due to the absence of any real disaster relief organization in the Resurgent Dream.

The loss of three of her children was hard for Balch to bear but the love of her husband and her surviving children sustained her. After a month of private mourning, Balch began to research disaster prevention and relief organizations in other nations and to organize for the establishment of a comparable organization in the Resurgent Dream so that as few other mothers as possible would have to go through what she went through. Her organizing efforts finally paid off in 1901 when the Duke of Tasat and Rev. Wasdewy Landeck agreed to finance the founding of the Red Cross of the Resurgent Dream.

Red Cross Health and Safety Services

The Confederal Red Cross is best known for providing first aid, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), Automated external defibrillator (AED), water safety and lifeguarding training throughout the Resurgent Dream. The training programs are primarily aimed at laypersons, workplaces, and aquatic facilities. Every year, the Red Cross trains tens of millions of people in each of these areas. The Confederal Red Cross also produced the Confederal First Aid Guidelines providing modern and peer-reviewed aid training material. Many individual chapters also sell first aid kits for funds and provide them free to the needy and to certain public facilities.

Disaster services

The Confederal Red Cross responds to over 70,000 disasters every year, including fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, hazardous material spills, terrorist attacks, transportation accidents, explosions, draocht related incidents and other natural and man-made disasters.

Confederal Red Cross disaster relief focuses on people's immediate emergency needs, including shelter, food, emergency first aid and professional counseling. The Danaan Red Cross's overriding priority is to help families and individuals rebuild their lives.

The Confederal Red Cross also feeds relief workers and answers inquiries from family members outside the disaster area. It brings families separated in a disaster back together and helps them locate needed resources for rebuilding their lives, a task which includes putting them in touch with the relevent state agencies.

The Confederal Red Cross does not run an ambulance service, engage in search and rescue missions, provide medical care beyond emergency first aid or decontaminate toxic areas, although it does coordinate its activities with local authorities, hospitals and others who do provide these services. The Confederal Red Cross's participation in the relief effort following the terrorist attack on Biernes in the summer of 2006, where all state and private agencies involved in the relief effort were operating under the aegis of the International Red Cross, has led to some confusion on this score.

Disaster Response Act of 2006

The Danaan Red Cross is the only private organization which has a specific statuatory place in disaster relief under the Disaster Response Act of 2006. In coordination with the Ministry for Human Services and with principality and local authorities, the Red Cross is charged with helping to provide mass care, housing and other services for people displaced by disasters. The Red Cross is also charged with providing counseling services, food, water, clothing, donated goods and temporary shelter.

2006 Hurricanes

Domestically, the 2006 hurricane season was relatively mild with Hurricanes Kali-Jamal, Wendy and Rhode making landfall near several small towns on the coasts of Dana and Sahor but creating no large disaster areas. The Red Cross opened about a hundred temporary shelters and registered over a thousand overnight stays. Comfort kits containing hygiene essentials and toys for children were distributed to all families displaced by the three hurricanes. The Red Cross served meals to families in the affected areas and to relief workers, helped several thousand people with their health programs and provided financial assistance to almost a thousand families. There was no need to conduct special fundraising for the 2006 domestic hurricanes.

International services

In 2006, the Danaan Red Cross, along with a wide range of other Red Cross Societies, religious groups, international aid agencies, volunteers and the Finaran Ministry for Health participated in a massive relief operation in the city of Biernes in Finara. The city had been ravished first by Hurricane Brian, then by rioting sporadic fighting between sectarian paramilitaries as Protestant leaders accused the Catholic establishment of not trying to help the city's predominantly Protestant population and then a much more serious disaster when as yet unidentified terrorists launched a mustard gas attack which wounded many residents and humanitarian volunteers, including a number or prominent people.

The international recovery effort in Biernes operated under the leadership of the International Red Cross and included volunteers from Pantocratoria, the Resurgent Dream, Finara, Excalbia, Iesus Christi, Menelmacar, Laneria, Marlund, Adoki, Amestria, Hipolis, Pantocratorian Ambara and other nations. It operated under the military protection of the Entente.

The Danaan Red Cross's involvement in the crisis is perhaps best known for the personal involvement of the women of the Danaan Royal Family, many of whom actually went to Biernes to nurse the wounded themselves. This involvement, dismissed by some critics as a publicity stunt, was not without serious risks and costs. The Grand Duchess of Shieldcrest and Princess Rebecca of Selinia were wounded in the mustard gas attack and Princess Theophania of Bilbtoria was permanently scarred and blinded while saving the life of a young boy.

Armed Forces Emergency Services

The Confederal Red Cross helps family members keep in touch with members of the Danaan Armed Forces. They both carry regular letters and make sure to notify Armed Forces personnel of births and deaths in the family. They also provide verification services for such news. The Red Cross also runs pen-pal programs for the Armed Forces in conjunction with the public schools and some private schools. Contrary to popular belief, the Confederal Red Cross has nothing to do with monitoring the treatment of prisoners of war. This is handled by the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure impartiality.