Red Cross Day 2010

Red Cross day has been celebrated around the globe since May 8th 1948. The date commemorates the birthday of the founder of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement Henri Dunant. His humanitarian, voluntary spirit and through a lot of determination led to the creation of the movement and the signing of the Geneva conventions.

The movement is now considered to be the largest humanitarian organisation in the world. Its mission is to save lives and alleviate sufferings in the local communities and around the world. This is done through a network of more than 80 million altruistic volunteers who provide the necessary support.

Locally the Malta Red Cross joined more than 180 independent nations where the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies are established, to celebrate this important event. Various activities were held both in Malta and in Gozo.

The Malta Branch organised its activities at the Valletta Waterfront, where the general public had the opportunity to follow activities related to the Red Cross, First Aid training, fun activities and had  a closer look inside the ambulances and other rescue vehicles. The main aim of the activities were to increase the awareness of the importance of learning first aid and to promote the work carried out by the Red Cross amongst the general public. Present for the activities at the Valletta were Professor. F. Fenech, president Malta Red Cross, Ms. Christina Saydon, outgoing general secretary, Mr. Edward Crauana, the new secretary general and employees form Head office.

The highlights of the activities were reached when Ms. Thea Garret, Maltese finalist at the Eurovision joined the activities and signed autographs, took photos with all those present.

Activities continued on Saturday, 15th May at 10:00am, where members of the Malta Red Cross – Malta Branch visited the National Blood Transfusion Centre in Guardamangia to donate blood. A good number of new blood donors joined the activity.

All the activities proved to be successful thanks to the dynamic team spirit of the Malta Branch volunteers!