Health and care activities in the IFRC include first aid and emergency response as well as epidemic control, programmes in health promotion and prevention, addressing stigma, providing psychosocial care and enabling community empowerment.
Health and care activities in the IFRC include first aid and emergency response as well as epidemic control, programmes in health promotion and prevention, addressing stigma, providing psychosocial care and enabling community empowerment.
Around the world, hundreds of thousands of volunteers work in communities to promote health, prevent diseases and demonstrate positive values through their actions. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and its National Societies actively support communities through their network of volunteers, their community-based approach, their expertise and experience.
The past decade has seen major gains towards improving global health. Today, less people die of measles or malaria and the number of new HIV-infections has been stabilized in some countries.
At the same time, implementing primary health care at the community level remains a challenge:
- Worldwide, an estimated 14 million people continue to die each year from infectious diseases. Many more suffer from malnutrition and disruption of livelihood
- More than 1 billion people don’t have access to safe water
- 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.
- More than 500,000 women die each year in pregnancy or childbirth and still too many children die before their fifth birthday.
This situation will get worse because of global trends such as climate change, population growth and ageing, urbanisation, migration, food and water shortages, poverty, emergent diseases and the lack of access to health services.
Health links
Recent additions to the resources library
In the month of June, the EU-funded Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) programme has reallocated its resources to provide additional cash assistance to 1.7 million vulnerable refugees in Turkey in order to address the COVID socio-economic impacts. IFRC …
This factsheet is intended as a quick reference tool to support National Societies to consider how the Covid-19 global pandemic may place communities at increased risk of trafficking, how it may impact trafficked persons and provide advice on practical …
Trafficking in Persons (TiP) is a core protection issue violating the dignity and integrity of the person, endangering their life and physical security. It is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. In normal times, TiP is widespread, an …
Health in Action
World First Aid Day
The IFRC is the largest first aid educator and provider in the world. In 2014, over 15 million people were trained, and for more than 150 years, first aid has provided by our volunteers.
In focus: Ebola
During the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak, Red Cross teams worked with community leaders to ensure families knew about how the virus is spread, what the symptoms are, and the importance of early treatment.
World Water Day
Water, sanitation and good hygiene practices are fundamental to healthy life. Our collective aim is to ensure every family has affordable and sustainable access to safe water and adequate sanitation.
Health news
By Olivia Acosta. Gina Mejia is 27 years old, an architect by profession, and has been a volunteer with the Mexican Red Cross for three years in Mexico City, the country’s capital, a city with a population of nearly nine million. According to Gina, she …
In Mexico, Red Cross paramedics are used to dealing with cases of violence. However, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health workers are increasingly faced with personal attacks. “Sometimes we’ve had to treat people with gunshot wounds. We …
Cristian is a volunteer of the Chilean Red Cross and a specialist in psychosocial support. Along with other medical and psychological volunteers, he has been providing psychosocial support since April to passengers on domestic flights. So far, nearly 1 …
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