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.
Recent additions to the resources library
The increasing number and complexity of disasters, epidemics, and other crises National Societies are facing has triggered various initiatives within the Movement aimed at strengthening National Societies capacity to reduce risk, prepare for and respon …
Community-Based Surveillance (CBS) is the systematic detection and reporting of events of public health significance within a community by community members. The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has developed a methodology for CBS and specific tools tha …
Outbreaks normally begin with a cluster of sick people or sudden deaths in a community that are not detected early enough by facility-based surveillance systems. Often the community is aware of the health threat but the people who can mobilize response resources receive this information too late to limit the spread of a disease and save as many lives as possible. Community-based surveillance (CBS) aims to close this gap and improve early detection. Thanks to its wide network of volunteers in communities around the world, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is uniquely placed to carry out CBS and support community resilience and early action to endemic, emerging or recurring public health threats in communities around the world where there is a Red Cross Red Crescent presence. While CBS has garnered a lot of interest and support in the past years and more National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies are showing interest in starting CBS projects, CBS may not be the answer in all cases, and a needs assessment should be conducted prior to planning implementation. To facilitate a useful and thorough CBS initial assessment a CBS assessment tool has been developed to guide Red Cross Red Crescent staff or delegates in conducting an assessment, using document reviews and interviews with relevant stakeholders at all levels as sources of data. This Assessment tool builds on the Community-based surveillance: guiding principles as well as the experience and lessons learned from implementing CBS around the world and will continue to be updated.
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
In the courtyard of a health centre in Managua, Nicaragua, a mother and daughter share a supportive smile. Their expressions convey joy and confidence.
Text and photos: Julie Lorenzen, Danish Red Cross His brown eyes look tired – almost absent – and the skin is way too pale. He speaks with a voice that is difficult to hear. Nine-year-old Luai and his mother are visiting a primary health clinic, run by …
Has the IFRC achieved gender parity? Which National Society produces the highest quality of data? Who are the people behind the data? The 2019 edition of the Everyone Counts report explores the potential of data to tell stories about National Societies …
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