The Red Cross Society in Canada
The Humanitarian Agency was Officially Founded in 1896
Dr. George Ryerson organized the first Canadian branch of the British Red Cross. Through volunteers, the Canadian Red Cross Society provided relief in Canada and abroad.
The insignia is instantly recognizable from near or far. The cross of bright red bars symbolizes shelter, safety and help when it is truly needed. A part of the international Red Cross community, the Canadian Red Cross is seen as a life-saver in times of desperate need around the world. (In Muslim countries, the Red Cross is replaced with Red Crescent, equally recognizable.) The Red Cross Society had its early beginnings in Geneva, Switzerland in 1863 with the founding of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded by a five-member group. The organizer, Monsieur H. Dumont had been on a bloody battleground with no medical services in sight years earlier, and saw that with immediate care, more wounded soldiers could be saved. The first international Geneva Convention in 1864 was the product of M. Dumont’s work, said the Canadian Encyclopedia, the agreement giving protection to medical aid workers and the wounded in wartime.
The Canadian Red Cross Society’s history of providing assistance dates back to 1896 when Dr. George Sterling Ryerson organized the Canadian branch of the British Red Cross Society. The Society was a structured entity, with Dr. Ryerson named the first Chairman of the Executive. Two years later, according to Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross Society (CRCS) held their first public meeting in Toronto and began raising funds for the injured in the Spanish-American War.
The Canadian Red Cross Society Act
Branches opened across Canada as needs grew. During the war in Africa in 1899, 65 Canadian Red Cross Society branches collected goods and donations to help the wounded. The CRCS was legally established in Canada in 1909 under the Canadian Red Cross Society Act, making it “the corporate body responsible for providing volunteer aid in Canada in accordance with the Geneva Convention.”
World War One brought a new function for the Red Cross. Volunteers were recruited to raise money and supplies for hospitals caring for injured soldiers. Five hospitals in England and one hospital in France were maintained by the $35 million in Canadian relief, said the Canadian Encyclopedia, and also provided ambulances, medical supplies and much needed cash. During the Great War, “Red Cross women volunteers knitted khaki sweaters and gray socks for the soldiers, or sewed dressings, bandages, surgical coveralls and bed linen to be sent overseas,” noted Red Cross.
Junior Red Cross instructed youth on health, citizenship, world
As the War ended, the Red Cross Society turned their focus to health and prevention of disease. The number of CRCS branches grew to include the new Junior Red Cross in 1922 and Visiting Homemaker Service in 1925. The Canadian Junior Red Cross guidelines were taught in classrooms across the country, instructing children on healthy living, citizenship and promoting an understanding of other countries. The Junior Red Cross was blended into the regular CRCS in 1987.
Mobilizing again for WWII in 1939, the Red Cross formed the National Women’s War Work Committee to generate goods for soldiers in Europe. The Canadian Red Cross Corps was created the same year to send trained volunteers overseas to work as cooks, servers, transport and ambulance drivers, nurses, and nurse’s aides during the War: 641 women contributed in dangerous European and African war theatres. Continuing operation into the Korean War and later, over 15,000 women were proudly part of the Canadian Red Cross Corps.
CRCS developed new blood products
The Canadian Red Cross Society began its blood donor recruitment programs in 1938, and added blood transfusion service in 1947. The Society developed blood products to help hemophiliacs, polio sufferers and others, along with creating the Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry in 1988. Unfortunately in the mid-1990s, the company met with disaster with the Tainted Blood Scandal in which some blood products were found to have Hepatitis C from 1986 onward. A new agency, Canadian Blood Services, was set up to control blood donations.
Seen as an international life-saver, the Canadian Red Cross Society has a long, successful history of providing programs, basic needs, funds and humanitarian aid locally and at the disaster sites around the world. In Canada, the CRCS also leads the way in First Aid Training, Water Safety and Boating Safety Programs, Violence Prevention and so much more.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
