May 8 - World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day Volunteers

This year, celebrations to mark the birthday of Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, will highlight the work of tens of millions of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers who respond to human suffering in communities around the world. Every year, Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies bring assistance to more than 200 million vulnerable people.

To mark 2001, the United Nations International Year of Volunteers, the Movement calls on governments to improve the legal, fiscal and political base for volunteering. The value of volunteers' work must be recognized and their working conditions improved. Volunteers make a real difference in people's lives because they act at the local level and they come from the communities in which they work. They know the culture, they know the language, they are there when disaster strikes and they are best placed to implement long-term development or rehabilitation programs.

The International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent has noted a significant decrease in the numbers of volunteers over the past decade. This has prompted a decision to implement a plan of action to develop better leadership, support and structures to improve the recruitment, training, deployment, and mobilization of volunteers.

What do volunteers do? Some examples worldwide: they provide first aid after a disaster in El Salvador; pull survivors out of the rubble of an earthquake in India; rescue people from flood waters in Nicaragua; transport the wounded to hospital in Côte d'Ivoire, bring food, blankets and psychological support to those displaced by war in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; help dig latrines and educate people on disease prevention in Mozambique; provide care and compassion to those dying of AIDS in Zimbabwe; bring food and seeds to drought victims in Tajikistan and conduct fund-raising campaigns in Europe. All this in the name of voluntary service, not prompted by desire for gain, and in the name of the Movement's mission : to assist people in need.*