Category: International

Back to the land: how gardening saves lives in Syria

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A wooden box with a handle is filled with vegetables harvested from an allotment in the UK

An allotment harvest in the UK © iStock

If you’ve ever obsessed over plant watering techniques, cursed an army of slugs or wondered what to do with a wheelbarrow of artichokes, chances are you’re an allotment holder.

Allotments are a UK institution. Waiting lists stretch from years into decades in some places as we hanker after the magic of growing our own food.

Over the next few months allotment owners will reap the rewards of their hours of toil as runner beans, potatoes and squash are ready to harvest. More

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Sheep, medicine and food – how cash grants change lives in Pakistan

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In Pakistan, Naqeebullah holds a sheep while his young sons lean on his shoulders and one of the boys holds another sheep

Naqeebullah, his sheep and two of his sons © Pakistan Red Crescent

The Red Cross may be famous for our food parcels and more traditional forms of aid, but cash grants have long been an integral part of our work. Put simply, cash changes lives.

We’re working with the Pakistan Red Crescent to give cash to people in rural areas of Balochistan Province.

From buying sheep to feeding hungry children, cash gives people the independence to buy whatever they need and helps to stimulate the local economy.

Here are four ways people have used their cash grants. More

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India partition – looking back at the Red Cross response to the refugee crisis

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Milk is distributed at refugee children at a camp in Multan, Pakistan

Milk is distributed to children at a refugee camp in Multan, Pakistan – ©BritishRedCross

India and Pakistan are celebrating 70 years of independence next week. While their new-found independence was a cause for celebration, the partition of British India in August 1947 triggered one of the largest population movements in history as millions were displaced. We take a look at how the British Red Cross responded to the crisis.

The partition of India and subsequent creation of Pakistan came after years of campaigning for Indian independence from British rule.

Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, who would become India’s first prime minister, and Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the first governor general of Pakistan, lobbied and protested tirelessly along with countless others for the sovereignty independence offered.

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Yemen crisis: an urgent plea for change from the Red Cross

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A young girl in Yemen stands on a steep pile of rubble holding a doll

© ICRC

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, spent this week meeting people in war-torn Yemen. He has released the following statement calling on all parties to the conflict to take steps now to alleviate the dire situation. 

I am leaving Yemen profoundly concerned for the plight of its people. The cholera outbreak remains alarming.

With the rainy season approaching, we expect more than 600,000 cases by the end of the year. This is unprecedented.

This outbreak is manmade. It is a direct consequence of more than two years of warfare. The health-care system has collapsed, with people dying from easily-treatable chronic diseases.

Key services like garbage disposal have ceased to function, as I saw all too clearly in Taiz.

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Cholera in Yemen: the numbers behind the world’s worst outbreak

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The statistics in this blog now cover the period to 21 August 2017

A baby with cholera in Yemen lies on a bed with an IV drip in its hand

© ICRC

Cholera is killing people in Yemen.

Shocking statistics from the ground tell the terrible story of the world’s worst cholera outbreak.

Over 542,000 people have already been infected and more than 2,000 have died.

The following graphs and facts illustrate the rise of this unprecedented outbreak over recent months. More

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Mosul: snapshots from a city in torment

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In darkness, light shines on a man carrying another person with a leg wound on his shoulders as they flee Mosul at night

Escaping by night © A. Liohn/ICRC

For centuries, armed conflicts were fought by armies on vast battlefields. Even if cities were besieged or sacked, fighting rarely took place in the streets.

In the 21st century, wars are being fought in cities.

From 2010 to 2015, half of the civilians who were killed in armed conflict died in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

And 70 per cent of these people lived in cities.

Almost nowhere is worse affected than the Iraqi city of Mosul.

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