The Red Cross Launches an Unprecedented African Relief Campaign to Help Feed Millions of Starving People in the Drought-Stricken Sub-Saharan Region (1985)
In 1985, the American Red Cross, the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) played an extensive role in African famine relief. Through the American people, the American Red Cross raised over $24.5 million during its African relief fund-raising campaign--far exceeding its $5 million goal. The United States government channeled over $34.8 million in surplus food through the American Red Cross, and the U.S. government gave an additional $12.4 million directly to the ICRC.

The League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, whose primary responsibility is international disaster relief, distributed funds collected by the American Red Cross to 14 African nations in 1985. Help came in the form of food, seed, transportation, communications, nursing, medicines, and administration of the relief effort.

The ICRC used American Red Cross-collected aid in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Angola to provide protection, tracing services, medical care, and other forms of assistance for victims suffering from both famine and internal political unrest. Money spent by the ICRC benefited at least 1.5 million people. In all, the international Red Cross agencies distributed almost $250 million in aid to more than 2.25 million people--mostly mothers, pregnant women, the elderly, and small children in 21 African countries.

The League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies dispersed 400 League delegates, 21 of whom were from the American Red Cross, to 13 African countries. These individuals lent their expertise in a variety of areas, including nutrition, public health, administrative management, and development.

The Red Cross objective in Africa is to provide Africans the resources they need to help themselves. Helping people plant market gardens and trees, creating more sanitary conditions, and providing more primary health care are just some of the long-range goals of the Red Cross, which maintains development programs in more than 16 African nations.

Armenian Earthquake Attracts the Largest Disaster Relief Operation to Date (1988)
On Wednesday, December 7, 1988, at 11:42 a.m. local time, an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook northwest Armenia for 40 seconds, leaving over 25,000 people dead, thousands more injured, and some 500,000 homeless. Within seconds, buildings and structures in 58 villages and four cities were reduced to heaps of rubble and ash. International Red Cross rescue squads went in as soon as the news hit the wires, bringing blood, plasma, drugs, medical supplies, blankets, tents, and rescue dogs. The Red Cross provided food supplies, drinking water in packets, clothing, emergency shelter for the homeless, and helped erect emergency hospitals.

Donations from concerned citizens enabled the American Red Cross to give a total of $14 million dollars through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, including $6.5 million in cash and over $8 million of in-kind goods. At the request of the Soviet Red Cross, the American Red Cross secured antibiotics appropriate for trauma and stress injuries, hemodialysis equipment, ultrasound equipment, and medical materials for treating and setting fractures. American nurses and physical therapists opened Armenia's first spinal trauma rehabilitation center and taught their skills to local care providers. Other American Red Cross activities in Armenia included the establishment of a medical school, a prosthetic workshop, and a disaster preparedness program. The Armenian earthquake marked the first international disaster relief operation conducted in the Soviet Union since 1923.

Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services Workers Respond to the Gulf War (1990)
Five days after the launch of Operation Desert Shield in August 1990, the first American Red Cross workers arrived in the Persian Gulf region. Throughout the next year, 156 Red Cross workers served with distinction alongside U.S. armed forces, providing over 200,000 emergency messages concerning births, deaths, critical illnesses, and extreme family problems. The Red Cross also handled all messages between prisoners of war (POWs) and their families in the United States. At home, Red Cross workers assisted family members of deployed servicemen and women, helping them cope with financial difficulties and other problems caused by separation from their loved ones.

Following the end of hostilities, the American Red Cross continued to work with the International Red Cross to assist refugees and others who needed aid in the war-torn region. International Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) humanitarian relief operations in the Middle East focused on food distribution; re-establishment of water purification and distribution; the tracing, protection, and repatriation of POWs; and paramedical assistance. In cooperation with the Kuwaiti Red Crescent, American Red Cross medical delegates provided assistance at border camps and shelters to Iraqi and third-country nationals fleeing Iraq.

Through the Gulf Crisis Fund campaign, the American Red Cross raised $26 million in contributions and in-kind gifts to underwrite its services in the Gulf, making it the largest wartime fund-raising operation since the Second World War.

The American Red Cross Helps Provide Somalia and Neighboring Nations With Tons of Food (1992-1993)
Years of bitter warfare and persistent drought had taken the lives of a half-million Somalis and demolished the infrastructure of that impoverished nation. Militia forces and bandits took advantage of the chaos that ensued after the fall of the Somali government by looting rival clans' possessions and food supplies. Many Somalis--especially those in areas on borders between clans or under mixed control--were discouraged from planting, harvesting crops, or tending livestock. Thousands fled their land and herds because they were attacked or feared that they would be.

It is believed that in 1991 and 1992, between 300,000 and 500,000 Somalis, mostly children, died from diseases that were spread by overcrowding, poor water, and inadequate sanitation--such as measles, diarrhea, respiratory infections, tuberculosis, and malaria fostered by conflict-induced mass starvation, malnutrition, and lowered resistance.

The Geneva Convention Treaties that form the cornerstone of international humanitarian law, mandate the Red Cross role to protect and assist people during armed conflict. Working through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the American Red Cross supported Somali relief with $2.6 million in cash, technical aid, and medical supplies in 1992-1993. Red Cross relief workers provided expertise in water sanitation, nursing, relief logistics, blood services, and surgery. Over 254,000 tons of food fed over one million people daily in 900 Red Cross kitchens, making the Red Cross the relief organization that played the largest role in Somalia. Feeding programs were supported with medical posts and immunization programs. The ICRC distributed seeds and hand tools to farmers and detailed veterinary teams to vaccinate cattle and treat livestock for disease. Agricultural recovery increased in 1993, assisted by higher prices and the return of rain after two years of drought.

The American Red Cross Helps Survivors of the Massacre of Tutsis (1994)
Within days of the death of Rwanda's president in a plane crash on April 6, 1994, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis--men, women, and children--were brutally and systematically slaughtered. Approximately half-a-million Rwandans died within months, while three million others, nearly half the population of the country, sought refuge in the hills or across the nation's borders in Zaire, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi.

The large number of refugees clogging roads made it almost impossible for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to move relief trucks and other vehicles. A representative of the ICRC reported that as Red Cross trucks drove along roads, the Red Cross emblem offered barely enough protection to the vulnerable people inside them.

The American Red Cross began assisting with the relief operation in 1995 in Zaire, where tens of thousands of Rwandans took refuge. The organization contributed over $18 million in cash and donated supplies. It worked with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to distribute food, water, and medical supplies to the thousands of Rwandans in refugee camps and to oversee sanitation and water purification procedures. Because conditions in the camps led to high rates of cholera and dehydration, Red Cross workers installed water systems to stop the spread of cholera and treated those already infected with the disease. In an effort to help the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children, the Red Cross registered as many children as possible so they could be traced and reunited with relatives.

Red Cross Team Provides Services to Civilians in the Former Yugoslavia (January 1996)
The Red Cross has been involved in the former Yugoslavia since the onset of the conflict in 1991 in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Red Cross Movement, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Federation, and national societies such as the American Red Cross, have provided food, water, and medical assistance to some 900,000 civilians throughout the region, visited detainees being held by hostile forces, and helped families separated by the conflict to reestablish contact with their loved ones. The Federation established social welfare programs to ease emotional suffering with help from American Red Cross workers. The American society also established feeding progams for some 60,000 vulnerable people in central Bosnia and, in addition, began planning similar programs for some Tuzla and Bijeljina within the Serbska Republika to help approximately 130,000 persons.

American Red Cross teams have distributed over 7,000 tons of flour, rice, beans, lentils, cornmeal, and vegetable oil to some 30 towns and villages. In late 1995, the society expanded its operations to include a public feeding kitchen in Zavidovice, serving hot meals to displaced persons, the elderly, and children. In 1996, nine American Red Cross workers began conducting emergency communication and social welfare activities with U.S. troops, serving as a link between them and their families at home.

top of page