By, Jennifer Sparks

Sitting in my new-ish home of Las Vegas, I’ve had a year working with the American Red Cross to come to terms with a several-year long stint working with various UN agencies in the Middle East and get used to being a USA-based humanitarian.

There was a time when going to work meant putting on a very different kind of PPE—not the face coverings that we’ve gotten used to during COVID-19, but a helmet and bullet-proof vest. Rather than taking photos at blood drives and community events, my camera and I were telling stories of people impacted by the very worst kinds of humanitarian catastrophes. After a number of years of this, my body and heart were tired, and it seemed like an ideal time to be coming back to work for and in my own country for a while. And though most of me was reconciled to being back home, I’ve stayed in close touch with friends and colleagues across the globe.

Despite being physically home in America, when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4, 2020, I spent a very preoccupied day trying to track down friends and family. Fortunately, aside from being very shaken up and sustaining some significant property damage, everyone in my personal sphere was ok.

One of the beacons of hope on that terrible day was seeing how the Lebanese Red Cross leapt into action, providing medical services, helping reunite families, and generally being a strong community presence in a literally and figuratively fractured landscape. In addition to feeling connected to Beirut through my personal affiliations, the heart of the Red Cross-Red Crescent family beat together across the globe in solidarity and support.

For me, International Humanitarian Day is perspective recalibration and reminder that my role with the Red Cross here in the USA is also participating in a global movement of humanitarianism, preventing and alleviating human suffering wherever it is found.  

Jennifer Sparks is the Communications and Marketing Manager for the Red Cross in Nevada.