Putting the World's Game in Perspective

Every four years, the world unites in the spirit of sport... but that's not all that unites us.

May 14, 2026

By: Ray Lapine, Northwest Region

From Canada to Mexico and in cities across the United States, this year North America is preparing to host an historic event. A record forty-eight countries will be represented in the 2026 tournament.

As we celebrate the diversity that inevitably arrives with this level of global representation, it is important to also recognize our similarities.

In addition to fielding teams of athletes, each of these countries has something else in common — fielding a society within the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.

1 of 11

October 4, 2019. Abaco, Bahamas. The Red Cross continues to provide tracing and reunification support to families who are trying to reconnect with loved ones in Hurricane Dorian's aftermath. For ICRC delegate Megan Bassendale, the importance of providing dignity to families in need is personal. Megan halted the cleanup process on her own family's home on Green Turtle Key, part of the Abaco Islands, to help her fellow neighbors report their missing relatives

2 of 11

December 2, 2019. Freeport, Grand Bahama. American Red Cross worker Johnny Etienne takes a moment to talk with Renadli Forbes, a leader of the Bahamas Red Cross during a financial assistance distribution where hundreds of families are receiving help to recover in the aftermath of Dorian.

3 of 11

June 23, 2018. Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. All over the world, one thing that always rings true: kids will find a way to play. A Red Crescent volunteer came across this cutie playing with a homemade toy in a camp for displaced families from Rakhine state, Myanmar.

4 of 11

Red Cross and MOAS migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean Sea, 2016.

More than 10,000 people have died trying to make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea since 2014. In an effort to prevent these deaths, the Italian Red Cross and International Federation Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are funding and working on the Phoenix and Responder rescue vessels alongside the Migrant Offshore Aid Station. T

5 of 11

June 21, 2018. Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. A Bangladesh Red Crescent team member teaches first aid skills to a group of volunteers in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The skills will help prepare residents of Kutupalong—a camp and temporary home for displaced families from Rakhine state—on how to stay safe during monsoon season.

6 of 11

June 29, 2019. Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “My kids will be volunteers someday,” comments Mohammod Taher—a cyclone preparedness volunteer in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh—as he holds a first aid kit. Mohammod and his family fled violence in her home country (Myanmar) nearly two years prior.

7 of 11

July 2, 2019. South Khali, Bangladesh. “I’m not scared. I act. It’s my duty to help people,” says Hafiza, a Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteer.

8 of 11

February 18, 2020. Tuluca, Mexico. Two years after a powerful earthquake struck Mexico, the American Red Cross, in partnership with the Mexican Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross, continues to support communities affected by the disaster.

9 of 11

November 18, 2022. Szeged, Hungary. Hungarian Red Cross volunteer Valerija and Kateryna hand out supplies at a Red Cross distribution center in Szeged, Hungary. “I wanted to do something to help but I didn’t know how,” said Ukrainian refugee Kateryna as she prepared a food parcel for distribution to refugees in Szeged, Hungary.

10 of 11

Louisiana, September 7, 2005, Hurricane Katrina. Red Cross supplies are unloaded from a truck as a French Croix-Rouge Francaise worker looks on.

11 of 11

February 20, 2020. Metepec, Morelos, Mexico. The American Red Cross, in partnership with the Mexican Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross, continues to support communities two years after a powerful earthquake. Through a series of resiliency activities made possible through financial support from the American Red Cross, people living in disaster-prone communities in Mexico are empowered to learn skills that prepare them for future disasters.

How the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement works

There are Red Cross or Red Crescent societies in 191 countries across the globe, united in the spirit of alleviating human suffering. Each is an independent organization with the sole goal of helping people impacted by war, natural disaster, or the debilitating effects of poverty.

While each national organization must obey the laws of the country where it resides, it also must remain independent of the country's politics. In providing help to people in need, it may not discriminate by political beliefs, gender, gender identity, race, or any factor other than a person's need for help.

The secretariat of the International Red Cross Movement is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and all 191 national societies are represented there. Rebecca Streifler, a long-time national-level executive with the American Red Cross, describes the secretariat as “kind of like the UN General Assembly.” It provides a platform for individual societies to coordinate how they will help each other when a problem becomes too big for any one society to manage.

The International Red Cross has supported humanitarian missions around the world for generations. When disaster strikes, local Red Cross agencies can call upon Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from around the world to provide specialized expertise. For example, the Canadian Red Cross can supply field hospitals, the Mexican Red Cross can help with ambulance services, and the Norwegian Red Cross can do ski rescue.

Besides meeting the needs of people affected by sudden disasters, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement is responding to the ongoing suffering of people in many impoverished regions of the world, such as Sudan and Myanmar. The American Red Cross has a special expertise in operations management that can be applied to unfolding disasters and help Red Cross and Crescent Societies develop fiscal management systems that provide donors with confidence that donations can be managed responsibly.

Rebecca Streifler has been involved in the International Red Cross/Red Crescent movement as an executive at the American Red Cross for twenty years. She says: “It is beautiful to see people from countries that may not get along with each other who are on the ground working together to support humanity. The beauty of our movement is that even though there can be challenges that our governments are fighting, we as a Red Cross Red Crescent family can still work to make the world a better place.”