The Red Cross and Red Crescent movement began 150 years ago, when, on a hot day in 1859, Swiss banker Henry Dunant was travelling on business in northern Italy.
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There he witnessed the aftermath of the battle of Soferino. It was a horrifying, bloody conflict between 300,000 soldiers from Imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian Alliance.
He was deeply moved by the appalling sight of wounded soldiers left for days where they fallen, bleeding and tormented by thirst, hunger, flies and burning heat.
He saw the dead thrown into huge pits, along with others seriously injured, but alive nonetheless. Amid the stench and sounds of pain and anguish, thieves moved from person to person and robbed both the wounded and the dead.
Henry Dunant rallied the villagers from the nearby town of Castiglione to assist and tend the wounded. These townsfolk became the first volunteers of the Red Cross movement.
As a result of this experience, Henry Dunant was determined to establish an international organisation dedicated to providing aid to victims of war, independent of nationality, re1igion or politics.
As a result of Henry Dunant’s recommendations, the International Red Cross was born. In 1863. one year later, 12 countries signed the first Geneva Convention and 40 years after he established the International Red Cross Henry Dunant was awarded the first Nobel Prize.
In 1914 Lady Helen Munroe-Ferguson, the wife of the then Governor General, became the first president of the Australian Red Cross which formed with the outbreak of World War I.
During the war, highly trained volunteers worked beside the doctors and nurses in hospitals and convalescent homes. Others knitted socks for the soldiers and sent gift packages and blankets to the front.
During World War II the volunteers were called upon once again.
Today Australian Red Cross continues to make difference in our community with 600,000 volunteers. Worldwide there are 97 million Red Cross and Red Crescent members and volunteers. Internationally Red Cross continues to carry out relief operations in disaster areas and war zones.
In fact, the Red Cross emblem is the second most recognised symbol, after Coca Cola.