New York: The World Red Cross Day is marked on May 8 every year to acknowledge the beliefs of the Red Crescent Movement and the International Red Cross. The day also signifies appreciation for the volunteers who are always ready to help the needy. The theme this year is ‘Together we are #unstoppable!’
The first Red Cross Day was celebrated on May 8, 1948. In 1946 in World War II, the Tokyo proposal was put into effect. The possibility of an annual celebration was asked by the Board of Governors of the ‘League of the Red Cross Societies (LORCS)’, later called the General Assembly of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies.
Two years later the proposal of celebrating annually World Red Cross Day was adopted on 8 May 1948, the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. In 1984 officially it was named “World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day”. The official title of the day changed over time and became World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day in 1984.
The Red Cross is headquartered at Washington DC in the United States.
The Red Cross Society strives to initiate, inspire and organise the desire to offer humanitarian responsibilities at all times needed so that individuals do not have to undergo problems.
In view of this, the operations that the Red Cross Society undertakes can be generally classified into four types including response disasters, endorsing the values and principles of humanitarian cause, swift response to disasters and readiness for health care and disasters.
Furthermore, there are also seven principles on which the Red Cross Society operates including independence, voluntary, impartiality. neutrality, humanity, unity and universality.
