Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 303
The Red Cross
Hello Everyone
The Rocky Bay Primary School organised a Christmas fair again this year, and as well as raising funds for the school they decided to give some money to a charity as well.
The children all chose a charity and wrote it down on a piece of paper.
The pieces of paper were put into a box and one slip was pulled out.
The charity chosen happened to be the Red Cross and now that the money has all been collected, counted and banked the school is ready to send off a cheque.
Miss Pringle thought it important that the children understood more about the Red Cross, what it stood for and the kind of work that it did.
This is what she told them about…
The Red Cross and also the Red Crescent Movement is an international movement with about 97 million people working for it.
Some are staff members but some are unpaid volunteers.
The lnternational Committee of the Red Cross was founded as far back as 1863 in Geneva in Switzerland by two men called Henry Dunant and Gustave Moynier.
The idea of the symbol of the Red Cross is taken from the Swiss flag. lt is the flag in reverse. The Swiss flag is a white cross on a red background.
By the way, it is different from the flag of England, where the cross goes to the edges of the flag.
The lnternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was founded in 1919 and coordinates activities between the many societies within the Movement. They organize sending relief to people during large-scale emergencies like earthquakes and floods along with the National Societies.
Most countries in the world have their own National Societies. Each country might have different tasks to perform according to the needs of the population.
The Red Cross Movement was first set up to address the lack of proper coordinated nursing care to help those wounded on the battle field.
They wanted wounded soldiers to be cared for properly by nurses who would see them as just a patient in need of care rather than a friend or foe.
Medical personnel were to wear white bands on their sleeves with a symbol of a red cross to distinguish them from warring factions – that is to say they were not soldiers.
The Swiss government invited other countries to a conference where they discussed a proposal that would protect soldiers wounded in battle.
ln 1864, twelve countries including The United States, Brazil, Mexico and countries from Europe signed the first Geneva Convention.
This was a document that established legally binding rules guaranteeing protection for wounded soldiers.
After this meeting, the first National Societies were formed and in the years to follow, more were set up.
More and more countries signed the Geneva Convention. lt was revised in 1906 to include naval warfare and there were more revisions in later decades.
By the beginning of the First World War, there were 45 national relief societies throughout the world. When war broke out, Red Cross nurses came from all over the world to help the war wounded. A lot of nurses were needed because of the large numbers of soldiers that were injured during the fighting on the battle fields.
The Red Cross also kept records of the misplaced and missing soldiers and helped to deliver letters and parcels to prisoners of war once they were located.
The Red cross helped again in the Second World War, and the wars that followed that.
ln a war zone, if an ambulance has a red cross or a red crescent painted on the side, nobody is supposed to shoot at it. These are internationally-recognised symbols.
Of course, working for the Red Cross can still be dangerous work. Red Cross workers could be accidentally killed or even murdered; even though they were not supposed to be part of the conflict between different groups of people.
The first relief assistance mission organized by the League was five years after its foundation. lt organized an aid mission for the victims of a famine and subsequent outbreak of typhus in Poland. But there were numerous relief missions to follow.
The first large-scale disaster they attended was after an earthquake in Japan in 1923 which killed 200,000 people and left many wounded and without homes.
Other countries sent money to help with the relief work.
The British Red Cross was founded in 1870. lt joined forces with the Order of St John Ambulance to help the war effort at the start of the First World War in 1914.
Their focus was to help with nursing, cookery and hygiene and supplied motorized ambulances to collect casualties from the war zones.
They even trained dogs to find wounded soldiers lying in the battlefields.
Sometimes fallen soldiers could be covered or even buried in mud and so they were difficult to spot.
Once again, in the Second World War, services of the Red Cross were needed, and one of the very important jobs they did was to deliver food parcels to the people of the Channel lslands. The islands were occupied by enemy forces and the parcels saved the people from starvation.
ln 1941, the British Red Cross set up the world’s first blood transfusion service.
ln 1924, it started its youth movement.
Nowadays, the Red Cross protests against the use of chemical weapons and land mines and helps set up local healthcare facilities.
lt helps reunite families split up by conflicts or natural disasters.
When a major disaster happens, it is there to help with medical care and emotional support. Their members give extra help to the emergency services.
lt has its own ambulances.
lt raises funds to support relief projects.
lt helps by giving first aid at public events like sports events and concerts if it is needed.
lf you are interested in learning first aid, it is something that anyone can do.
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: What do you call a cat that has joined the Red Cross?
Bob: l don’t know. What do you call a cat that has joined the Red Cross?
Bill: A first aid kit!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Jean-Henri Dunant
Flag of the Ottoman Empire
This is where the Red Crescent was derived from.
World War I poster
A World War I nurse
An ambulance
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
The Red Cross often partners with other people to help out in a crisis. People working together using different skills can be very effective.
Bill and Bob often do their homework together and of course they are always playing together.
The other day, Bob fell off his bicycle and hurt his knee so badly he couldn’t walk very well. So Bill rushed home to get their dad who was able to come and carry Bob home.
These are famous partners. Do you know who they were/are?
If you don’t – ask an adult to help you.
- Abbot and
- Laurel and
- The Lone Ranger and
- Tom and
- Batman and
- Sherlock Holmes and
- Robin Hood
*********************
TO ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG
PLEASE CONTACT:
christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk
*********************
Quick Quiz
What do these proverbs mean?
- A red rag to a bull
- To be caught red-handed
- To see red
- Red tape
- A red-letter day
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A MOUNTAlN GNOME
These gnomes are really cute, and they don’t take very long to make, so when you have made one you can quickly make him a friend.
The two gnomes here have matching clothes but the colours are transposed, so you will have to remember that when you are following the pattern.
You could make four gnomes to represent the four seasons and dress them in different colours:-
Blue and white
Yellow and light green
Pink and dark green
Orange and brown
BODY (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 16 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut a length off the yarn and thread this through your stitches
Pull them tight
Then use the yarn to sew up the back seam using over-sew stitching and right sides together
Turn the body the right way out and stuff
Sew up the base
Sew a little bobble nose onto the front of the face
Embroider on eyes (the eyes were made with a length of black dk yarn pulled apart so that the fibre used was much thinner for sewing)
COAT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and brown dk yarn cast on 16 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to red dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown dk yarn
Knit 1 row
Knit 1 row
Cast off
Cut off the yarn and sew up the back seam using over-sew stitching with right sides together then turn the garment the right way out and put onto the gnome
HAT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and brown dk yarn cast on 14 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to red dk yarn
Knit 1 row
Starting with a purl row continue in stocking stitch decreasing 1 stitch at the beginning of every row until 2 stitches remain, knit 2 together and cast off
Cut off the yarn and sew up the back seam using over-sew stitching with right sides together then turn the garment the right way out and put onto the gnome
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
- Abbott and Costello
- Laurel and Hardy
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto
- Tom and Jerry
- Batman and Robin
- Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson
- Robin Hood and Maid Marion/his band of merry men
Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes
Quick Quiz Answers
- A red rag to a bull – something that sets off a rage in someone
- To be caught red-handed – to be caught in the act of doing something so that you can’t deny the fact that you are guilty
- To see red – to lose your temper/get angry
- Red tape – bureaucracy
- A red-letter day – an important/noteworthy day
Abbot and Costello
Laurel and Hardy
The Lone Ranger and Tonto
lf you don’t know these people, have a look on You Tube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flm216VTf5s
