8 May
World Red Cross Day
World Red Cross Day is celebrated every year on May 8, the birthday of Jean-Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross.
It was June 24, A terrible battle took place between Austria and France at Solferino, Italy. Henry Dunant, a young Swiss merchant, witnessed the horrors of the war while visiting the French Emperor Napoleon on business. The battle lasted for 16 consecutive hours and killed about 40,000 soldiers. At one point the fighting stopped, but as darkness fell the deathly cries of the wounded shook the skies of Solferino. But the fact that no one came forward to help those unfortunates, not even to give them a drop of water in their mouths, shook Henry Dunant’s heart.He went to nearby villages and gathered local youths and women to pick up the wounded soldiers from the battlefield and arrange for them to be cared for in a safe and clean place. However, identifying and rescuing the survivors from among the thousands of bodies became a major challenge. The first team of identifiers left a red yoga sign on his body to identify the wounded soldiers to be rescued and the rescue team saw it and carried him to the camp. Thus, the great humanitarian movement called the Red Cross was born on the battlefield. On his return home, Dunant wrote a book entitled A Memory of Sulferino, describing his terrible experiences; This book opened the eyes of the world.In 1863, Henry Dunant and four other Swiss citizens formed the International Committee for the Assistance and Treatment of the Wounded in War, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.In 1864, a conference of royal representatives of 12 countries was held in Geneva, where the Red Cross policy was adopted and the famous Geneva Conventions were signed. It was at the Geneva Conference that the Red Cross was adopted as the symbol of the Red Cross instead of the white plus sign on the red of the Swiss flag. Henry Dunant was born on May 8, 1818, in Geneva to a wealthy family. Dunant’s birthday is celebrated as World Red Cross Day by the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to commemorate his contribution to the relief of human suffering.