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“It’s a peculiar profession,” Margareta Wahlström says when asked about her life as a humanitarian aid worker. Wahlström has worked in crisis situations from Vietnam to Cambodia to Afghanistan, and she held high-level positions at both the United Nations and the Swedish Red Cross. Along with a stressful work culture that often rewards a certain workaholic “cowboy” mentality, the “peculiarities” of humanitarian work also mean that women are less likely than men to reach decision-making positions. Thanks in part to Wahlström, that is changing. Her consistent advocacy for gender equity is one reason she was recently awarded The Henry Dunant Medal, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s highest honor.
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Young people do not fit into “cookie-cutter” stereotypes, says Michelle Chew, IFRC’s newly elected Youth Commission Chair. “Young people are very diverse and only by valuing and accepting all forms of young people can we engage communities properly.” While young people are gaining influence, she says efforts to engage with youth can seem like “box-checking exercises” that end up turning young people away. As someone with experience as a front-line volunteer with Malaysian Red Crescent ambulance crews, she says she’ll do her best to ensure the voices of young, community-based first responders are represented in the strategies, plans and decisions made by IFRC’s Governing Board.
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When Bas van Rossum was elected to represent youth on the Governing Board of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), he was the youngest person to have ever served in that role. Now as he steps down as president of IFRC’s Youth Commission, he talks about the challenges ahead. “Young people are perhaps the closest to the front lines,” he says, during a special episode recorded during the IFRC Youth Forum. “So it's really important that we listen to young volunteers and that we give them space to really shape the direction we're heading.”
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The vast majority of humanitarians killed in the last decade are not foreign aid workers, but local humanitarians who often face grave dangers simply trying to save lives in the communities where they live, says IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain in this special episode, recorded during the United Nations General Assembly in late September. “More than 95 per cent of the humanitarians killed have been from local communities,” says Chapagain, who called on UN member states to protect aid workers and to take urgent action on a wide range of critical humanitarian concerns.
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It’s quite common to refer to volunteers and first-responders as ‘heroes’. After all, they often risk their lives to save others. But in some cases, can that hero narrative do more harm than good? Ukraine Red Cross volunteer and IFRC Youth Commission member Maryna Kozhedub answers unequivocally ‘yes’, especially for young volunteers. Calling them heroes in conflict situations puts unreal expectations and pressure on people who are also impacted by crisis. “I am absolutely against hero narratives,” she says. “I'm about the narrative that volunteers work hard, but they are humans who have needs and should be protected and cared for, because this pressure would be enormous for anyone.”
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Federico Rios Escobar has spent more than a decade documenting the epic struggles of migrants in South and Central America. The hardships they face in the roadless jungle known as the Darien Gap go beyond anything he’s seen before. “There’s only one way to cross and it’s on foot,” he says. “There's the mud, rain, humidity, the hot sun, rivers that suddenly grow, landslides — and many migrants have died of these things — but many are also victims of robberies, assaults, extortion, and sexual assaults.” For migrants, he says, the Red Cross volunteers there offer more than first-aid, they offer a sense of hope, safety and humanity to people in desperate conditions. Tune in to find out where you can see his award-winning, heart-breaking and inspiring photographs.
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Can Costa Rica’s largest ambulance fleet become completely carbon neutral? How can we better work with the forces of nature to protect our communities from natural calamities? Is it possible to save lives and save the planet at the same time? These are some of the questions that the first woman president of the Costa Rican Red Cross, Dyanne Marenco Gonzalez, tackles during this wide-ranging interview about her 20-year humanitarian career. She also discusses the challenges of being a young woman leader in the male-dominated fields of law and emergency response.
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A 25-year veteran of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Violaine des Rosiers has served as an emergency response humanitarian worker in more than 30 countries, including Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Liberia and, most recently, Ukraine. In her home country of Canada, she also served as CEO of two social innovation organizations. With all these experiences, she has a lot to say about ways humanitarians can innovate, improve and learn from the rapid changes and massive challenges of the 21st Century.
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Born in the Deir El-Balah refugee camp in Gaza, Mohammed Alburai worked as a volunteer ambulance driver for the Palestine Red Crescent before leaving for Slovenia in 2019. Now a cultural mediator and translator for the Slovenian Red Cross, Mohammed helps migrants and refugees cope with their new life in Slovenia. He helps migrants connect with lost family members, organizes sports and social events, and talks with them about their needs and concerns. “That’s the best part in my job,” he says. “I meet people from different cultures every day — from Cuba, Bangladesh, Mongolia, all over Africa and the Middle East. They know I feel what they are going through and they trust me.”
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Dr. Asha Mohammed began her career as a dentist in low-income communities in Kenya. Her passion for helping others and her evident leadership skills led her to key roles battling HiV/AIDS and, eventually, to the role of Secretary General of the Kenya Red Cross. She now serves as IFRC’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and International Organizations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From there, she’s taking on climate change, a massive regional hunger crisis, and outbreaks of infectious diseases, among other challenges. In this episode, she talks about the solutions to those challenges. And what it was like being a pioneering woman leader in public health. “When I mentor young women, I tell them, ‘You can be what you want to be. It's really about understanding that you have these different roles to play and that you can find the right balance.”
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Eco-anxiety is a relatively new term in the lexicon of psychology, but it’s gaining more attention. In a world facing an existential threat from climate change — and many communities already facing tremendous upheaval — the mental health impacts of climate change are impossible to ignore. People who rely on farming, fishing, or whose cultures are connected to natural cycles, are being deeply affected. Livelihoods are drying up, or being washed away, and in many places, suicide rates are rising. Psychologist and Red Cross volunteer Ana Ana Mejía unpacks what’s happening and explains what we need to do, collectively and individually, to help people cope.
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Torbjørn ‘Thor’ C. Pedersen not only travelled to every country in the world without flying. He also visited nearly every National Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in the world and wrote stories for his travel blog about their response to a staggering variety of humanitarian challenges. “My motivation to continue and not give up came from different sources at different times,” he told us. “Sometimes it would be seeing [Red Cross and Red Cresent] volunteers, and how much effort they would put into solving various situations around the world. And knowing that they were doing it without taking payment for it, because they believed in a cause, was incredibly inspiring.” [Part 2 of a two-part interview; see Episode 6, part 1 of Season 2 to hear the first part of this interview].
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Part 1 of our interview with Torbjørn ‘Thor’ C. Pedersen, the first person to visit every country in the world without ever taking an airplane. But that’s not his only distinction. He also visited nearly every National Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in the world and wrote stories for his travel blog about their response to a staggering variety of humanitarian challenges. His key takeaway: despite some very real dangers he faced along the way —and the headlines we all read every day — the vast majority of humans on earth are good, kind and welcoming people who will go out of their way to help a stranger. And he wants the world to know it. [Part 1 of a two-part episode].
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As the first female president of the Turkish Red Crescent, Dr. Fatma Meriç Yilmaz talks about her National Society’s role in supporting one of the world’s largest refugee populations and in running the world’s most ambitious humanitarian cash assistance programmes. She also discusses the continuing impacts from the earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria in Feb 2023. As a champion of women in humanitarian leadership in Türkiye and globally, she talks about the significant gains made in recent years and what still needs to be done to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
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Ani Gevorgyan’s life as a humanitarian began when she was 14 years old and she signed up to bring joy, art and activity into the lives of refugee children. Two years later, the young volunteer for the Armenian Red Cross was organizing “eco-runs” in which people combined physical activity with environmental clean ups. Now, as an IFRC Climate Champion, she spreads the word about climate action at high level summits like COP-28, where she says local communities and youth need to be driving the agenda.
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Special International Women's Day episode: Kate Forbes, the newly elected president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies joins the organization’s Secretary General Jagan Chapagain in a wide-ranging conversation about the critical importance of gender equity in humanitarian action. They look at how far the humanitarian sector has come and what needs to be done now to close the gaps that still exist.
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IFRC’s regional director for Europe talks about the conflict that has impacted not just the European continent, but the entire world. Birgitte Bischoff Ebbesen explains how the principle of neutrality — along with an inspiring level of humanitarian solidarity — has helped the IFRC assist some 18 million people impacted by the crisis. Mental health services are now at the forefront of our response throughout the region, which also faces many other humanitarian challenges, from climate change to migration.
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Inspired by her mother’s work helping migrant farm workers in the southwestern United States, Kate Forbes grew up understanding how hard people struggle for a better life. Starting as a Red Cross volunteer at her local branch, she now leads the world’s largest network of local humanitarian organizations. As newly elected president of the IFRC, Forbes talks about extraordinary volunteers she’s met around the world who’ve risked everything to help others, and she explains her approach to today’s most complex humanitarian crises, from climate change to migration.
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In this episode, Alexander Matheou challenges a common humanitarian narrative about the Asia Pacific region being “disaster prone.” Yes, it is particularly vulnerable to climate-related events — and it has more than its share of volcanos and earthquakes — but it’s also leading the way in life-saving prevention, preparedness and humanitarian innovation. As IFRC’s regional director for the Asia Pacific region, Matheou talks about the opportunities and leadership this vast, dynamic and diverse region offers the humanitarian world.
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Xavier Castellanos was 13 years old when he joined a Red Cross club at his high school in Ecuador. But it wasn’t until he experienced a serious motorcycle accident that his life took a serious turn toward a career helping others. The teenage Castellanos almost died in the crash, in part because no one nearby knew how to help. So he rejoined the Red Cross, retook first-aid training and his lifelong humanitarian journey began. Now he works as Under Secretary General for National Society Development and Operations Coordination for the IFRC, the world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian organization.
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