Long-term health programming

In 2002, significant progress was made in the evolution of Red Cross Red Crescent health interventions. The Federation focused on areas in which volunteers can show their true worth alongside other partners.

Long-term health programmes that build on networks of National Society volunteers operating from within vulnerable communities have proved an important capacity-building mechanism. They have enabled National Societies to put knowledge and tools in the hands of the people, facilitating risk reduction processes.

The African Red Cross Red Crescent Health Initiative (ARCHI 2010) showed the way to better programming and implementation and recruted more volunteers to work in their own communities.

	This young Honduran's hand is being painted by volunteer Claudia Mejía. His print will join others on a street wall, as a symbol of support for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Working to reduce stigma and discrimination
Action against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria was scaled up during the year, starting with the publication of the Red Cross Red Crescent global programme Reducing household vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

In nearly all 50 countries where HIV prevalence is over 1 per cent of the adult population, 2002 saw the initiation or scaling up of HIV/AIDS programmes. This was also true for China, India and Indonesia, and for Eastern Europe and the Middle East/North Africa region.

The global action against stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS was launched in May 2002 with some 80 National Societies adopting the campaign by the end of the year.

This commitment was an indication that the Red Cross Red Crescent has acknow-ledged that fighting stigma and discrimination, prevention and access to support, care and treatment go hand in hand when trying to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS. International support for the AIDS response has grown from 3 million Swiss francs in 1999 to 30 million Swiss francs in 2002.

The profile of the campaign was developed in partnership with the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS and the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

Meanwhile, a new, more developed HIV/AIDS policy was approved by the Federation’s Governing Board in November. Successful European and Asia/Pacific regional conferences strengthened health agendas and represented a breakthrough in terms of the approach to harm reduction.

The strengthening of AIDS-related networks in Europe, South Asia, East Asia and southern Africa also contributed to lateral knowledge sharing.

Polio eradication, Iraq.

Stopping TB and malaria
The Federation participated in the Stop TB and Roll Back Malaria partnerships working with World Health Organization. Tuberculosis (TB) programmes in Russia and central Asia expanded, showing a positive impact on patients’ health.

Vaccines for all
Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers are a unique resource in the fight to eradicate diseases everywhere. More than 10,000 volunteers participated in house-to-house outreach programmes during the final phase of the polio eradication campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.

During the year, National Societies mobilized more than 38,000 volunteers to vaccinate 70 million children (compared to 22 million in 2001).

	Margaret Mathumo, a Zimbabwe Red Cross care facilitator, comforts Grace Dube, who was diagnosed with AIDS a year ago.

Expanding first-aid and blood services
Efforts to retain Red Cross Red Crescent leadership in these two key, historic areas continued throughout the year. The European Road Safety campaign, which engaged 26,000 volunteers and targeted 2 million citizens, was such a success that the European Union (EU) decided to support an enlarged second phase to include EU-accession states. The recently-introduced First Aid Day (14 September) was celebrated by 50 National Societies; and an intranet-based first-aid knowledge-sharing system was launched.

The 2001 first-aid and HIV/AIDS guidelines were incorporated into existing youth, home-care and first-aid programmes for drivers, seafarers and others, and progress has been made in standardizing the curriculum for the Asian first-aid certificate.

The publication of the Making a Difference manual has proved an important tool in enhancing National Societies' efforts to promote voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation.

Children enjoy access to clean water in a Red Cross settlement built after Hurricane Mitch devastated Guatemala in 1998.

Water and sanitation,a human right
In 2002, over 40 National Societies provided impoverished communities and victims of disasters with 20 million litres of water a day as well as access to basic sanitation facilities, benefiting some 1 million people.

Hygiene promotion and educational programmes reached over 400,000 beneficiaries. At the end of the year, the Federation contributed to a proposal which led to the UN decision to declare water supply and basic sanitation a human right.

Support to rebuild
Stress-related emotions can overwhelm individuals' capacity to surmount significant personal grief and begin rebuilding their lives. Psychological support is increasingly becoming an accepted element in relief, care, support and first aid throughout the world. The Reference Centre for Psychological Support hosted by the Danish Red Cross consolidated its activities in 2002.

Better programming for better health
A public health response was an integral part of most of the activities undertaken in the aftermath of natural disasters that struck in 2002.

The launch of emergency appeals for the crises in Afghanistan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and southern Africa, and post-earthquake reconstruction in India, highlighted the need for creativity and careful planning at differ-ent stages of the challenging transi-tion to rehabilitation and longer-term programming.

The Federation was active in inter-agency collaboration to develop guidelines for HIV/AIDS and TB in emergencies, as well as starting up an inter-agency review on reproductive health programmes.

The Federation's Public Health Guide for Emergencies was in great demand, and was distributed to over 200 teaching/training institutions and individuals worldwide.