Tsunami: tribute to Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers

Everywhere in the world, Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and their thousands of volunteers have been working around the clock with their communities to help those who have lost loved ones or livelihoods when the tsunamis struck South-East Asia and the eastern coast of Africa on 26 December 2004.

The key to the humanitarian response is the thousands of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers in the affected countries who responded to the emergency in the hours that followed the earthquake and the tsunamis.

Before any outside help arrived, thousands of local Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Myanmar, the Seychelles, Bangladesh and Somalia were helping their neighbours to survive. Both volunteers and local staff put aside their own personal losses and concentrated on helping others. This is the true face of humanity.

"The world has never seen such a powerful expression of the wish of people to help others restore their lives and their dignity," said Federation President, Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro. He added that the Federation and all its member National Societies with their thousands of volunteers were proud of their role, and even prouder to have been seen by people everywhere as the network they could turn to at a time of great need.

Find out more about the tsunami operation.