In these events, the Red Cross provides shelter, food, health and mental health services to help families and entire communities get back on their feet. Although the Red Cross is not a government agency, it is an essential part of the response when disaster strikes.
Founder Clara Barton. Clarissa Harlowe Barton, known as Clara, is one of the most honored women in American history. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, at age 60, and led it for the next 23 years.
The Red Cross was born in 1863 when five Geneva men, including Dunant, set up the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, later to become the International Committee of the Red Cross. Its emblem was a red cross on a white background: the inverse of the Swiss flag.
The founding charter of the Red Cross was drawn up in 1863. Henry Dunant also proposed that countries should adopt an international agreement, which would recognise the status of medical services and of the wounded on the battlefield. This agreement - the original Geneva Convention - was adopted in 1864.
Today, the red cross emblem continues to be an internationally recognized symbol of protection and neutrality; used to identify military medical services as well as the people, programs and objects connected with the humanitarian activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Red Cross (in Muslim lands, red crescent) adopted as a symbol of ambulance service 1864 by the Geneva Conference. An international organization that cares for the wounded, sick, and homeless in wartime according to the terms of the Geneva Convention of 1864, and now also during and following natural disasters.
The flag has a white field, with a red Latin cross inside a blue canton. The shade of red on the cross symbolizes the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary. The blue represents the waters of baptism as well as the faithfulness of Jesus. The white represents Jesus' purity.
The Red Cross and the Red Crescent emblems at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The Red Crystal emblem has recently joined them. The emblem of the International Committee of the Red Cross (French: Comité international de la croix rouge)