Warriors without Weapons

Red Cross

The Red Cross is an organization dedicated to help people. The Red Cross mission is “Being a humanitarian aid organization of governments, which seeks to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people, governed by the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent.”

The Red Cross has seven fundamental principles. One of these principles is ”humanity”. This organization always tries to protect life, and health, as well as important values such as friendship, cooperation, and respect. Another principle is “impartiality” which means that discrimination is avoided. Everybody is equal and has the same rights.

Besides, they have the “neutrality” principle. Under this principle they do not follow a specific religion or ideology, so everybody can be helped or be part of this organization. Another principle is “independency”. This value lets them preserve autonomy. They have to respect the rules of the country where they are, but they are free to act according to the principles they follow. And the last three principles are”universality”, “unity” and”volunteering”. “Universality” means that each society has the same rights and must work together; “unity” means that it should be only one Red Cross society ant it should work as a group around all the country.

I leave the “volunteering” principle at the end because I think it is one of the most important values. “Volunteering” is the principle that makes this organization work. People who work at the Red Cross do it for free, so the organization does not have to pay for their services and can use that money to help with different causes.

We sometimes do not have the vocation to volunteer, but we can contribute doing other activities, for example, buying Tico Bingo. Yet, we should try to find the time and join them because what they do is amazing. If everybody contributes with the cause, probably a lot of people would have a different life. Remember that we do not know when we are going to need a hand.