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By Sarah Oughton May 8, 2012 at 10:45 am

Despite the many tragedies Sthabile, 15, has already known in her life, she is a quietly assured young woman, with a vision for her future.

Sthabile never knew her father and was just five years old when her mother passed away in 2001. For a while her grandmother looked after her, but then she also died.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m alone,” Sthabile says. “But I try to forget it.”

Becoming an HIV orphan

With the humanitarian situation in Syria remaining challenging, the British Red Cross has seconded a highly experienced delegate to work for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Damascus. The delegate will support the Syrian Arab Red Crescent’s life-saving work.

The Red Cross has started a livelihoods programme in Liberia to help more than 9,000 people still struggling after conflict erupted in the Ivory Coast following the disputed presidential election in November 2010.

More than 162,000 people fled their homes in panic, carrying nothing with them, and sought refuge in neighbouring Liberia.

Although the electoral crisis was resolved last year and some refugees returned home, there is still severe insecurity in the Ivory Coast and more than 135,000 refugees remain with host families and in camps in eastern Liberia.

The unrest that has swept across the Arab world in the past 16 months took everyone by surprise. But, while nobody could predict the nature or scale of the current crisis, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was prepared for a variety of disasters.

Syria is vulnerable to a range of natural disasters, including earthquakes, drought and flooding. Collapsing buildings and road traffic accidents are also common risks. Conflicts in neighbouring countries have led to large influxes of refugees in previous years.

By Ellie Matthews April 5, 2012 at 9:30 am

So a food crisis stems from a shortage of food, right? Not necessarily. When communities are in food crisis, it is usually because people are unable to grow or buy enough to eat, rather than because of an overall shortage of food.

If a farmer’s crop fails – or their goats get ill and have to be sold at a low price – they will not have money to buy enough food, no matter how well-stocked the market is. Even if people can make a little money, a poor harvest will often cause food prices to soar unaffordably high.

The British Red Cross has released £125,000 from its Disaster Fund in an attempt to head off a looming disaster in the Sahel region of West Africa.

The money released today will support the International Committee of the Red Cross’ economic security work in Mali and Niger. The funds will also be used to provide emergency assistance as it is estimated that up to 13 million people are affected with the crisis complicated by the displacement of almost 200,000 people following unrest in Northern Mali.

To help stem the worsening food crisis across west Africa, the British Red Cross has launched its West Africa Food Crisis Appeal. More than 13 million people face severe food shortages in parts of Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

The Red Cross has worked in west Africa for many years. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recently received £1 million from the UK government’s Department for International Development towards its work in the region.

Additional stress of food security

Every year, people celebrate International Women’s Day in wildly different ways: some organise a meal with friends; others rally thousands together for a cause. On the first International Women’s Day 101 years ago there were rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland campaigning for women’s rights to education, the vote, and to equal pay.

However you celebrate this International Women’s Day, it’s important to reflect on which issues of inequality still remain – especially in developing nations where women’s human rights may not be adequately protected by the law.

By Ellie Matthews

Kitty, 83, is one of the people the New Zealand Red Cross is supporting after the earthquake last February. She has cancer and finds it difficult to walk.

Kitty lives alone, so when her television and radio stopped working after the earthquake, she was completely cut off from the outside world. She says: “I just sit in my chair. I’m on quite a lot of medication so can’t move around, but I’ll be alright – I have to be. There are so many people worse off than I am.”