Attachments
Excerpt
NATIONAL SOCIETY PROFILE
The Ghana Red Cross Society was established in 1958 and admitted to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 1959. It is the largest volunteer-based humanitarian service organization in the country and has a presence in all 10 regions, with 153 district chapters and 77,625 volunteers. It works directly under the Ministry of Health as an auxiliary to public authorities in the humanitarian field.
Every district chapter supports communities in need through volunteers trained in first aid, disaster man- agement, water and sanitation, health and disaster risk reduction. The volunteers also respond to emergencies and carry out community rescue missions.
In 2021, the National Society reached more than 45,000 people in water service provision, 10,000 in disaster response, and 5,000 with commercial first aid training. The Ghana Red Cross has been a major stakeholder with the Ministry of Health and the Government of Ghana in the fight against COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. This has included providing unconditional cash transfer programming to help alleviate suffering during the lockdown period, such as the loss of jobs.
As part of Ghana’s vaccination campaign, the National Society deployed volunteers to sensitize the public to the need for vaccination, and it raised awareness in marketplaces, churches, mosques, community information centres and radio stations. Volunteers also assisted health staff during national immunization days by helping to bring people to local vaccination centres, significantly increasing coverage compared with pre- vious initiatives. These COVID-19 vaccination rollout campaigns reached more than five million people with critical messages.