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NATIONAL SOCIETY PROFILE
The Senegalese Red Cross Society was established by law in 1963 and joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the same year. The mission of the Senegalese Red Cross is to prevent and alleviate suffering, in all impartiality, without any distinction of race, nationality, class, reli- gion or political opinion.
The National Society is present in the 14 regions and 45 departments of Senegal, and remains one of the leading humanitarian institutions, neutral and inde- pendent, and auxiliary to the public authorities. It is active in several areas, including disaster preparedness and response, health, first aid training, searching for missing persons and restoring family links, promotion of humanitarian ideals and values, dissemination of international humanitarian law, and raising awareness of the need to respect the Red Cross emblem and the law protecting the emblem in Senegal.
With its community network throughout the country, the Senegalese Red Cross is one of the organizations that is present in communities from the first moments of crises and disasters. The National Society has developed a real expertise in the field of community activities. Since its creation, it has managed more than 20 large-scale emergency operations, and assisted a total of more than six million people in Senegal. The National Society
has been responding to epidemics, electoral violence, food crises, community health issues, shelter problems, migration and population displacement, accompanying people and helping them to recover from disasters.
The Senegalese Red Cross has an operational team to facilitate the implementation of planned actions. It relies on 30,000 volunteers, over 100 national disaster response team members trained in the areas of shel- ter, water, sanitation and hygiene, health, food security, nutrition, livelihoods and cash transfers, and over 2,500 community disaster response team members. It also has 62 early warning system focal points, 59 focal points for restoring family links present in each departmental committee, 10 migration focal points, and 46 commu- nications focal points.
The National Society’s experience in emergencies has also been demonstrated in the rapid deployment of emergency stocks to people affected by disasters. In the early hours of emergencies involving communities whose survival or dignity is physically threatened, the National Society rapidly deploys emergency kits for groups and individuals, ranging from tents to non-food items. The National Society is recognized as the lead- ing organization to position and distribute emergency stocks, to alleviate the suffering of populations, before the arrival of other interventions.