World Red Cross Day: 7 Interesting Facts You Should Know About Red Crescent Day

World Red Cross Day | May 8 is celebrated every year as World Red Cross or Red Crescent Day to celebrate the good work that the Red Cross Movement does every day around the world. This day also marks the birth anniversary of Swiss businessman Henri Dunant, who came up with the idea of the Red Cross Movement.

Henri Dunant started this movement after witnessing the horrors on the battlefield during the Battle of Solferino in 1859 in Italy between the Austrian army and the Franco-Sardinian alliance. The Red Cross Flag, which looks like an inverted Swiss Flag, was designed by Henri Dunant to pay homage to his homeland.

On the World Red Cross Day, we bring you some interesting facts about the world’s largest humanitarian organization:

1. The Red Cross was officially established in the year 1863 when Jean Henri Dunant, along with Gustave Moynier, Louis Appia, Theodore Maunoir and Guillaume-Henri Dufour, set up the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became the International Committee of the Red Cross.

2. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was founded in 1919 in Paris in the aftermath of World War I.

3. Red Cross includes the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which has societies in 186 member countries.

4. There are currently 189 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world with more than 97 million staff and volunteers.

5. While Red Cross, the inverse of the Swiss flag was recognized as the organization's symbol in most countries, the Red Cresent was widely recognized as the symbol in Islamic countries. To neutralize this, the Red Crystal was announced as a neutral and additional symbol in 2005.

6. Red Cross is an active participant in a wide number of programs and services, including emergency response, disaster preparedness, community-based health and care, first aid training and activities, restoring family contact for disaster victims, and youth and volunteer activities.

7. The Red Cross has won the Nobel Peace Prize three times – in the year 1917, 1944, and 1963, while Henry Durant received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.