May 8 - Celebrating World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day

The Power of Humanity

World Red Cross Day is observed in appreciation and encouragement of humanitarian work around the world.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement whose stated mission is to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for the human being, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering, without any discrimination based on nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day was born in 1922, just after World War I, when the Red Cross National Society in the Czech Republic proclaimed a three-day truce at Easter to promote peace.

May 8, is the anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross; this day was chosen to be called World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.