EDITORIAL — 60 years of volunteerism

Around the world, in areas of disasters, illness and conflict, one symbol has become instantly recognizable: a red cross on a white background. In Islamic countries, the symbol is a crescent. The symbols stand for over a century of volunteer work to ease human suffering. In the world’s most dangerous spots, volunteers of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies share their lives, skills and often their own blood with those in need.

In this country, that spirit of sharing is marking its 60th year. Members of the Philippine National Red Cross are always among the first to show up at disaster sites, assisting government relief workers even in the most dangerous areas. The volunteers were in Albay when mudflows from Mayon Volcano buried a thousand villagers. The volunteers were in Leyte, assisting survivors after days of incessant rains dislodged a massive chunk of a nearby mountain and brought it rampaging down, burying a village under 100 feet of earth.

The PNRC is also present in areas of fighting between government troops and enemies of the state, looking after displaced civilians and assisting wounded combatants. The volunteer work helps fill a gap in medical care in the battlefield, which the government cannot sufficiently address given its limited resources.

Apart from its indispensable presence in areas of conflict and disasters, the PNRC also helps maintain the nation’s supply of blood for transfusions, seeing to it that the blood is clean and safe. With scandals in recent years over the safety of blood from private banks, the PNRC’s work is much appreciated.

There were no such services when some 400,000 French, Italian and Austrian soldiers lay dead or dying in the battlefields of northern Italy in 1859. The sight of the carnage prompted a young Swiss, Henry Dunant, to launch what would eventually become the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Americans brought the Red Cross to the Philippines during the colonial period. On April 15, 1947, months after the official end of the American era, the PNRC was formally organized. Sixty years later, the continuing tireless work of PNRC volunteers is a cause for national celebration.