It is a voluntary relief movement not prompted in any manner by desire for gain.
 
The Voluntary Service Fundamental Principle

“I didn’t want to sit at home and do nothing,
thinking that everything in this country is wrong.”

“The Red Cross gave me the opportunity to know, to understand.”

“I felt that I’d given someone hope.”

These are the words of just three of the almost 100 million volunteers and members who belong to Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world. They are the heart of the Movement and the reason the Red Cross Red Crescent is able to successfully reach the most vulnerable people in society. Without volunteers, the Movement’s work simply would not be possible.

The origins of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement lie in the spirit of voluntary service, when the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Henri Dunant, mobilized women from a local village to care for the wounded and dying lying abandoned on the battlefield of Solferino in 1859. “Would it not be possible,” he later wrote, “in time of peace and quiet, to form relief societies for the purpose of having care given to the wounded in wartime by zealous, devoted and thoroughly qualified volunteers?”
 
Over 150 years later, Henri Dunant’s vision has not only come to fruition but has developed and evolved. Today’s volunteers are no less devoted or any less trained than he imagined but their work encompasses not just the wounded but also the vulnerable, the marginalized, the suffering and the threatened.
 
Almost all of Movement’s volunteers work within their own countries, providing services to meet local needs. The range of these services is both wide and diverse. In one country, for example, young volunteers help elderly people to learn to use mobile telephones, which can be essential tools during an emergency. In another country, bi-lingual volunteers translate local information essential to help disabled visitors get around. They also provide first aid, comfort and support to people affected by natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods.
 
From food or seed distribution and running a fund raising event to organizing blood donor sessions and teaching essential first aid, volunteers are working every day in almost every area of the world. They belong to structured groups, which identify local needs and train volunteers to respond to those needs. They are protected by a clear volunteering policy, adopted by the Movement in 1999.
 
Some volunteering work is also undertaken by vulnerable people themselves, who are organized into self-help groups. They work to support their peers, bringing a depth of understanding no outsider could achieve and able to reach those whose circumstances have left them wary and distrustful of strangers.
 
Many of those in leadership roles within the Movement are also volunteers. Presidents of National Societies and board and committee members at all levels are likely to be volunteers.
 
Clearly, the Red Cross Red Crescent also employs paid staff whose work complements and reinforces that of the volunteers, which is no less important, no less valued and no less appreciated.