World Red Cross Day

World Red Cross Day is celebrated on 8th May, on the day when its founder Henry Dunant was born in 1828. Seeing the suffering of the wounded soldiers on the battlefield of Solferino (Italy) in 1859, he dedicated himself to the creation of the Red Cross organization. In the book “A Memory of Solferino” he described his experiences and emphasized the need for establishment of national society, which would in time of peace train volunteers to assist military medical corps and the protection of the wounded. In October 1863 at the international conference, which was held in Geneva, ten resolutions were accepted regarding the establishment charter of the Red Cross and as a mark red cross on the white background was accepted.
Dunant’s idea became accepted in the whole world but he fell into oblivion. Without any means for life he was situated in a workhouse in Heiden in 1887. In 1901 Norwegian Parliament awarded Dunant with the first Nobel Peace Prize that he shared with Frederic Passy. He didn’t keep the money from the Prize. He donated it to the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations. He died in a nursing home in Heiden in 1910. Since 1948 the day of his birth is celebrated as World Red Cross Day.
The work of Red Cross at the territory of B&H, according to some written data, is dating from the time of Balkan wars 1912/13. At the beginning of the World War I, the “Bosnian-Herzegovinian society for help and sanitary care in war and in case of general disasters in time of peace” was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose goals were identical to the goals of the Red Cross. In 1918 that society became the Red Cross.