American Red Cross (ARC) was formed by Clara Barton on May 21, 1881. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C. and serves all over the USA. Gail J. McGovern is the current president (since June 23, 2008) of the organization. The mission of the organization (American Red Cross) is to prevent and alleviate human suffering during emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The vision of the organization (American Red Cross) is to provide service to the needy through its strong network of volunteers, donors and partners.
Globally Red Cross Network works with the fundamental principals of: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality. ARC provides emergency assistance to the people who are the victim of disasters or conflict without any discrimination. The revenue of the organization was 2.974 billion USD in 2014. According to Forbes, it falls under top 100 (2015) charity organization in the USA.
Some of the major disasters where ARC played a great role are:
During the Hurricane in 2005, ARC enlisted 2005 volunteers across the USA to be on a “standby” call list, they registered 3.8 million overnight stays in 1472 different shelters. Also, ARC could involve 244,000 workers during the disaster to serve 68 million meals and snacks to the victims.
Recently, America faced a devastating tornado in 2016 in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. ARC in response helped to provide food and shelter to the victims. ARCs could open 800 emergency shelters for 206,000 overnight stays and they were able to serve 4.1 meals and snacks.
Other than providing aid during disasters, ARC also provides blood services. ARC blood program started in 1940 under the leadership of Dr Charles Drew. It serves about 40% of the total blood required in the USA as well as provides blood for patients in approximately 2,600 hospitals in the USA. ARC majorly collects blood from mobile blood drives which are set up at community organizations, companies, colleges, military installations or high schools. There are more than 58,000 ARC blood drive stations in the USA.
Also, ARC provides Health and Safety Training & Educations to the people so that more and more people could learn life-saving skills and use them when needed. Learning life-saving skills also have helped young people to get jobs which is the reason, its popularity is growing.
