Health and wellbeing

Almost 96% of clients reported that our daily phone outreach service provides them with reassurance and peace of mind. This year our calls helped socially isolated people to receive assistance, and drew attention to 33 deceased clients who may otherwise have remained unfound for days.

Now Maher is living alone, his daily call from Red Cross provides him with regular human contact and the knowledge that if something happened to him Red Cross would raise the alarm. When Maher’s wife Margarite was still alive, their phone call from Red Cross arrived just as they were facing a medical emergency, helping them to arrange an ambulance.

Crisis and relief

We sent 36 specialist aid workers to help people recover and rebuild after Typhoon Haiyan and raised $13 million in our appeal.

As part of $374 million raised by the International Red Cross Movement, funds raised by the Australian public helped to provide food and relief materials for both short and long-term recovery in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan. These funds also helped schoolchildren to access psychosocial support resources.

Local heroes

We have 31,623 volunteers – they make up 91% of our total workforce.

Toni Russell is one of our many everyday hero volunteers. She volunteers to visit isolated elderly people in aged care homes, including May Wilson (pictured). She also telephones a list of elderly people each day to check they’re OK, has made nearly 500 blood donations, and donates her plasma. Toni has a family history with Red Cross – her mother drove our vehicles to deliver blood in the 1950s.

Families and communities

This year we assisted more than 14,000 people impacted by migration and living in the community.

Alireza came to Australia as an asylum seeker and now volunteers to help others who have been in his situation. He recycles and refurbishes second-hand bicycles in a Red Cross workshop in Victoria, providing asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants with the bikes at no cost. “I love Red Cross. It’s a positive thing,” Alireza says. “It gives me power to do something, and it’s red: a really active colour. I like it.”