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Oppenheimer, Melanie: 100 years of Red Cross

Oppenheimer, Melanie

The Power of Humanity: 100 Years of Australian Red Cross, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2014

This is the story of everyday Australians. It is a history of people helping people across “generations, united by a common passion and commitment to humanitarian action”. Born at the outbreak of World War I, Australian Red Cross celebrates its centenary in August 2014, making it one of the oldest and most respected voluntary organisations in Australia. With the help of volunteers across Australia, Red Cross played a critical role in supporting the men fighting overseas and the families at home during WWI and its aftermath, and later during WWII. Post-WWII it continued to build on this foundation, developing humanitarian services both nationally and internationally. this celebratory book focuses not only on the past but also on the present and future of Australian Red Cross, showing how the organisation has changed and developed over the last hundred years, from an organisation formed in war to one dealing with the varied demands of the twenty-first century – from social welfare to responding to disasters within Australia such as Cyclone tracy, the Victorian bushfires and Queensland floods, as well as international crises such as the 2004 tsunami. Fully illustrated with a wealth of photographs and other material from the archives of Australian Red Cross, this is an important record of an Australian icon. (blurb; sample)

The author talks about the book. And again. Further author comments. Here also. An article on how Red Cross assisted with tracing family members during World War I, and still does.