Canadian Red Cross Research Articles

Interactive Voice Response Technology as a Data Collection Tool Compared to a Household Survey: What We Learned

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected all aspects of life, including the Canadian Red Cross’s (CRC) operations. To continue delivering projects and evaluations under restrictions, the CRC adapted its methods. This adaptation is exemplified by the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights project in Mali, launched during global lockdowns. Typically, such projects use standardized monitoring frameworks with pre–post-intervention measurements and household surveys for data collection. However, the pandemic made household surveys impractical. The CRC employed interactive voice response (IVR) technology to gather data, a method commonly used by telecommunications companies for short surveys. This study explores how the CRC used IVR for a more extended 45-minute questionnaire on sensitive topics like adolescent girls’ reproductive health. The article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of IVR compared to traditional household surveys, detailing the challenges faced and solutions implemented. Ultimately, the authors compare the effectiveness of both methods, offering insights into ensuring data quality in constrained circumstances. The evaluators’ perspectives on the two methodologies underscore the adaptability required to maintain robust data collection and project monitoring during unprecedented times.

Armand de Mestral: The Transatlantic-Global Jurist

Abstract This article pays tribute to Professor Armand de Mestral, a revered figure in international and international trade law from the McGill Law faculty. With a career spanning over forty years, he notably contributed to legal scholarship and policy, held the Jean Monnet Chair, and served as an arbitrator in various international tribunals. Professor de Mestral’s work in EU law and regional trade agreements, coupled with his leadership in the Canadian Red Cross Society, highlights his profound influence in both academia and social justice. His legacy continues to inspire future generations in the field of international law.

Engaging Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Africa: Lessons from the Canadian Red Cross supported programs.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will not be achieved if health care worker shortages, estimated to increase to 18 million by 2030, are not addressed rapidly. Community-based health systems, which pivot to effective engagement of community health workers (CHW), may have an essential role in linking communities with health care facilities and reducing unmet health services needs caused by these shortages. The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) has partnered with different National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies and Ministries of Health in Africa in the implementation of programs where CHWs contributed to the provision of various health services. This study reports on key findings (i.e., beneficiaries reached, CHWs engaged, programs implemented, intervention outcomes) and lessons learned from CRC supported CHW programs in Africa over the last 15 years (2007-2022). Qualitative methodology was employed to conduct document analysis on 17 sets of reports from each CRC-supported community health worker project in Africa over the past 15 years. Focus was on identifying challenges, facilitators, and lessons learned. CRC supported projects have trained over 9000 CHWs, benefiting nearly 7.5 million people across Africa. Key success factors include adaptability and agility in programming and project management, and considering contextual factors (political, social, and cultural systems). Investing in essential training for CHWs, staff, and volunteers is crucial, alongside employing an evidence-based approach to inform all aspects of programming and implementation. Additionally, projects prioritizing protection, gender and inclusion (PGI) while leveraging existing community structures and partnerships important for successful implementation. Despite challenges (i.e., weak health systems, lack of political commitment, insufficient funding, inadequate training) CHWs are recognized as crucial in promoting community-based health, improving access to care, addressing disparities, and contributing to achieving (UHC). Their unique position within communities enables them to provide culturally appropriate and localized primary health care- particularly in remote, resource limited and poverty-stricken regions.

Speak with One Voice? Examining Content Coordination and Social Media Engagement During Disasters

Speak with One Voice? Examining Content Coordination and Social Media Engagement During Disasters Practice- and policy-oriented abstract: Disaster relief organizations (DROs) use social media to share information rapidly and broadly. Many DROs maintain multiple accounts on the same social media platform. Each account represents a different operational entity of a DRO, such as its national headquarters or a local branch. An important problem that DROs with multiple accounts face is how to coordinate the production of social media content across these accounts. One strategy is to have all accounts within the same DRO match their decisions about how content is created and designed (e.g., audience, topic). An alternate strategy is to mismatch these decisions. Using Twitter data collected in partnership with the Canadian Red Cross, we analyze which coordination strategy is best for social media engagement. Our results suggest that, during the immediate aftermath of a disaster, accounts within the same DRO should produce content with similar characteristics by matching their content creation decisions. This leads to a 4.3% lift in engagement. However, when DROs start working on helping impacted communities recover from disasters, engagement is 29.6% higher when their accounts mismatch their content creation decisions and post distinctive content.

Photovoice and Instagram as Strategies for Youth Engagement in Disaster Risk Reduction.

Community involvement is essential for an all-of-society approach to disaster risk reduction. This requires innovative consultation methods, particularly with youth and during pandemic restrictions. This article outlines methods used for a Photovoice project where we brought together student co-researchers from multiple levels (high school, undergraduate, and graduate health sciences) to explore the topic of youth engagement in disaster risk reduction. Over a two-year period, our team used Photovoice as an arts-based participatory method to collaborate with members of our EnRiCH Youth Research Team. We adapted the protocol to continue our project during the COVID-19 pandemic and presented our work in a Photovoice exhibition using Instagram. This article was written from the perspectives of high school and university students on the project. Our hybrid Photovoice protocol facilitated participation through the pandemic, including a virtual presentation at an international conference and online consultation with the Canadian Red Cross.

Domestic application of lessons learned by Canadian health care professionals working in international disaster settings: a qualitative research study.

Background:Individuals with prior experience in international disaster response represent an essential source of expertise to support disaster response in their home countries. Our objective was to explore the experiences of personnel involved in international emergency health response regarding their perceptions of essential disaster response attributes and capacities and determine how these competencies apply to the Canadian context.Methods:For this qualitative study, we conducted semistructured interviews with key informants in person or over the telephone from May to December 2018. Participants were delegates deployed as part of the Canadian Red Cross medical response team in a clinical or technical, or administrative role within the last 5 years. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Conventional content analysis was performed on the transcripts, and themes were developed.Results:Eighteen key informants from 4 Canadian provinces provided perspectives on individual attributes acquired during international deployments, such as agility and stress management, and team capacities developed, including collaboration and conflict management. Key informants, including administrators (n = 5), technicians (n = 4), nurses (n = 4), physicians (n = 3) and psychosocial support workers (n = 2), described these experiences as highly relevant to the Canadian domestic context.Interpretation:Canadian physicians and health care workers involved with international disaster response have already acquired essential capacities, and this experience can be vital to building efficient disaster response teams in Canada. These findings complement the Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists (CanMEDS) roles and can inform course design, competency and curriculum development for physician and professional training programs related to disaster response and preparedness.

Ethical Traditions in Humanitarian Photography and the Challenges of the Digital Age

As the production, content and display of humanitarian images faced the requirements of digital media, humanitarian organizations struggled to keep equitable visual practices. Media specialists reflect on past and current uses of images in four Canadian agencies: the Canadian Red Cross, the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan, the World University Service of Canada and IMPACT. Historically, the risk to reproduce the global inequalities they seek to remedy has compelled photographers, filmmakers and publicists in these agencies to develop codes of visual practice. In these conversations, they have shared the insights gained in transforming their work to accompany the rise of new digital technologies and social media. From one agency to the other, the lines of concern and of innovation converge. On the technical side, the officers speak of the advantage of telling personal stories, and of using short videos and infographics. On the organizational side, they have updated ways to develop skills in media production and visual literacy among workers, volunteers, partners and recipients, at all levels of their activity. These interviews further reveal that Communications Officers share with historians a wish to collect, preserve and tell past histories that acknowledge the role of all actors in the humanitarian sphere, as well as an immediate need to manage the abundance of visual documents with respect and method. To face these challenges, the five interviewees rely on democratic traditions of image-making: the trusted relationships, both with the Canadian public and with local peoples abroad, which have always informed the production and the content of visual assets. For this reason, humanitarian publicists might be in a privileged position to intervene in larger and urgent debates over the moral economy of the circulation of digital images in a globalized public space.

Community Journey of Change Through Relational Determinants of Health

This article describes a model that maps Indigenous communities’ journeys from the cycle of violence arising from colonization to the circle of wellness through relational determinants of health. This model emerged from learning with Indigenous communities participating in research on violence prevention programming with the Canadian Red Cross. Indigenous communities have shown us that they are returning to a place of thriving by restoring relationality with land, culture, ceremony, and language. Therefore, the relational determinants of health comprise the foundational relationships that contribute to wellness. The Community Journey of Change model represents actions that communities can undertake in moving to wellness. The model has implications for policies, programs, and services for Indigenous communities as they begin to restore health and wellness.

Kamu Diplomasisinde İnsani Diplomasi Temelli Diyalog: Uluslararası İnsani Diplomasi Aktörlerinin Twitter Hesapları Üzerine Karşılaştırmalı Bir Analiz

Diyalog kurma ve ilişki inşa etmenin ana belirleyici olduğu yeni dünya düzeninde, aktörler mevcut ve potansiyel yumuşak güç kaynaklarına yönelerek stratejik iletişim faaliyetlerine odaklanmaktadır. Bu bakımdan devletler ve devlet dışı aktörler bir iletişim süreci olan kamu diplomasisi faaliyetleri ile uluslararası kamuoyunu ve yabancı halkları kendi amaç, hedef ve stratejilerine göre ikna etmeye çalışmaktadır. 21. yüzyıl küresel siyasetindeki bu iletişim temelli zorunlu dönüşüm ise uluslararası toplumdaki sorunlara karşın “insan odaklı” olma vurgusunu giderek zorunlu kılmıştır. Küresel sistem içerisinde dünyayı, özellikle de insanları derinden etkileyen birçok küresel sorun ve kriz giderek yoğunlaşmaktadır. Sorunların küresel düzeyde artması, kamu diplomasisinin bir uygulama alanı olan insani diplomasi faaliyetlerinin önemini arttırmış, bu durum krizlerin tarafları, paydaşları ve gönüllüleriyle diyalog kurulması ve ilişki inşa edilmesi için insani diplomasi aktörlerinin yeni iletişim teknolojilerini de etkili kullanmalarını zorunlu kılmıştır. Bu çalışmada dünyada en çok yardım yapan ve uluslararası insani diplomasinin ana aktörleri olan Türk Kızılay, Amerikan Kızılhaçı, İngiliz Kızılhaçı, Alman Kızılhaçı ve Kanada Kızılhaçı’nın sosyal ağları insani diplomasi açısından hangi düzeyde kullandıklarının ve kullanıcılarla diyalog temelli etkileşime girip girmediklerinin ortaya konulması amaçlanmaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmada öncelikle yeni kamu diplomasisi ve insani diplomasi kavramlarının çerçevesi çizilmiş, insani krizlerin çözümünde temel belirleyici olan bu kurumların İngilizce Twitter hesaplarındaki içerikler, sosyal ağları insani diplomasi açısından hangi düzeyde kullandıkları, diyalog temelli etkileşime girip girmediklerine yönelik hipotezler niceliksel içerik çözümlemesi yöntemiyle sınanmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda insani diplomasi faaliyetlerinde kurumların büyük bir kısmının Twitter’ı diyalog temelli kullanmadığı ve paylaşılan içeriklerde etkileşime girme oranının ise düşük olduğu saptanmıştır.

Can a ‘modern’ irrigation system and a traditional smallholder gravitational system coexist? A view from Marakwet, Kenya

ABSTRACT Irrigation and improved agricultural inputs have been promoted by the New African Green Revolution to close yield gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa. Can this approach coexist with local indigenous irrigation systems? We examine an irrigation scheme financed by both the Kenyan and Canadian Red Cross and put in place in 2015 in Marakwet, Kenya, where a gravity irrigation system has been operated by local people for three centuries. Grounded on ethnographic data, we show how the current rhetoric and operationalization of top-down irrigation projects disregard, instead of harnessing, local agricultural knowledge which would ensure sustainable farming in the context of resource-poor and climate-challenged communities.

Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross by Sarah Glassford

<i>Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross</i> by Sarah Glassford

Frederick Ephraim Dische

After service in the Royal Air Force, Frederick Dische trained in pathology at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital, Taplow; Cambridge University; and St George’s Hospital, London. In 1958 he...

Cliveden: The Canadian Red Cross Hospital, William Osler and the 'Taplow Affair'.

At the start of the First World War, the estate of Cliveden was offered as a hospital to the Canadian Government by its owner William Astor. This article describes its history, Sir William Osler's involvement in the hospital, and the involvement of other doctors and some of their research. The rehabilitation programs to help the injured soldiers are described, including the physical, occupational, sporting and social activities undertaken in order to help them towards their return to civilian life. Political ambitions in Canada and friction between the owner of Cliveden, Nancy Astor, and the medical/military establishment led to turmoil which engulfed Osler and is known as the 'Taplow Affair'. The hospital was dismantled after the war but became re-activated in the Second World War and is now a National Trust property.

Walking Alongside to Find the Healing Pathways: Learning Through a Community Mobilization Process in Indigenous Communities

Background: In this paper, we describe how we developed a conceptual model of the pathway from the cycle of violence to the circle of healing, through our exploration of a community mobilization process in Indigenous communities in Canada. Indigenous communities in Canada have experienced multiple traumas since first contact, with systematic harms across generations. Research has shown that community-based prevention programs for Indigenous populations can be effective in addressing a range of health challenges. Methods: For over 20 years, the Canadian Red Cross has been working with Indigenous communities in violence prevention to address present day challenges. Through a partnership research grant, we have been working to identify, understand document, community processes that address the cycle of violence rooted in colonization and promote healing rooted in Indigenous traditions. Findings: A comprehensive literature review revealed that multiple layers of harm have accumulated and cascaded to explain the deep disruptions in Indigenous community, family, and individual wellbeing. The community stories helped us understand the cycle of violence from colonization that created physical, mental, emotional and spiritual disruption in domains of Indigenous wellbeing. This understanding of disruptions enabled us to consider the pathways that allow wellness to emerge within these four domains. After identifying the pathway to wellness, we realized that a relational lens was essential for the circle of healing. Interpretation: We came to understand that if colonization had disrupted all my relations, then healing and wellness could be understood as a re-integration of all my relations. We believe that our conceptual model can provide guidance to those working with and within diverse Indigenous communities around the world to address the layers of harm from colonization and create culturally relevant pathways to healing and wellness. Funding Statement: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada #895-2011-1013. Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: This research was approved by the Aboriginal Research Ethics Review Advisory Group of the Human Participants Review Committee, York University.

Sexual health education for adolescents with developmental disabilities

Background: While statistics related to the sexual abuse of people with developmental disabilities are alarming, there remains a gap in the services and supports available to promote sexual health and healthy relationships and prevent sexual abuse of this population. Objective: To develop and deliver a sexual health education programme for adolescents with developmental disabilities and to identify the reactions and perceptions of students, teachers and parents involved in the programme. Methods: Using an interprofessional collaborative community development model, we developed and delivered a sexual health programme to young people aged 16–21 years with developmental disabilities in five Saskatchewan, Canada high schools. The project adapted, modified and administered the Canadian Red Cross RespectED questionnaires to all participants following the programme to allow for the identification and implementation of best practices with regard to the project’s future operation. Results: Data collected from the feedback and comments were summarised, and major concepts were identified. The information gathered identified meaningful educational experiences for students, their parents and teachers. Conclusion: Project findings reinforce the importance of sexual health education for people with developmental disabilities to increase opportunities for healthy sexual relationships and intimacy, to promote positive sexual identities and to decrease the risk of sexual victimisation.

Barbara Ansell: a person ahead of her time

In 1951, Barbara Ansell, a young 28-year-old physician and aspiring cardiologist, was encouraged by Professor Eric Bywaters to join him in the Special Unit for Juvenile Rheumatism, recently created by...

Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross by Sarah Glassford

<i>Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross</i> by Sarah Glassford

L’impact de l’expression artistique sur la participation sociale des aînés suite à la tragédie ferroviaire à Lac-Mégantic

Seniors were greatly affected, as was the rest of the population, by the railway tragedy that occurred in the Lac-Mégantic community in 2013. In the aftermath of the events, the Canadian Red Cross settled there in order to support the population and to implement the Arts and Crafts program, which includes arts and crafts workshops for seniors with loss of autonomy. This article presents the results of an exploratory study aimed at determining the effects of these workshops on the elderly who benefitted from them. The results show that this artistic expression has led participants to break free from their isolation, develop their self-esteem, feel pleasure, and enjoy life again. The positive response from the people of the community of Lac Mégantic to the projects produced by the participants suggests that artistic expression is a form of social participation since it demonstrates a vitality that is always present in people who were no longer believed capable of innovation. It becomes a source of hope for a community that is going through such a hard time.

“International Friendliness” and Canadian Identities: Transnational Tensions in Canadian Junior Red Cross Texts, 1919-1939

As the youth wing of the Canadian Red Cross Society, the Junior Red Cross (JRC) program of the 1920s and 1930s aimed to teach school-aged children and youth habits of good health, good citizenship, and service to others. Inspired by a transnational ethic of humanitarianism, the program tried to build international ties of friendship between JRC members in Canada and those elsewhere, while shaping Canadian Juniors in a particular mould of national citizenship. Through an examination of adult and child contributions to the national JRC magazine, and the portfolios Juniors created to send overseas, this article explores the tensions inherent in the national and transnational lessons conveyed by adult JRC leaders as well as the ways young Canadians embraced, modified, or rejected those perspectives.

Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross

<i>Mobilizing Mercy: A History of the Canadian Red Cross</i>