Botswana Red Cross Society

History

It all began on 24th June 1859 in Solferino, a town in Northern Italy, where French and Italian troops were engaged in a fierce battle against the occupying Austrian forces, which was to leave 40,000 wounded and dead in only a few hours.

The medical services of the armies involved were quit inadequate to cope with the situation and the wounded were abandoned to their fate. The spectacle of their suffering appalled a visiting Swiss businessman named Henry Dunant, who set about helping them, regardless of their nationality, calling on the local population to join him.

On his return to Switzerland, Henry Dunant, unable to forget the horrors he had witnessed, related his experience of the ever-recurring tragedy of war in a book entitled A Memory of Solferino, which was completed in 1862. Dunant had the work printed at his own expense and sent copies to the reigning monarchs of Europe and to politicians, military officers, philanthropists and friends. It rapidly received unexpected acclaim among Europeans, who were largely unaware of cruel realities of war and were shocked by his description.

Gustave Moyner, a lawyer who was at the time President of the Geneva Public Welfare Society, was deeply moved by A Memory of Solferino. A man of action, he immediately proposed that Dunant meet the other members of the Society to talk about his work. At the meeting a five-member Commission was set up, comprising, besides Dunant and Moyner, General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Dr. Louis Appia and Dr. Theodore Maunoir, all Swiss citizens. The Commission, which met for the first time on 17th February 1863, adopted the name: “International Committee for Relief to the Wounded”.

During the ensuing months, the Committee’s five members worked to organize an international conference, which, in October 1863, Brought together in Geneva the representatives of 16 States. The conference adopted a distinctive sign - a red cross on a white ground - to identify and thereby protect those who assisted wounded soldiers. It also marked the birth of the RED CROSS as an institution. Subsequently, the Committee took the title: ”INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC)”.

International Red Cross