Honduran Red Cross

The Honduran Red Cross is a non-profit institution of social and voluntary interest that provides help to at-risk populations and those affected by disasters. It is part of the international organization Red Cross and Half Moon Red Crescent, which seeks to alleviate human suffering according to each particular situation.

Founding and history

The Honduran Red Cross was developed in 1924 during the second civil war. During the conflict, a group of people organized to tend to those who had been injured at the site of Tegucigalpa by rebels, following the example set by Henry Dunant during the first world war. This group of volunteers- which included Carlos Rivas, Delia Becerra, Emma Bonilla, Ernesto López Alleys, Hernán López Alleys, Isolina Guilbert, Luz Becerra, Marine Stair, Marieta Guilbert, Otilia Idiáquez, Roberto Rivas, Soledad Lozano, among others- became the first to carry the symbol of the Red Cross in Honduras, albeit without a concrete leader. Later, in 1932, Tiburcio Carias Andino created a national aid committee, designating civil engineer Abraham Williams Caldéron as its president. Williams Caldéron, along with the doctor Enrique Douglas Guilbert- an active member of Rotary International- decided to devise the founding of the Red Cross in Honduras. Thus, on August 22 of 1934, the first board of directors was elected in a Honduran casino, which was as follows:

• President Manuel Larios Córdover, president of the Honduran Medical Association
• First vice president Nicolas Cornelsen
• Second vice president Abraham Williams Caldéron, engineer and general
• Vice president of the republic and minister of governing, justice, health, and welfare, Dr. Francisco Sánchez Urbina
• Secretary Ricardo Diego Alduvin, director of the hospital and dean of the faculty of medicine
• Treasurer Donato Diaz Medina, leader of the bank of Honduras
• Salvador Paredes

In 1937, a group of women organized and was a sponsor of the first group of Honduran aid workers; however, they were not yet defined as the Honduran Red Cross. Focused on their requests to the government to obtain a legal status, they developed activities to benefit the Honduran society. On September 4 of the same year, the president, doctor and general Tiburcio Carias Andean, in a meeting in the Presidential House of Honduras, awarded legal recognition to the well-deserving group, organizing a board of directors. Original members included Adolfina Mejía, lady Berta García de Saenz Rico, lady Elia Pineda de Fortín, lady Ernestina de Landa, Lady Enriqueta Girón de Lázarus, doctor Guillermo Durón, doctor Hernán López Alleys, lawyer Héctor Pineda Ugarte, doctor Humberto Díaz Banegas, Isabel Siqueiros de Pinel, Isolina Lozano de Guilbert, Josefina Mejía, lawyer Jorge Fidel Durón, doctor Juan A. Mejía, doctor Manuel Cáceres Vijil, doctor and future president Ramón Villeda Moral, and lawyer Rubén Álvarez Channels.. By means of Decree No. 475 issued on date 6 October 1937, the institution was known officially as the Honduran Red Cross, with the intended function of engaging in humanitarian action in the national territory. In 1941, Lázarus Henrietta, serving as President of the Honduran Red Cross, requested the National Congress of Honduras to issue a law establishing income for the organization. It was issued as the "law of the income of the seal of the Red Cross", so that the organization would receive finances in order to sustain themselves independently and continue providing social services. The economic funds received by the organization would be help the organization to sustain itself independently and continue providing social services.^[1] In October 1937, the original group of volunteers from 1924 were recognized for the first time.

In 1942, the first units were established in San Pedro Sula, Port Cortés, Tela, and La Ceiba. These units were authorized to retain 40% of donations collected by donors and benefactors and sending the other 60% to the central committee. In the same year, the Infant Consul was founded, with the goal of providing help and support to Honduran children.

In 1950, the organization received its first ambulance, a Ford model.

In 1954, the then-president of Honduras, doctor Juan Manuel Gálvez donated land for the construction of the official headquarters.

In 1978, the official statutes of the Honduran Red Cross were published.

The Honduran Red Cross has had a major impact in several Honduran events, such as: the third civil war of 1931, the events of 1954, the War of the Football of 1969. Together with ACNUR and Doctors without Borders, they have backed the mobilisation of civilians in the border zones with El Salvador and Nicaragua, as in the natural disasters caused by the Hurricane Fifi-Orlene of 1971 and Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the north zone and central office of the Central American country in 1998.

Presidents

Former presidents of the Central Committee of the Honduran Red Cross:

• Enriqueta Girón of Lázarus.
• Cleto Ramon Alvarez
• Meneca Of Mencía.

Red Cross Youth Honduras

Red Cross Youth Honduras is an auxiliary program of Honduran Red Cross founded on June 17, 1964. It is composed of volunteers age 6 and up organized as follows: 6–12 years old are brigadistas; 12–30 years old are Juvenile; 30-up are Advisers.

Offices of the CRJH (Cruz Roja Joventud Honduras) can be in Francisco Morazán, Comayagua, Choluteca, Valley, Olancho, El Paraiso, Cortes, Santa Bárbara, Atlántida, Colon, Intibucá, Yoro and Copán.

See also

• National societies de la Cruz Red and the Half Red Moon
• International committee de la Cruz Red

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Durón, Jorge Fidel. Development and activities de la Cruz Red Honduran. Printing Calderón, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 1943.
• Statutes and Regulations de la Cruz Red Honduran, Workshops Tipográficos National, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 1937.