Being ready to act quickly, agilely and effectively, while promoting the resilience of populations, is the whole challenge of the international strategy of the French Red Cross. Know-how that the association was able to apply from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The discussion first focused on adapting activities in order to limit the exposure of volunteers and beneficiaries to the virus. Rules of conduct were quickly established for safe interventions (first aid actions to be reviewed, masks, overalls, etc.) allowing us to remain as close as possible to the population. The French Red Cross was one of the rare associations to never cease its activities during the crisis.
Concretely, it is the approach of “going towards” which was mainly favored. Thanks to the central “Red Cross at home” system, launched five days after the start of the first confinement, in March 2020, 30,000 volunteers were able to deliver essential goods and medicines to people who were isolated or unable to leave their homes. they. Maintaining links and social actions has indeed been at the heart of the association’s strategy during the pandemic. In addition to food distribution, volunteers also made courtesy visits to isolated people or made regular phone calls to get news and direct them to other services of the association in the event of detection of social, health or psychological problems. . Essential psychosocial support in the face of anxiety caused by the pandemic.
If the social aspect was fundamental in the response to the crisis, the fight against the epidemic was another. The Red Cross has been, in more than one way, a first-class partner of the public authorities. In addition to messages of prevention and awareness of barrier gestures on the association’s website and on its social networks, it transported patients to hospitals, strengthened emergency networks, medicalized its marauding activities (day and night), vaccinated at home, in mobile devices and in large vaccination centers such as the Stade de France or Paris La Défense Arena… Actions carried out throughout this crisis, which has plunged many French people into precariousness. In a survey published on October 14, 2020, INSEE established that the first confinement (from March 17 to May 11, 2020) had led to the impoverishment of a quarter of households, all the more significantly as their standard of living was initially low. An increase in basic needs, such as access to food, as well as the arrival of new audiences in its systems, resulted in a 20 to 25% increase in requests for food aid in the first year of the pandemic. .
Faced with a social and economic situation that is as unprecedented as it is dramatic, the association has had to accelerate its change, review its mode of operation, and even invent new responses. The “go towards”, which showed its relevance during the crisis, has since been widely deployed towards other audiences (families, students, migrants, etc.). Health and social monitoring to identify and direct people in need – particularly those affected by precariousness since the pandemic and who have difficulty asking for help – has also been strengthened. Missions that the Red Cross does not carry out alone. And this is one of the lessons it has learned from the crisis: the relevance of establishing new types of partnerships with companies and building a relationship of trust with other associative actors.
But also to engage citizen solidarity. The message is thus clearly stated: the protection of people and the prevention of crises linked in particular to climate change is everyone’s business. We need to make people more resilient, able to cope with major disruptions in their daily lives and bounce back faster and better.
