The Belarusian Red Cross Society - (abbreviated BOKK ) is a republican public association, recognized as the only national organization of the Red Cross in the Republic of Belarus, which assists the state in carrying out humanitarian activities throughout the country. Belarusian Red Cross Society is an integral part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies | International Federation of the Red Cross.
Belarusian Red Cross Society | |
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Type of | social organization |
Year of foundation | |
Location | Belarus, Minsk, Karl Marx Street , 35 |
The number of volunteers | 21,011 people [1] |
Number of members | 1,335,531 people [2] |
Site | redcross.by |
History
On the territory of Belarus, the activities of the Red Cross began in the framework of the Russian Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers, established in 1867 and renamed in 1879 into the Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK). According to the procedure adopted at that time in the Russian Empire, such an activity was organized in the form of local (provincial) offices of the ROKK, which were headed by the Main Directorate of the ROKK, located in St. Petersburg. Local departments were subordinate to the committees of the Red Cross Society of county towns and military fortresses. On March 26, 1872, the Minsk local administration of the Russian Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers was created. In Vitebsk, the Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers was opened on July 1, 1876. In the years 1877-1878, information appeared about the Mogilev and Vilensky local departments of the Russian Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers.
By 1877, there were 5 local administrations, 30 serfs (including Bobruisk, Lida and Brest-Litovsk) and county committees in the territory of Belarus, bringing together 3,021 members, of which 1,436 are in Grodno local government. The financial basis of local administrations was membership fees in the amount of 3 rubles (from 1873 - 10 rubles), donations, fees from performances, lace and penny fees. The beginning of the active work of the local administrations of the Russian Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers on the territory of Belarus coincided with the Russian-Turkish war of 1876-1878.
The activities of the Red Cross on the territory of Belarus in the period of the Russian-Turkish war of 1876-1878.
In order to assist the soldiers of the army, advancing through Belarus to the theater of operations, the Red Cross organized temporary feeding facilities. For the needs of the front, there was a gathering of food, warm clothes. In the workshops of the Red Cross produced underwear for military needs. Ten sisters of mercy went to the army (from Vitebsk local government - 6 sisters, from Vilna local government - 4 sisters). Due to the existing shortage of sisters of mercy, the Red Cross intensifies the two-month training begun in 1873 at city hospitals (this initiative was first carried out by the Minsk local administration). But the main efforts were focused on preparing the hospital bed network to receive the wounded and sick, being evacuated to the rear. To this end, in 1877–1878, at the expense of the Red Cross, in all provincial and district towns, 20 hospitals and infirmaries were deployed with a total bed capacity of over 1,000 beds. These were mainly small hospitals with 10–50 beds. The most significant of them were located in the cities of Vilna (with 300 beds) and Vitebsk (with 120 beds). Created hospitals and at the expense of individuals. Princess Paskevich contained 10 hospital beds in the village of Noviki. The peasants of Vitebsk in a rural hospital, located at their expense, located at the Svoln station, gave 15 wards to wounded and sick soldiers.
Activities on the territory of Belarus of the Russian Red Cross Society in the period from 1879 to 1913.
At the end of the Russian-Turkish war, the activities of the county committees of the Red Cross were discontinued, and the deployed medical institutions were gradually disbanded. In this regard, in 1879, the decision was made to transfer the activities of the Red Cross sisters of mercy, first to civilian provincial and district offices, and then to rural local hospitals. Measures are being taken to expand the functions of the sisters of mercy. Along with caring for seriously ill patients, they are charged with the responsibility of monitoring the exact performance of medical assistants, midwives and servants as prescribed by a doctor. Improved their organizational forms of work. In 1889-1894, communities of the Red Cross sisters of mercy were created in provincial cities (in 1889 in the city of Minsk), the main purpose of which was to train experienced female sanitary personnel to care for the sick and wounded, both in wartime and in peacetime. For the training of sisters of mercy to be of high quality, the Red Cross needed its facilities again (hospitals, ambulance stations and pharmacies). Since 1895, such institutions began to be created under the communities of sisters of mercy (Vilna local government). They were distinguished by high-quality equipment and highly qualified staff. Treatment in them was paid. An outpatient visitor had to pay 25 kopecks for medical advice and medication allowance. The stay and treatment in the general ward of the hospital cost 3.5 rubles. per day.
Until November 1903, the ROCC local administration managed the sisters of mercy communities, and then the leadership passed to the community's Board of Trustees (a special committee of the community). The conditions of preparation and life of the future sisters of mercy were not easy. The studies of the sisters of mercy assumed that they would live in one common room under the supervision of the elder sister and the guidance of the head of the community. Those who decided to devote themselves to serving the sick and wounded, entered the community as "subjects" in various chores for a period of one year. The certificate of specialty acquisition was issued to them not after graduation, but after two years of successful work in the community. Later they worked in the Red Cross institutions or looked after the sick in private homes. If necessary, they were attracted to fight epidemics of cholera (1894, Grodno gubernia), smallpox and typhoid (1910, Minsk gubernia), as well as to assist hunger as a result of poor harvest. The activities of the sisters of mercy were well paid and beneficial to the community. There were not enough sisters of mercy, and there was especially great demand for them for home care for the sick.
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, the directions of the work of the Red Cross are largely repeated by those that were carried out during the Russo-Turkish War of 1876-1878. To deploy the work of the Red Cross, temporary county committees are being set up in all county towns. The main events of this period were reduced to the formation and dispatch to the front of 5 sanitary units (Vitebsk, two Vilna, Minsk and Mogilev) with a total hospital bed capacity of 300 hospital beds, as well as six-month training of sisters of mercy in their communities. In 1904, each community prepared 40-50 sisters of mercy. In addition, hospitals were deployed on the ground to receive the wounded from the theater of operations. So, the Vilna infirmary helped 67 wounded. The number of sisters of mercy grew slowly and in 1912, the Main Directorate of the RCSC decided to begin the course training for Red Cross orderlies in the 40-hour training program at the Red Cross hospitals and infirmaries.
In 1910, all the sister communities of the Red Cross located in the territory of Byelorussia with their own institutions carried out the following workload:
Name of the community | Number of hospital beds / patients treated | The number of patients who received outpatient care | Drugstore |
---|---|---|---|
Vilenskaya | 12/48 | 1921 | one |
Vitebsk | 21/135 | 6,557 | one |
Grodno | 9/37 | 7,403 | - |
Minsk | 8/64 | - | - |
Mogilev | 30/201 | 21 580 | one |
Total: | 80/485 | 37 461 | 3 |
47 doctors, 98 full-time and 52 tested sisters of mercy worked in these institutions.
Activities on the territory of Belarus of the Russian Red Cross Society in the period from 1914 to 1920.
By the next war of 1914-1917, the Red Cross approached more prepared, with a good experience and a solid budget. Along with traditional humanitarian events, the Society also assumes new functions to assist the military sanitary service in providing military medical institutions with surgical instruments, dressings, medicines, linen, dishes, warm clothes and other material means; in staffing its institutions with female sanitary personnel, and, if necessary, medical staff; in the evacuation of the wounded and sick to the rear using evacuation trains and sanitary escort detachments, as well as in transporting the sick and wounded inside the country. By the efforts of the local administration of the Russian Red Cross, by 1916, 34 hospitals and 76 infirmaries, 35 nutritional and dressing units, 77 sanitary trains, 43 disinfection trains, 23 disinfection units, 21 dental offices, 5 X-ray units were deployed on the Western Front, passing through Belarus. stations, 8 psychiatric points, 2 veterinary points, 17 field depots and departments. For the first time, the Red Cross was faced with the need to provide large-scale assistance to refugees. We had to open medical and nutritional and fodder points, bathhouses, shelters for children and the elderly. The flow of refugees was huge. Thus, from August 27 to November 10, 1916, only 297,000 refugees proceeded through the Orsha station. The war disorganized the provision of psychiatric care to those in need, and the Red Cross had to assume this function. Training for the sisters of mercy continued, but the duration of their training was reduced from six to two months. With the beginning of the revolution in Russia, the Red Cross did not legally take anyone’s side in the conflict, but events developed in such a way that the conflicting parties sought to divide it into parts. To this end, the so-called Zapadokrest was created on the Western Front in April-May 1917, and the Proletarian Red Cross in the days of the October Revolution in St. Petersburg. By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 6, 1918, the headquarters of the Red Cross was abolished. This effectively removed from the protection of the Geneva Conventions the personnel and facilities of the Red Cross institutions working in the interests of the front. A period of discord and hesitation has begun in the Society. The sisters of mercy from the wealthiest families left the front, the volume of donations decreased. Part of the medical units of the Red Cross, operating in the Western Front, are liquidated before the onset of the Germans, and some are transferred to other fronts. On February 18, 1918, the Germans launched an offensive and occupied almost the whole of Belarus. Most of the medical facilities of the Red Cross with a total hospital capacity of 725 beds remained in the occupied territory. So, only in Minsk there were: the Warsaw Hospital, the Minsk Surgical Hospital, the Minsk Hospital for infectious patients, the infirmary for nurses, sanitary trains No. 16 and 17. The Red Cross institutions were deficient in everything. By the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of August 7, 1918, the Red Cross was reorganized. As a result, sanitary trains, motels, x-ray equipment and psychiatric facilities were transferred to the People’s Commissariat of Health. The working conditions of the Red Cross deteriorated even more during the Polish occupation of 1919-1920. Most of the institutions were transferred to the Polish Red Cross, and a part was destroyed. So, on February 24, 1919, the Poles fired 8-inch shells at a hospital in Polotsk for 2 hours. The building was destroyed. The hospital has ceased to exist. As a result of the six-year war, ruin reigned in Belarus.
The activities of the Belarusian Red Cross Society in the period from 1921 to 1941.
The Belarusian Red Cross Society (BOKK) was established on September 6, 1921, but it was not recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross. It so happened that the Society began its activities with the provision of assistance to the starving Volga region and refugees. In 1921, the Central Control Committee organized a nutritional center for 500 people for them, in which 29,930 people received food during the year (Volga Germans, Belarusians from the areas occupied by Poles, and demobilized Red Army men). For the temporary accommodation of refugees in Minsk 4 hostels were equipped. In addition, medical stations and dormitories were deployed in the border zone. In the same year, the “Starved Aid Week” was held, as a result of which 4,095,444 rubles were collected only in Minsk. A special detachment of medical personnel consisting of 20 people was sent to Saratov, designed to provide 1,000 people with food and ambulatory care for up to 100 people a day, and a health and nutritional detachment from Vitebsk and a medical nutritional detachment formed in Gomel and Smolensk were sent to the region.
Within a month and a half, 33 wagons of bread were sent from Belarus to the Saratov region. In 1922, the German Red Cross also provided assistance to his compatriots in Minsk. For medical institutions, they were allocated 2500 pounds of bread and medicines.
In the years 1924-1925, the influx of refugees was repeated at the expense of the Poles returning from the war. They were given 50,000 food rations and organized the work of 4 hostels. Only in 1925, 840 refugee families were sent to the Red Cross funds outside the republic.
Funds for the statutory activities were not enough, and the Central Committee of the Central Committee of Labor Protection Committee obtained from the government a monopoly on the sale of products from Zagmetall, Lentabtrest and other organizations. Commercial departments and shops were established in the Boqk Central Committee, Bobruisk, Mozyr and Slutsk. Commercial activity flourished, and attention was not paid much attention to the formation of attraction to BOKK members. During the first two years of BOKK’s existence, only 1,500 people joined the organization. In 1924, the activities of the BOKK expanded by increasing the territory of Belarus. It was created 10 territorial districts, where the representatives of the Red Cross worked, subsequently replaced by electoral committees of the Red Cross.
On May 18, 1923, representatives of the Red Cross of Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, and the Red Crescent of Azerbaijan concluded an agreement on the formation of the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ROSC and KP) of the USSR. BOKK is heading for expansion of membership and preparation of a sanitary asset. At this time, the Society is headed by Barsukov Mikhail Ivanovich, Minister of Health of the BSSR. The main efforts of the Red Cross are transferred to the village. The first rural tubdispanser and nursery opens in the village of Bratykovichi, Kalininsky district. Beginning in 1926, the Red Cross organizes the work of first-aid circles under a 32-hour program. The number of members of the Red Cross already exceeds 17,000 people. The Red Cross operates in 92 districts out of 100. There are 384 of its cells, where the main activity is concentrated. By the end of 1927, there were 18,500 people in 525 first aid circles. From among those who graduated, first aid schools were organized. First-aid teams were formed from school graduates. Work in study groups and schools was first paid for by the Red Cross, and then carried out on a voluntary basis.
By 1928, the number of BOKK members increased to 35,000 people.
Since July 1929, the work of the BRCC has been carried out on the basis of five-year plans. The main efforts are focused on sanitary and defense work.
In 1930, first aid clubs were converted into sanitary knowledge circles, the program of which was designed for 30, and since 1933 - for 12 hours. This was due to the need to intensify sanitary-defense work. In 1934, the Ready for Health Defense badge was established. The SKKK and KP executive committee approved the Regulations and the norms for the delivery of the specified badge, which included the following military and sanitary systems, air hygiene, housing hygiene, food hygiene, personal hygiene, physical education, and red-cross health certificates. The norms for the “Be ready for sanitary defense” badge consisted of 4 sections: first aid and the hygiene of the hike; air defense; school hygiene and sanitation; Red Cross and Red Crescent. In 1940, the BOKK Central Committee organized the All-Belarusian competition in sanitary-defense work. The winner was Terekhovsky district organization of BDCC, which prepared 2,000 icons of the GSO and BGSO.
Along with the preparation of badges for GSO and BGSO, the Society provided training for stock nurses and retraining of doctors. On November 8, 1927, the Minsk 3-year Nursing School was opened for 80 places. The school accepted women with a seven-year education in age from 18 to 35 years. For the financially unsecured, 30 scholarships were set at 20 rubles each. The school has trained about 300 nurses. From October 1930, the school was transferred to the state budget, and the Red Cross switched to short-term nursing training for evening (8–9 months) and morning (6 months) courses on a 600-hour program. In total, about 1,000 stock nurses were trained under this program. In the same year, the BOKK Central Committee organizes annual one-year courses for medical technicians, and since 1932, collective farms nurses have been trained in abbreviated programs in Polotsk, Slutsk, Lepel and Bykhov. Since 1935, the 2-year training of nurses has begun with a job and 3-year without work. Since 1936, the Red Cross began to organize 1.5-year courses of sanitary instructors, based on 4-year education and flight attendant-flight parachutists. In 1940, there were 55 training groups for nursing courses. Thus, in the years preceding the Great Patriotic War, BOKK trained tens of thousands of nurses. Some of them were brought to work in the medical institutions of the People's Commissariat of Health, and some were incorporated into the sanitary asset of the Society.
Since 1933, groups of commander training have been functioning at the Vitebsk, Gomel and Minsk Red Cross Committees. In 1940, the Society organized 8–10-month courses in correspondence training and retraining of doctors. A little earlier the retraining of stock nurses was organized. The training took place at 14 training points located in Minsk (9) and one each in Gomel, Vitebsk, Polotsk, Mogilyov and Bobruisk. The society has set itself the task of engaging an asset prepared in first-aid groups in an organized, active work and, to this end, began to create sanitary units: sanitary squads, sanitary posts, self-help groups. The first sanitary squads appeared in Belarus at the end of 1927 with the aim of providing first aid to victims of natural disasters, mass accidents during peacetime, as well as the wounded and sick in wartime. Their work was closely linked with the work of Osoaviakhim teams, fire brigades, rescue points on water and first aid at enterprises, and ambulance work.
The Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Political Directorate of the Political Enforcement Committee of 1928 determined that "sanitary defense is the main work and should occupy a prevailing position over all other types of work of the Company." Already by this year, 12 sanitary brigades were created in the Red Cross, each of which consisted of 123 people (from November 1939, the brigade consisted of two divisions, six units, a total of 30 persons). The team consisted of three branches and nine units. The doctor and his two assistants led the team. The chiefs of departments and units appointed paramedics, nurses or members of the units who underwent special training in the program of first aid circles of increased difficulty. The quality of the training of sanitary teams was tested at annual competitions. They carried out "combat" exercises in the field, made long transitions. Since 1929, the challenge prize was introduced, which was awarded to the best sanitary squad. Sanitary squads were stationed: in Minsk and Vitebsk - three each, in Gomel and Orsha - two each, in Mogilev and Rogachev - one each. The current training of sanitary teams was carried out for 6 months according to the 200-hour program. The squads were divided into district, cycling and reserve. Along with the sanitary guards, in parallel, there was a preparation of sanitary posts, each of which consisted of 4 people who had undergone training under a special program and 2-4 badges of GSO. By 1932, 1052 sanitary posts were prepared in 21 districts of the BSSR. Their task was to provide first aid at an enterprise, institution, collective farm, state farm in the event of injuries and illnesses, to promote healthy lifestyles and to control the hygiene of workplaces.
Taking into account the needs of society, BOKK gradually begins to increase its efforts in the field of sanitary and health work. This new section of the work of the Red Cross is connected with the interwar period in the life of the republic, the organizational development of the BRCS and its desire to fill the work of the primary organizations with practical activity. The main goal of this work, beginning in 1925, was to take part in health education and hygienic education of the working people, in instilling in them daily hygiene skills. The Red Cross members learned to protect their health, observe personal hygiene, keep their dwelling and yard clean, initiated the installation of window vents in the windows of peasant houses, improving old wells, arranging baths, and took part in landscaping settlements. There was a systematic work on the anti-alcohol propaganda, the dissemination among the population of knowledge of the rules of caring for the sick. Health education was carried out through workers' clubs, reading rooms, libraries, schools, and the Narkomzdrav's own institutions. Various forms were used: the production of wall newspapers, photo exhibitions, equipment of sanitary nooks, conducting sanitary games, question and answer evenings, exhibition courts, traveling exhibitions, distribution of printed materials (thematic libraries, posters, newsletters of the Red Cross), reading conversations and lectures, the work of the Bureau of questions and answers created at the institutions of the Red Cross. So, only in 1926-1927, 21,000 people attended lectures and conversations conducted by the Red Cross. The most popular sanitary-educational materials were the brochures “First Aid”, “How to build good wells?”, The script of the play “The Case Will Be” and the poster about trachoma. For the uninterrupted promotion of sanitary literature to the masses, a publishing department is being created in the structure of the BOKK Central Committee.
A new form of anti-alcohol propaganda has become the Red Cross tea. They, according to the organizers, were supposed to be places of rest for the working people in the cities. One of the rooms of the tea-house was equipped with newspapers and sanitary-educational literature. The first tea shops were opened in Minsk (at the Vilno market), Bobruisk, Vitebsk, Polotsk and Borisov. The Red Cross is involved in the establishment of sanitary order in settlements and catering. The medical community of the city of Rogachev initiated the sanitary trip. Gradually, the institute of sanitary inspectors is being created at the expense of the sanitary asset of the Red Cross. Household rounds were included in everyday life as a means of fighting for the culture of life.
In the period from 1921 to 1924, the participation of BOKK in recreational activities along with sanitary and educational work was reduced to the implementation of anti-epidemic and therapeutic and preventive measures in relation to such diseases as typhus, cholera, malaria, trachoma, tuberculosis and syphilis. Such activities of the Red Cross during this period include participation in carrying out preventive vaccinations, opening insulators, restoring hygienic order in the Red Cross dormitories for refugees, equipment for special barracks, okolodkov, baths, dekammers and sanitary inspection rooms. At the hostel on Zakharyevskaya Street 43 in Minsk a 30-bed infirmary was opened and an ambulance station operated, which hosted 60 people every day. At the Borisov quarantine station, there was also a Red Cross outpatient clinic, designed for 50 visits per day.
The participation of the Red Cross in sanitation and health measures was dictated by the complex epidemiological situation and the introduction of NEP, which provoked the transfer of the state medical network to the local budget and its reduction. Particular attention had to be given to combating the epidemic of typhus, the incidence of which in 1921 was 1,390 cases per 10,000 population. The society takes the initiative to provide medical care for infectious patients and refugees. The Belarusian Red Cross almost had to re-create a network of medical institutions. The number of newly created healthcare institutions was not constant and largely depended on the financial condition of the Company. In 1924, when the Society was on the verge of a financial catastrophe, it transferred some of the institutions to the People's Commissariat of Health, and part of it disbanded. Beginning in 1922, the Red Cross Venereal Dispensary continued to operate in the city of Minsk. Later the same dispensaries were opened in Slutsk, Bobruisk and in the Polotsk district. To survey the rural population for the presence of sexually transmitted diseases, special mobile units and mobile dispensaries of the Red Cross are being created. Particularly fruitful was the work of the first mobile dispensary, led by the doctor M. Sterhova. The dispensary worked in the Kruglyansky district and in the Orsha region. Since 1925, tuberculosis dispensaries have opened in each of the districts, and in the cities of Minsk (Volodarsky Street) and Mozyr, sanatoriums for tuberculosis patients are opened. New medical ambulatories, dental medical mobile rooms, dental laboratories, children's consultations are starting to function. Since 1926, anti-tuberculosis dispensaries of the Red Cross have been opened in the village (Bratkovichi village, Kalininsky district, Ostroshitsky town).
At the same time, the Society directs its efforts to combat trachoma. Such work is carried out by the forces of the eye squads of the Red Cross. During this period, the population was in dire need of dental care and in May 1928, the BOKK opened the first dental clinic in the republic, which, from October 1, 1928, was renamed SNK BSSR into the Odontological Institute and transferred to the People's Commissariat of Health. Dental dispensaries, mobile dental treatment rooms are created. By the end of 1925, the Red Cross funds received from economic activities contained 23 public medical institutions. In 1930, BOKK had a wide health network. It consisted of 137 institutions: 5 ambulatories for various types of medical aid, 7 dental laboratories, 1 children's sanatorium, 3 children's consultations, 3 children's playgrounds, 1 maternity hospital, 25 baths, 50 wells, 10 children's nurseries, 20 hairdressing salons, 4 tea shops, 6 permanent sanitary and anti-alcohol exhibitions, 2 laundries, 3 curative mobile treatment rooms.
The BOKK initiates a fundraiser for air ambulance and in 1934 acquires the first three ambulances. By 1939, air ambulance aircraft made 1250 sorties, of which 610 - on an urgent call. Flight doctors performed 280 operations and 40 blood transfusions. Hundreds of human lives were saved. The network of health facilities has steadily expanded. In 1935, 2 polyclinics, 8 dental ambulance stations, 19 dental offices, 8 dental orthopedic institutions were added to the existing ones. By 1936, 26 disinstallations were functioning in the Society. Considering the growth of the treatment-and-prophylactic network of health authorities, the need for such institutions of the Red Cross disappeared and, following the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the Byelorussian SSR, in 1938, BOKK transferred all medical and commercial institutions to the health authorities, the public service and the military sanitary service.
In the composition of the institutions of the Red Cross, preventive institutions are beginning to occupy an increasing place. Home health education, nurseries in the village, home for street children, rest homes, hotels, sports fields, dining rooms, laundries and hairdressers. The latter occupy the largest share among all institutions. So, in 1934, the Society had 111 hairdressing salons, 6 mineral water plants (Gomel, Mogilyov, Polotsk, Puhovichi, Beshenkovichi and Dubrovno).
Belorussian Red Cross during the Great Patriotic War
In 1941, the territory of the BSSR was fully occupied, and the structure of the LRCC was destroyed. C 1943 began the restoration of the organizational structure of the Red Cross in the liberated territory. In the Executive Committee of the SOKK and KP, an organizing bureau for Belorussia was formed, which was created by the BRC Central Committee, which arrived in Belarus in November 1943 and was located in Novo-Belitsa. Thanks to his efforts on a democratic basis, primary organizations of the BRCC were re-established, and in the regions and districts, the organizing bureau of the Central Committee of the BRCC was established in administrative order. In 1944, they were created in the Vitebsk, Gomel, Polesye and Mogilev regions. They were headed by heads of regional health departments. By the end of 1944, in 11 (except Polotsk) of the 12 regions, the Red Cross organizations were created, uniting 163 primary organizations, with a total of 101,463 people. They immediately joined in the preparation of a sanitary asset. They prepared 1376 sanitary posts, 554 sanitary units, 321 school posts, 2,7546 people prepared under the GSO program, and also 12990 BGSOs. At the regional seminars 99 chairmen of district organizations and 2339 chairpersons of primary organizations of the BRCB were trained. Primary organizations were created in schools. By July 1, 1945, 2039 of them were created with the number of members 87304. There were 106 sandruzhin and 1449 sanitary posts in schools, and according to BGSO standards 46083 schoolchildren were trained.
By the first half of 1945, district BRCK organizations were restored in 175 districts out of 194. They included 5,912 primary organizations, which unite 217,146 members of the BRCS. By this time, there were 22 personnel and 35 facility sandruzhin, 3542 sanitary posts and medical and sanitary units. There was a training of sanitary commissioners. One of the main tasks of the BRCC of this period was participation in the fight against epidemics of infectious diseases. A significant role in this matter was played by the sanitary-epidemiological detachments of the Red Cross, eight of which arrived on the territory of Belarus in May 1944, and the ninth in January 1945. All of them were at the disposal of the Central Committee of the BOKK. In 1944-1945 alone, they examined 213,273 yards, 26,921 wells, disinfected 156,049 sets of linen and 10,662 rooms. In the Republic during the years of war, 13963 people from among the sanitary brigades and posts and 16 698 sanitary commissioners took part in combating epidemics.
The patronage of the wounded and sick soldiers was also carried out. So, by the end of 1944, BOKK carried out such work in 50 evacuation hospitals (care, gathering clothes, shoes, food, dishes, books for them, organizing concerts). In each hospital there were chambers of the Red Cross. The patronage work was supervised by patronage commissions established at the committees of the Red Cross. In the second quarter of 1945, work began on patronizing the disabled of the Great Patriotic War. By the end of the war, 2,840 activists of the Society participated in this work, who served 2,122 war invalids. He helped the Red Cross to orphans in orphanages. By the end of the war, patronage was carried out for 111 orphanages.
Beginning in the spring of 1944, the training of reserve nurses is being restored. By the end of the war, 750 people, 500 nurses for children's institutions, 600 kolkhoz nurses and 240 physiotherapy nurses were trained under the 700-hour program in the republic. 54 nurses of the Gomel Regional Committee were aimed at ending the epidemic of typhus. Attention was paid to blood donation. In 1944, 12 blood donors were awarded the badge “Honorary Donor of the USSR”. By the end of the war, there were 4,444 Red Cross blood donors in seven of the twelve regions.
Belarusian Red Cross after 1945
By 1946, it consisted of 12 regional, 180 district (with the presence of 191 districts) and city committees of the Red Cross, 8,274 primary organizations with a number of members - 302,115 people. By the end of 1950, the number of members of the Society had increased to 650,523 people, by 1953 - to 850,194 people, and by 1965 - to 2,301,052 people. The Company's activities are increasingly converging with the functions of health authorities. BOKK has become a reliable assistant to the health authorities in conducting large-scale sanitary and preventive measures among the population. The main tasks solved by the BRCK during this period are: assistance to orphans whose parents died during the Great Patriotic War, assistance to the disabled of war 1-2 groups, carrying out sanitary-educational work and sanitary-defense work, preparing a sanitary asset, organizing donation , active participation in the struggle for peace and the triumph of the principles of Soviet humanism. During this period, the Company annually occupied a leading position in the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Participation in anti-epidemic activities
In 1946, 9 sanitary and anti-epidemic units continued to operate on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. One detachment worked in a camp for repatriates. Two camps worked in the Baranavichy region. One detachment worked in the Gomel, Mogilev, Brest, Vitebsk, Pinsk and Polotsk regions. Only during 1946 and 1947, 1987, 1987 patients found and hospitalized patients with typhus and typhoid fever, dysentery, scarlet fever, measles and scabies. Outpatient care was provided to 56,114 patients, 117,660 preventive vaccinations were carried out, 28,111 scabby patients were cured, 86,354 rooms and 546,237 sets of clothes and linen were disinfected, 403,200 yards and 45,782 wells were examined. After the elimination of the main epidemic foci, the sanitary and anti-epidemic detachments of the Red Cross together with the sanitary asset from the spring of 1947 are involved in the fight against malaria, cancer, tuberculosis, diphtheria, trachoma, polio, helminth infections and other diseases. During the first 9 months of 1947, they identified and subjected to a systematic course of treatment for 6,149 malaria patients, of whom 371 people were hospitalized.
In 1946, an anti-cancer commission of 17 persons was created under the BOKK Central Committee. The Red Cross took part in the organization of preventive examinations of the population, carried out sanitary education and patronized cancer patients at home. When the Society was established in 1960, a nursing home bureau was set up for heavy cancer patients.
The sanitary-anti-epidemic detachments and the Red Cross sanitary asset rendered tangible assistance to public health and jointly provided by 1949 the improvement of the epidemiological situation. Significant contributions to the fight against infectious diseases have been made by activists of the Red Cross: sancos, sandbugs, nurses and health officials. In 1946 alone, 23,205 activists took part in the sanitary and educational work, in 1947, 33,358. They surveyed 115,450 objects in 1946, and in 997 99,504 objects, in 1950, 101,108 objects, in which 23,090 deficiencies were identified and proposed by activists. The entire sanitary asset was secured by ten dozdvorki to monitor the sanitary condition of objects and the identification of patients. Employees of the Red Cross were also involved in household bypasses, monitoring the state of outpatients, distributing anti-malarial and anti-tuberculosis drugs and monitoring their admission to patients, conducting routine fluorography surveys of the population and preventive inoculations, carrying out hydrotechnical work to combat mosquito larvae and the winged mosquito, injecting mosquitoes, and injecting mosquitoes, and injecting mosquitoes, and mosquitoes, and mosquitoes, and injecting, preventive vaccinations, hydrotechnical work to combat mosquito larvae, and winged mosquitoes, and inject mosquitoes, inject mosquitoes, and mosquitoes, and mosquitoes, and inoculants, inoculation of mosquitoes, and mosquitoes, and mosquitoes, and mosquitoes. foci. Staff assisted health authorities in the hospitalization of patients. They organized monthly cleaning and improvement of workplaces and settlements, carried out public sanitary control at industrial and agricultural enterprises, distributed sanitary-educational literature. In 1960, the Red Cross sanitary asset took an active part in the fight against diphtheria and poliomyelitis. Organization of donation
This is a traditional activity for the Red Cross, carried out in close collaboration with health authorities. Attaching special importance to this activity, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1944 established the “Honorary Donor of the USSR” badge. In 1949, there were 4,532 donors in the BSSR, which did not cover the health needs. After the war, the Red Cross was involved in the promotion of donation. Since 1955, the donation began to develop as a mass patriotic movement. During this year, the number of donors increased 5.7 times, reaching 25,994 people. The following year, the number of donors doubled. Beginning in 1957, a movement for free blood donation was launched in the BSSR. Grodno region was the striker of this movement in Belarus. In 1960, there were already 6,547 donated donors, who this year donated a total of 2,400 liters of blood. In most cases, these were health workers, students and collective farmers.
Patronage work
The patronage of children's homes, children's homes and war invalids started in 1944 continues. By 1947, the Red Cross was patronizing 273 children's homes (a total of 280 orphanages for 30,000 pupils). Assistance to orphanages and children's homes was provided with food, clothing, shoes, linens, bedding and school supplies. In the summer of 1946-1947, a sanatorium summer camp (Bucevichi village, 22 km from Minsk) for 1,800 people was organized for orphans. Similar camps were organized in Molodechno and Minsk regions. In 1949, the BOKK Central Committee, together with the Komsomol Central Committee, made in Ostroshitsky town a bookmark of a one-time Republican sanatorium camp for 250 people.
In 1948, the BOKK organizations conducted patronage work in 21 children's homes: provided control over the upbringing, health, physical development of children and care for them; worked among nursing mothers to attract them to the ranks of the nursing mothers to provide babies with breast milk, tried to attach children to families. Thanks to this work, at the end of the war, 37,000 children were taken into patronage. Child care continued until the 1960s.
By the end of 1947, the Red Cross patronized 1764 invalids of the Great Patriotic War. They were provided with material and moral support, as well as household assistance. BOKK assisted in sending them to the spa treatment, helped in the acquisition of a new specialty and employment. In 1948, patronage was carried out over five boarding schools of war invalids and fifty hospitals and separate hospital wards.
BOKK programs and projects
- Spreading Red Cross Knowledge
- Chernobyl program
- Service nurses BOKK
- BOKK Investigation Service
- Humanitarian assistance vulnerable. Double christmas
- Youth and volunteer projects
- Support of the State Tuberculosis Program
- HIV prevention program
- Pandemic Preparations
- Refugees and asylum seekers in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine
- First aid
- Support for children with disabilities
- Combating Human Trafficking
- Charity project "We are together"
- Empowering communities through their active participation
- [Emergency response]
International cooperation
The Belarusian Red Cross Society ( BOKK ) is a national humanitarian charitable organization and at the same time an integral part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement includes the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies , the International Committee of the Red Cross . Together they constitute the world humanitarian movement, whose task is to prevent and alleviate the suffering of people, to protect their lives and health, and to ensure respect for human life throughout the world. The constituent parts of the International Movement, while maintaining their independence, always act in accordance with the Fundamental Principles (humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntariness, unity, universality) and cooperate with each other to achieve their goals.
Since 1995, the Belarusian Red Cross Society has been a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies ( MCC OCC and KP ). Since 1996, the Regional Representation of the Ministry of Finance of the JCC and KP has been working in Minsk. The main goal of the Ministry of Education and Science of the OCC and KP is to promote the development of Red Cross or Red Crescent societies in each country and to organize and coordinate international relief operations in countries affected by natural disasters and man-made disasters. Its work on assisting the Ministry of Finance of the JCC and the KP through the Red Cross Society of the country, bringing aid to people in need of help. Becoming a member of the OCF KPC and KP, the Belarusian Red Cross Society has undertaken to build its work in accordance with the strategic objectives and activities adopted by the OJC OC and KP worldwide.
Considering the significance of the participation of the Republic of Belarus in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement , the BOKK has received funds from the state budget of the Republic of Belarus since 1997 for the payment of a membership fee to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The Belarusian Red Cross Society successfully maintains partnerships with a number of National Societies, jointly implementing projects aimed at providing medical, social and humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable groups of the population, both through the MCC OCC and KP, and directly with Red Cross societies through bilateral cooperation.
With the support of the Swiss Red Cross , a program is being implemented to develop and strengthen the BRKK Sisters of Mercy Service, the Humanitarian Aid to the Vulnerable and the Dual Christmas projects, which are aimed at providing humanitarian aid in the form of food, hygiene items, stationery and toys to the most socially unprotected segments of the population.
With the support of the Danish Red Cross Society , programs are being implemented aimed at increasing the participation of young people in the social life of the country, preventing the spread of HIV / AIDS, and creating network cooperation in the area of combating trafficking in persons.
Thus, the Belarusian Red Cross Society has already developed traditional and fruitful cooperation with the German Red Cross Society at the level of regional organizations in providing humanitarian assistance to poor citizens. With the support of the Austrian Red Cross , the Medicor Charitable Foundation, the Norwegian Red Cross and the MCC OCC and KP, a program is being implemented in Grodno to support children with disabilities with the participation of a close circle.
The Department for International Cooperation of Great Britain (DFID) supports the implementation of the project, which aims to reduce the vulnerability of communities and create conditions for their active participation in society and the realization of their own potential.
Together with the American Red Cross and with the support of the Italian Red Cross, projects are being implemented to support and empower people living with HIV.
A program aimed at providing medical, social and psychological assistance to the population living in the territories polluted after the Chernobyl accident is being implemented directly through the Ministry of Healthcare Complex of the OCC and KP with the support of the Governments of Japan and Ireland.
The volunteers of the Icelandic Red Cross are involved in the preparation and transfer of parcels with warm clothing, hygiene items, blankets for children from low-income large families of Belarus. In addition, since 2010, the Icelandic Red Cross has been supporting work to combat human trafficking.
The Belarusian Red Cross has signed cooperation agreements with the National Societies of Austria, Switzerland, Ukraine, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and the regional structures of the Japanese Red Cross .
The Belarusian Red Cross Society, as a member of the ICF OCC and KP, monitors the compliance of the BOCC Statutes with the requirements and standards adopted by the OCF OCC and KP. The Belarusian Red Cross Society actively participates in the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which is the highest deliberative body of the International Movement. Along with the delegation of the BRC, representatives of the States Parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols of 1977 to them take part in the International Conference by virtue of their obligations under these Conventions and supporting the activity as a whole. The delegations of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the states consider humanitarian issues of common interest and take joint decisions on them.
Since 1997, the Belarusian Red Cross Society has been actively cooperating with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the field of disseminating the norms and principles of international humanitarian law, the activities of the BOKK search service and the support of migrants.
The Republic of Belarus, having signed and become a party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977 to them, undertook to disseminate as widely as possible the norms and principles of international humanitarian law in her country, to include its study in the curricula of civil and military education. Partially, the state delegated to the Belarusian Red Cross the authority to promote the spread of international humanitarian law among the general population, to assist the Republic of Belarus in fulfilling international obligations arising from these Conventions and Protocols. In this regard, together with the ICRC, the Belarusian Red Cross is working on the spread of international humanitarian law, on its inclusion in official training programs. Since 1997, an interdepartmental commission has been created and is working on the implementation of international humanitarian law in the legislation of Belarus. The ICRC cooperates with the Ministry of Defense, conducts work among law enforcement officers, security agencies, introducing them to the norms of international humanitarian law, human rights law, and generally accepted humanitarian values. With the Ministry of Education, as part of the tripartite cooperation agreement, work is underway to introduce the course “Investigating Humanitarian Law” into educational institutions. This course was developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and is a tool that will help bring the principles and values of international humanitarian law to the hearts of young people.
Since 1996, the Belarusian Red Cross has been actively cooperating with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the field of local integration of refugees in the Republic of Belarus.
Since 2004, the Belarusian Red Cross has been cooperating with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the area of combating human trafficking. With the financial support of this organization, the Belarusian Red Cross opened in Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno and Mogilev 5 counseling centers “Helping Hands”, which work in the field of prevention and reintegration of victims of trafficking. The country holds competitions of photographs and drawings for young people; the volunteers staged theatrical performances (Brest, Vitebsk); Information sessions, thematic conversations, seminars and trainings for risk groups and employees of various organizations are held everywhere.
Since 2005, the Belarusian Red Cross has been collaborating with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on the HIV / AIDS Prevention and Treatment project in providing palliative home-based care for people living with HIV / AIDS. The program “Support of the State Program“ Tuberculosis ”in the Republic of Belarus is successfully implemented.
The European Commission, together with the Danish Red Cross, supports the development of local initiatives of volunteer groups in remote areas of Belarus.
Notes
- ↑ Number of volunteers of the Belarusian Red Cross Archived on September 18, 2012.
- ↑ Number of members of the Belarusian Red Cross Archived August 15, 2012.