AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (16:19): Today I wish to speak on an important Australian and broader international community organisation, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It is an international institution that is made up of 186 national societies, including our local Australian Red Cross. Its mission is to prevent or reduce human suffering wherever it is found around the world, with fundamental values of humanity, neutrality, voluntary service, unity, universality, impartiality and independence being the cornerstones of this mission.

The movement began in 1859 with the vision of Henry Dunant and has operated through two world wars up until today. According to their website, in 2008 and 2009, approximately 23,000 members and 28,000 volunteers helped to coordinate more than 1.3 million blood donations; assisted more than 89,000 people with disaster and emergency services across 257 separate disaster events; educated over 11,000 people on international humanitarian law issues; traced and assisted several thousand asylum seekers and refugees who needed help; and issued more than 96,000 first aid certificates. Its Good Start breakfast program has helped serve more than 603,000 breakfasts with its 180 clubs to children in need in schools across Australia each day. Its healthcare team alone in that year made over 1.5 million calls to people in their homes who are isolated with disability or location issues and who lack the daily support of family members.

In the Two Wells area, the local branch has operated for almost 72 years. Together, local people raise money via raffles, trading tables, catering, Red Cross calling and badge stalls, and the yearly Red Cross Baby project. Each meeting averages around 10 members, with the club hosting about 30 full and associate members.

Two Wells is a very tightly-knit town. Each year, for three weeks the club joins with other community clubs to produce a melodrama, which is written, produced, acted and catered for by the local community. All the ages and all the skills of the community are put to good use in this project. Tickets are sold to the show and dinner, with $8 from each ticket going to the local clubs involved. The melodrama has become a central community event for the town and it is both fun and profitable for the local people.

This year, in April, two of the associate members held another important event, a pasta night which was used to raise funds for the Queensland flood victims, raising more than $2,000 for this appeal. The oldest member of this branch is 95 years old and this treasure—I will not reveal her name, because she is a pretty shy person—is very active in the branch today and very active in their trading table. The club is proud of its fundraising efforts and over the last 10 years alone has raised over $106,000 for the Red Cross appeals.

I would like place on the Hansard my thanks and admiration for the selfless volunteers who are members and associates of the Red Cross in Two Wells. Your work is remarkable and very worthy. Special thanks go to the effervescent Jasmin Daniele, the branch's secretary for so many years, who has worked to make sure the Two Wells community and the broader area of the Northern Adelaide Plains is served well by the Red Cross.