In a world of ongoing violence, as seen in the Israel/Palestine conflict and the Russo-Ukrainian wars, a neutral organization like the Red Cross is becoming increasingly important.
The International Red Cross provides impartial support to victims of disasters around the globe, including those who have been affected by armed conflict.
Cal High senior Karan Ramesh Urs is a co-lead advocate for The International Humanitarian Law Youth Action Campaign (IHL), which is backed by the Red Cross.
The IHL campaign was founded by the Red Cross to engage high schoolers in humanitarian efforts around the globe.
“[The IHL] is a campaign where we try to advocate for humanitarian needs and where we talk about armed conflicts,” Ramesh Urs said. “And how [international law] affects people, demographics, land, and daily lives of civilians.”
Ramesh Urs leads his team of 10 volunteers in the West Bay IHL campaign, which began last November.
“Our aim is to educate the masses about events happening around the world,” senior Kaustav Pal, a member of the IHL campaign, said.
Their team aims to shed light on events that aren’t as publicized as those routinely covered in the news.
One of the most recent humanitarian crisis the International Red Cross has responded to was in Ukraine, where local teams supplied lifesaving aid and mental health support to victims of the invasion by Russia, according to the American Red Cross website.
Each year, the IHL campaign has a different humanitarian theme it spreads awareness about.
“This year, we are focusing on nuclear warfare so we have been focusing on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings,” Ramesh Urs said.
IHL volunteers explore these topics with their community through outreach events and social media. Their instagram handle is @westbayihl.
In January, the IHL campaign partnered with the Cal Red Cross Club to host an event in the school library where paper cranes were made for victims of the atomic bombs.
This activity was inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki, who was hospitalized with leukemia after the Hiroshima bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, toward the end of World War II.
While in hospice, Sasaki crafted more than 1,300 paper cranes to help make her and her family’s wishes come true, following popular Japanese folklore.
Senior Shivali Pathak, the president of Cal’s Red Cross Club, said that besides teaching the attendees how to create the paper cranes, they shared information about international humanitarian law and how it applies to daily life.
The IHL campaign stresses the importance of recognizing that most victims of armed conflict are innocent civilians.With one of their main goals to help audiences gain perspective on the different sides of armed conflict and war, they promote education and exploration into these difficult topics.
The events that the IHL campaign hosts are targeted toward high school students with the intention of recruiting more volunteers to spread important information.
“If we educate more people about [international humanitarian law], hopefully we can get more people to join this movement,” Pal said. “We hope that more high schoolers will get interested in the Red Cross, volunteer with them and eventually expand the IHL.”
Recently, the International Red Cross has provided aid for the civilians victimized by the Israel/Palestine conflict. Its focus is to provide medical equipment and humanitarian relief to those negatively affected, regardless of nationality, according to the American Red Cross website.
“There’s so many conflicts right now in the world, and it’s important to know what role the Red Cross plays in being that neutral party,” Pathak said. “The Red Cross can’t choose sides.”
The International Red Cross has claimed in their Ukraine Crisis announcement that it prioritizes communicating with both sides of every conflict and addressing humanitarian needs accordingly.
“We want to promote that there are people just like us who are suffering, and not only the people, but the environment around us is suffering [too],” Ramesh Urs said.
Besides volunteering with the Red Cross, the campaign urges people to give any kind of donations to victims of armed conflict if they’d like to help.
“[The Red Cross] doesn’t expect anyone to actually go to the site and help people,” Pal said, “But money or clothing and food, pretty much any donations, can really make an impact, even the smallest ones.”
Pathak said awareness of these incidents can also be extremely helpful, so community members can play a role in eventually bringing the change to how armed conflicts take place.
