Welcome to the 2022 season of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Intercross: The Podcast. If you’re new to the podcast, our goal is to delve into the rules of war and takes you to the frontlines of some of the most inaccessible conflicts in the world, where the ICRC and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement work to neutrally and independently respond to emergencies. Subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss an episode.  See bonus materials and additional information on our website. Follow us on Twitter @ICRC_dc ..read more

In this episode, we learn about the Ubumwe Community Center in Gisenyi, Rwanda, their motto, “disability is not inability,” and the importance of inclusion, especially in communities affected by violence. We first hear from one of the center’s student musicians about how the center’s music program has given him opportunities to perform for others. We then turn to Subhash Sinha, the ICRC’s Physical Rehabilitation Program Manager for east Africa to hear about our work providing prosthetics and orthotics and supporting inclusionary sports programs. See bonus materials and additional information o ..read more

Intense hostilities in Yemen have raged for more than seven years. The needs are severe and deepen by the minute with more than two-thirds of Yemen’s people in need of humanitarian assistance.  All, while essential services are on the brink of collapse and people are losing hope as the conflict appears to drag endlessly. In these past decades, the ICRC has been providing a wide array of humanitarian assistance including support to hospitals, improving access to clean water, and food parcels and relief items to people who have been displaced. However, one of the more challenging activities ..read more

Following the change of government in August 2021, most of the health workers in Afghanistan were no longer getting paid. Medicines were no longer available, and many health professionals deserted the country’s hospitals in search of incomes. As a result, patients were sometimes refused access to treatment and the overall healthcare system in the country was on the verge of coming to a full stop. In this episode, we ask, what does the future of sustainable healthcare look like for millions of Afghans in need of lifesaving medical care? We speak with Dr. Mariam Moksudi, a gynecologist at Rabia ..read more

Prolonged drought, conflict, global inflation, and now a shortage of grain due to the Ukraine conflict. Somalia is particularly hard hit. Over 7 million people are in urgent need of food and water—that’s half the country’s population and equal to the populations of Los Angeles and Chicago, combined. The numbers are unfathomable. They represent millions of human stories and life experiences that don’t make headlines. Despite all of this, the ICRC has been addressing food insecurity for decades in Somalia, offering emergency assistance in places where armed conflict and violence is an everyday r ..read more

Almost 40 years after the Falkland Islands/Malvinas conflict, we look back on the ICRC’s efforts to identify unknown soldiers. Figuring who these unknown soldiers were took decades to resolve. But in 2012, the ICRC received a request from the Argentine government to help identify their remains. Then in 2016 with the ICRC as a neutral intermediary, Argentina and the UK negotiated and signed an agreement known as the Humanitarian Project Plan. The crucial work of exhuming the graves and identifying remains fell to Luis Bernardo Fondebrider, co-founder of the Argentinian Forensic Anthropology Tea ..read more

Almost 40 years after the Falkland Islands/Malvinas conflict, we look back on the ICRC’s efforts to identify unknown soldiers. Figuring who these unknown soldiers were took decades to resolve. But in 2012, the ICRC received a request from the Argentine government to help identify their remains. Then in 2016 with the ICRC as a neutral intermediary, Argentina and the UK negotiated and signed an agreement known as the Humanitarian Project Plan. The crucial work of exhuming the graves and identifying remains fell to Luis Bernardo Fondebrider, co-founder of the Argentinian Forensic Anthropology Tea ..read more

In this episode, we tell the story of the more than 150-year-old Central Tracing Agency, a division of the ICRC that today is a crucial resource for families searching for loved ones gone missing due to conflict, violence, natural disasters, or along the migration route. We take you for a trip back in time to the foundations of the CTA in 1860 to understand how this history has made it what it is today. You’ll hear from Geneva Tour Guide Catherine Hubert Girod and ICRC Historian Daniel Palmieri recount the history. See bonus materials and additional information on our website. Follow us on Twi ..read more

In this episode, we’re going to learn about how the ICRC works with what are known in Mexico as, colectivos, or groups of families and friends who unite to search for their missing loved ones and defend their rights. We speak with Beatriz Adriana Martinez about her husband, Juan Alvarez Gil’s disappearance in 2013, to understand what a family goes through when a loved one goes missing and how these colectivos support Beatriz and the hundreds of thousands of other families. We also speak with Marlene Herbig, an ICRC delegate with the Missing Persons Program in Mexico, who works to help those wh ..read more

This mini episode kick starts the 2022 season of Intercross: The Podcast. In this episode, we rewind the tape and listen to an interview with Florence Anselmo, Head of the Central Tracing Agency, a division of the ICRC that's been a crucial resource for families affected by conflict, disaster, and other situations of violence to restore contact with their loved ones. Florence helps break down what the agency does and why it's crucial to the work of the ICRC.  See bonus materials and additional information on our website. Subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss an episode.  Foll ..read more