Who is the founder of the Red Cross?
The Red Cross idea was born in 1859. Henry Dunant, a young Swiss, witnessed a bloody battle in Solferino, Italy, between the armies of imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian Alliance. Some 40,000 men lay dead or dying on the battlefield and the wounded were lacking medical attention. Dunant organized local people to bind the soldiers’ wounds and feed and comfort them. On his return, he called for the creation of national relief societies to assist those wounded in war, and pointed the way to the future Geneva Conventions.
