Red Cross inundated with volunteer offers

As of noon yesterday, Red Cross Faroe Islands had received about 230 registrations to join the volunteer corps for refugees.

Some registrations include multiple individuals, so it is not entirely clear how many volunteers have signed up yet, according to Bárður Atlason Ísheim, who manages daily operations at Red Cross Faroe Islands.

“We started preparing our refugee response plan in December in connection with the refugee crisis in Afghanistan,” he says.

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“We opened volunteer registration at the same time, and lots of people registered immediately. This number has now multiplied, and it continues to grow by the hour.”

Red Cross hosted its first briefing session for volunteers yesterday.

“Up to now, all our volunteering efforts have consisted of preparing for the possible arrival of refugees. This possibility is now becoming a reality, and the time is right to start going into details with our volunteers about how to organise our efforts.”

The briefing was attended by people of all ages and different nationalities with a wide variety of relevant qualifications, he adds.

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One of the volunteers is Ida Lón, an occupational therapist with decades of experience in assisting stress and trauma victims.

“I specialise in caring for traumatised children, and it fills me with a sense of gratitude and purpose that I can use my energy and my experience to help during this difficult time,” she says.

“I cannot just sit and watch passively while the horrors in Ukraine get worse and worse by the day.”

You can register as a volunteer here (text in Faroese only).

Read the Faroese versions of this article here and here.

Translated by prosa.fo.

More Faroese News in English.