Cross Blog

Empowering People

Thursday, May 14, 2009

From Red Cross Chat

Around here we think that all Red Crossers are pretty special, but this guy is kind of a LEGEND:

For more than 20 years, Alberto Cairo has been on an ICRC team in Afghanistan working on relief programs to help people disabled by war. He has built hospitals, trained local medical professionals, and provided education to disabled Afghans. Alberto’s philosophy centers around the idea of empowering local Afghans to provide the services the community needs and he is well known locally for making a big impact.

A story in The New York Times recently said this about him:

Mr. Cairo’s passion for his patients is reciprocal, and nowhere is that more evident than out on the Kabul center’s open-air testing ground, a concrete platform where men, women and children, some standing for the first time in years, learn to walk again with artificial limbs. Tears flow readily, and much of the gratitude flows to “Mr. Alberto.”

To Alberto, each person is an individual with potential to thrive if the necessary resources are provided to the community.

Would you like to help empower people to perform extraordinary acts?

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