This paved the way for the Dec. 15 Constitutive Assembly, a meeting that officially launched the new Red Cross organization. Red Cross workers collect supplies for distribution to refugees and other people in need. It will continue to build on existing relief programs run by the entity Red Cross societies. A home care program, for example, provides assistance to some 15,000 housebound people, most elderly or ill, throughout the country. Red Cross home care volunteers make home visits, deliver relief packages of food and hygiene kits, and refer the sick to medical facilities.
Many houses damaged during the war have yet to be repaired.
Photo courtesy of BBC . In addition, the entities have organized youth development programs and public health programs, both of which will be expanded under the leadership of the new society. The entities have also been working to involve more youth volunteers in the successful home care efforts. Other national societies from around the world will continue to provide support for the new Red Cross of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Among them, the American Red Cross managed a four-year supplemental feeding program for the country's elderly from 1995 to 1999, and it continues to offer technical assistance and support tracing efforts for families with missing relatives.