Swiss Attitude To Red Cross

Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 2

Swiss Attitude To Red Cross

“Swiss people take the Red Cross for granted it is not until they travel overseas that they realise what such a world-wide organisation means.” This is the view of Mrs I. L. Loepfe, a former secretary of a section of the Swiss Red Cross, who is at present on a private visit to New Zealand.

“Swiss people are proud of the Red Cross, in a general sort of way, and they contribute well to it, but they do not realise that Switzerland is the birthplace of the Red Cross, or the home of so many international organisations,” said Mrs Loepfe in Christchurch yesterday. “When I went to Norway in 1950 I was astounded at the warm welcome I received when I showed my Swiss passport,” she said. Mrs Loepfe’s association with the Red Cross dates from World War 11, When she worked voluntarily in Zurich for the International Committee as an intermediary for correspondence from prisoners of war to their families. A full-time secretarial job in St. Gall occupied her time for the next 10 years, until Hungarian refugees poured into Switzerland in 1956 "We organised a big collection of clothes in St. Gall, and sorted them in a school gymnasium. Then we each took a refugee and helped them to choose suitable clothes. “Wonderful Experience” “It was a wonderful experience, and through it we have been able to build up an organisation in the town that can be called upon if any similar catastrophe occurred.” The following year Mrs Loepfe was working as permanent secretary to the St Gall section of the Swiss Red Cross. “There are 52 Red Cross sections in Switzerland, and

once a year the secretary of each section is called to the headquarters at Berne,” she said. Here they took a course of instruction, exchanged views and experiences, and were given directions on Red Cross policy. The main activity of the Swiss Red Cross was the first-aid corps, said Mrs Loepfe. A series of home nursing courses—six sessions of two hours each—was run for housewives and girls who might be called on to nurse patients at home. "Our hospitals are so overcrowded that it is frequently necessary for a patient to be cared for at home, under the direction of a doctor,” she said. A blood-giving scheme is also half financed by the Red Cross. Help to Children Help is given to children of the very poor mountain families of Switzerland “Sometimes they are so poor that there are not enough beds to go round, and the Red Cross aim has been to give each child a bed of its own,” Mrs Loepfe said. Sponsorships of Greek children were also undertaken. The first permanent secretary at St. Gall. Mrs Loepfe built up the secretaryship out of nothing. Then illness forced her to leave two years later, and her visit to New Zealand prevented her return to the job “But I am still interes>ted in the Red Cross, and will work voluntarily wherever I am needed.’’ she said. In New Zealand she has been very impressed by the vitality of the Red Cross Society, and particularly with the meals-on-wheels service and the Junior Red Cross