GENEVA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- In a unanimous decision, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has granted the Henry Davison Award, its highest distinction, to the Red Cross Society of China.
The awardees also included the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, the Red Crescent Society of Iran and an outstanding volunteer recommended by the Somali Red Crescent Society.
Established by the IFRC in 2003 and named after the federation's founder, Henry Davison, the award is presented biannually in recognition of "outstanding service in improving the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity."
The President of the Red Cross Society of China, Chen Zhu, said after the award ceremony that over the years, his organization has been active in domestic disaster relief, emergency rescue, major disease relief and donation of blood, blood stem cell and organs, while also supporting millions of Chinese families by helping the fight against poverty.
On the international scene, the Red Cross Society of China has actively supported the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing a wide range of medical and humanitarian equipment and supplies to the movement's members. It has coordinated the work of several groups of Chinese experts in Iran, Iraq, Italy and other countries and regions.
Chen said that the award is a full recognition of his whole country's and society's contribution to global development and progress.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the IFRC is the world's largest humanitarian network supporting local Red Cross and Red Crescent action in more than 192 countries and bringing together almost 15 million volunteers for the good of humanity.
Students line up to get lunch at a temporary shelter after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Taiping Town in Lushan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)
Staff members work at Anshan Red Cross Blood Center in Anshan, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Yao Jianfeng)
Relief supplies are transferred onto a ship waiting to depart for Tonga, in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 29, 2022.
A flotilla comprised of two ships of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy departed from a port in south China's Guangzhou City Monday to deliver China's disaster relief supplies to the South Pacific island nation of Tonga.
This relief mission follows China's delivery of multiple batches of emergency supplies to Tonga, which was hit by disasters resulting from a massive volcano eruption earlier this month and its ensuing tsunami. (Photo by Xue Chengqing/Xinhua)
Medical worker Yan Xu collects swab samples for nucleic acid testing in Chaoyang District of Beijing, capital of China, May 8, 2022. Chaoyang District started further district-wide nucleic acid testing from May 7 to 9. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
Humanitarian aid supplies donated by the Red Cross Society of China to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society are loaded in Warsaw, Poland, March 15, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Chen)
Members of a Chinese medical expert team attend a video conference to exchange experience on the prevention and control of COVID-19 with their Iraqi counterparts in Baghdad, Iraq, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Miao)■
