History

Austrian Red Cross (AutRC) was founded in 1880 as a national society within the network of International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Our global network is based on the idea of Henry Dunant (CH) and his experience in helping wounded people linked to the battlefield of Solferino (1859). Nowadays the network is operating in 191 countries with more than 16 million volunteers. 

One of the major cornerstones of the Red Cross and Red Crescent family is also closely connected with AutRC history – in 1965 the international conference took place in Vienna, when the 7 Red Cross Principles – humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality– were first published.

AutRC is structured according to the federal system in Austria with 9 regional branches (federal states) and 132 district branches (district levels), operating also on a very local level in most Austrian municipalities.

Activities

Austrian Red Cross (AutRC) is a non-profit organisation based on the Red Cross law in Austria. It is guided by the fundamental principles of the Red Cross Movement and implements its humanitarian activities with the help of volunteers and employees all over Austria.

Through its activities, AutRC aims to help the most vulnerable in society, both at national as well as at international level. In Austria, the Red Cross is rooted in a network of about 80,000 volunteers and more than 10.000 employees . In the field of civil protection AutRC is providing the following services to the public – mandated by law – all over Austria: Emergency Medical Services, Ambulance Services, First-Responder Services, Humanitarian disaster relief, Psychosocial Support, First Aid-Training for the population, Paramedic-Training and even more. Blood donation services and Youth Red Cross actions complement our activities.

AutRC is a very active actor in civil protection in Europe – with training, exercise, deployments and participation in exchange of experts – and has a remarkable record of project-work on Disaster Resilience on international, European and national level.

Role in project

Austrian Red Cross (AutRC) joined B-Prepared for the final year with its expertise and experience for humanity in crisis and disaster response. In accordance with the consortium lead, our focus will be set on provision of e-learning content for the set of B-Prepared applications – such as IM-Prepared, Disastropedia and VR prepared.

Furthermore our focus on the most vulnerable will be reflected in our contribution on emphasizing the needs of persons in vulnerable situations as well as their representation in B-prepared. This also includes complementing with expertise on the role of Gender, Diversity and Inclusion in disaster preparedness.

From testing, exercising and evaluation experience AutRC plans to support usability tests for the solutions provided by the project. This background will also feed into contribution for the benchmarking live drill scheduled to be implemented in Poland in the final phase of B-Prepared.