The Norwegian Red Cross (Norges Røde Kors) was founded September 22, 1865 by prime minister Frederik Stang. In 1907 the Norwegian Ministry of Defence authorized the organization for voluntary medical aid in war. The Norwegian Red Cross was one of the first national organizations in the International Red Cross.
The organization now has 150,000 members and provides a variety of humanitarian services, including care for old and the infirm, prisoner visits, outdoor rescue, and international work.
Read more about Norwegian Red Cross: Presidents
Famous quotes containing the words red cross, red and/or cross:
“The Red Cross in its nature, it aims and purposes, and consequently, its methods, is unlike any other organization in the country. It is an organization of physical action, of instantaneous action, at the spur of the moment; it cannot await the ordinary deliberation of organized bodies if it would be of use to suffering humanity, ... [ellipsis in original] it has by its nature a field of its own.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“You can’t be a Red if you’re married to a civil servant.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“Life is a bridge. Cross over it, but build no house on it.”
—Indian proverb, quoted in Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines, ch. 30, “From the Notebooks” (1987)