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Photo: Gaya Mageswaran/International Federation, © International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The horrors of the battle of Solferino 150 years ago 24 June brought into being the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, based in Geneva. To mark the day, Swiss media have been focusing on numerous events taking place in the region:

Le Temps mentions the week-long celebrations organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and highlights the coming together of volunteers of the 186 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies at Solferino, in Italy. Three hundred young people will retrace Henri Dunant’s trip back to Geneva from Solferino: Dunant was the Geneva businessman who witnessed the battle and returned home determined to help change things.

TSR reports that starting 22 June at ICRC headquarters 20 runners will run a relay in 20km stages all the way to Solferino, where they will join the hundreds of volunteers from the national societies. TSR also mentions that Geneva’s jet d’eau fountain was illuminated in red Wednesday, 24 June.

The Tribune de Genève details the relay race to Solferino from Geneva, and notes that 12 of the runners are ICRC staff members. They arrive Saturday 26 June.

Swissinfo commemorates the occasion with a special section that includes photos and background articles on the Red Cross in the news.

Geneva is the headquarters of both the ICRC, which offers its services in instances of armed conflict, and of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which coordinates the activities of the 186 individual national societies. The IFRC has its own page for the events being commemorated.

Solferino would have been just another bloody battle to be forgotten  in northern Italy 150 years ago, but for the fact that it moved one man, Dunant, to start something that has helped untold victims of warfare since then. Geneva’s Dunant saw the battle of Solferino, 24 June 1859, that pitted French and Piedmontese forces against the Austrians, and then helped to organize assistance to the abandoned wounded on the battlefield.

He went away with the germ of an idea that brought into being the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and won him the first Nobel Peace prize in 1901.