HENRY DUNANT CHANGED
THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER
G'day folks,
The Battle of Solferino (June 24, 1859) was one of the largest and most decisive battles during the Second Italian War of Independence, a battle with nearly 260,000 collective participants.
The excruciating battle lasted for over 9 hours, resulting in nearly 5,000 killed, over 23,000 wounded and many more missing and captured. One of the witnesses of the battle’s aftermath was Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, who was on a business trip while passing through Solferino. Overwhelmed by what he had seen - thousands of bodies scattered through the battlefield with no one to help the wounded or bury the dead, Dunant couldn’t remain a passive bystander, so he organized the local civilians to provide assistance to the wounded and sick, and arranged the funds to build a field hospital.
Revolutionary
for the time, Dunant didn’t just save soldiers from the Austrian or the Allied
French and Sardinian side, he urged to help everyone under the slogan Tutti
fratelli, which means “all are brothers”. Ultimately, Dunant recorded his
experiences of the aftermath of the battle in the book ‘A Memory of Solferino’,
which became the inspiration for the Red Cross Movement. For being a co-founder
of the movement that helps everyone and for his humanitarian accomplishments at
Solferino and beyond, Dunant was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
Clancy's comment: Well done, Henry.
I'm ...
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