Interview conducted and edited by Mara A. Leichtman, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State University, facilitated by Iman M. Haidar, Coordinator, Operations Center, Disaster Management and Emergency, KRCS, and translated by Ghazi Al-Dhafeeri, Arabic Translation Program, American University of Kuwait Alpher.
“Kuwait Red Crescent Society is a voluntary humanitarian society that provides assistance to the most vulnerable people affected by social conflicts, wars or natural disasters without discrimination against any human being regardless of nationality, gender, color, race, religion or political and intellectual beliefs. KRCS is a voluntary society that enjoys an independent status and has a separate legal entity while working as a complementary organization to the official authorities in Kuwait in the humanitarian field…The KRCS provides assistance and humanitarian aid to all countries and needy people.”
“In December 1965, eighteen philanthropists in the State of Kuwait…held a historical meeting…[in which] they approved the articles of association for the incorporation of KRCS. Then they submitted an application to the Government for its promulgation, which took place on the 10th of January 1966, when KRCS was launched officially. The incorporation of the Society is an extension of the journey of goodness and philanthropy of the fathers and grandfathers, and based on the values and principles of the Kuwaiti society, its passion to stand next to the vulnerable, its desire to help the needy and its keenness to extend the hand of help to all the humanity. The Government of Kuwait’s signing of Geneva’s four agreements for 1949 facilitated KRCS’s joining of the International Association of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, known afterwards as the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in 1991.”
