ABSTRACT
In 1859 the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant happened across the terrible battle of Solferino, in what is now northern Italy, and was shocked to find the wounded soldiers there entirely uncared for. The European powers fighting this battle, the French and AustroHungarian empires, provided more veterinarians to care for horses than medical personnel to care for soldiers.1 Dunant organized medical relief on the spot with the help of local personnel, mostly women, and saw to it that soldiers on both sides were cared for. He was so profoundly affected by what he had witnessed at Solferino that upon returning to Geneva, Dunant began a campaign to develop a network of private aid societies.2 In doing so, his goal was to organize volunteers to care for those injured in war. In 1863, a group of public-minded Genevans, inspired by Dunant’s work, built an organization that eventually became the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In turn, the ICRC became the founding agent for the International RC Movement.3
