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The Red Cross Society of China is providing first aid support around the Olympic venues in Beijing this month and, with the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics now just four years away, the British Red Cross is already preparing to meet the challenges of a 60-day, city-wide sporting event, with more than 9 million tickets to be sold.
“The Olympic period will be an extraordinarily busy one for us,” said Marcus Stephan, operations director for London. “The Olympic Village in east London is just one part of it. The city will be full of visitors, and sports and other events will be taking place all over the city – some planned, but others spontaneous. We will be working with London’s emergency services to help ensure everyones safety across London throughout the Games period.”
More volunteers
An extra 6,000 emergency response volunteers are being recruited between now and 2012, to help meet the expected demands of the Olympic period, and a high-tech control room will be built to co-ordinate operations.
British Red Cross observers will be in Beijing during the 2008 Games to see what lessons can be learned from the Chinese experience.
HIV prevention in China
Away from the Beijing Olympic venues, however, the British Red Cross continues its important HIV prevention work in four of China's 31 provinces. Working with the Red Cross Society of China, the programmes cover youth peer education, tackling stigma around the virus and helping the groups most vulnerable to HIV: injecting drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men.
Read more about the Red Cross' HIV work in China
Become an emergency response volunteer in the UK
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