It all began with one man's eyewitness account of the atrocities committed in the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in present-day Italy in 1859. What Swiss businessman Henry Dunant saw was the horror of war — thousands of dead and severely wounded soldiers lying on the battlefield without proper medical care.
Dunant published what he saw in "A Memory of Solferino" and proposed ways to get more help to victims of war. This eventually led to the establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
For nearly 150 years, the Swiss-based ICRC has been engaged in protecting the lives and dignity of war victims. The neutral, independent humanitarian body has a staff of about 11,000 in 80 countries, including conflict-ridden areas like Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan.