Red Cross 1Foundation and early services
Red Cross
Original title: Cruz Vermelha
Account of the founding of the Funchal delegation of the Red Cross in 1914 on the initiative of the physician Eliseu de Sousa Drumond, and of its nursing courses and first-aid post in the Rua dos Netos.
1Foundation and early services
The creation of a delegation of the Red Cross (Cruz Vermelha) in this city was due to the initiative of the late Madeiran physician Eliseu de Sousa Drumond. Funchal is indebted to him not only for this initiative but also for the diligent and persevering efforts he selflessly devoted to setting up the delegation, and for the excellent direction he gave to all its first services.
The first meeting of the organising committee took place on 14 November 1914. Shortly afterwards the Viscount (visconde) of Geraz de Lima was elected president of the board, and he always showed the greatest zeal and dedication to the society’s progress.
2Nursing courses and the first-aid post
The first physicians appointed to direct the medical and surgical services of the Red Cross delegation were Dr Eliseu de Sousa Drumond and Dr Nuno de Vasconcelos Pôrto. They at once opened elementary nursing courses to teach and train nurses of both sexes, and within a short time they had prepared staff qualified enough to carry out the most urgent and basic services required. Some stretchers were then obtained and the first stretcher-bearers enlisted, and these received suitable instruction.
It had become essential to house the delegation in suitable premises, where all its services could be centralised and accommodated and where a permanent medical first-aid post could be set up. The Society achieved this legitimate aim by renting a building in the Rua dos Netos, and the delegation is housed there today. Its first-aid post, where surgical operations, dressings, various medical treatments, etc., are carried out every day, has rendered valuable services, and the public flocks there to take advantage of the benefits offered by this worthy Society. It is only right to highlight the way in which the whole staff of the first-aid post – the nurses and the medical director – have carried out the duties so selflessly entrusted to them. It is to Dr João Albino Rodrigues de Sousa, head of these services, that the first-aid post owes the good name it has earned here in Madeira since it opened at the beginning of 1917.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 02
- Funchal
City where the Red Cross delegation was established.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Rua dos Netos
Funchal. Street where the delegation rented its premises and first-aid post.
Rua dos Netos is a Funchal street running from Rua de São Pedro to the Ponte Nova over the Santa Luzia stream. It is named after the settler João Rodrigues Neto Calassa and the Neto family. The bishop rented a house there in 1915, the Red Cross delegation had its premises and first-aid post there, and the Montepio houses stood in its eastern part.
People
People mentioned · 04-
Madeiran physician, deceased by the time of writing, who initiated and organised the Funchal delegation of the Red Cross and was one of its first medical directors.
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Physician heading the Red Cross first-aid post in Funchal from its opening in early 1917.
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One of the first two physicians appointed to direct the clinical and surgical services of the Funchal Red Cross delegation.
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Elected president of the board of the Funchal Red Cross delegation shortly after its founding in 1914.