One hundred kilometres east of the killing fields of Kigali, a new community of 94 brick-built houses is taking shape in the green hills of Kibungo. Built by its inhabitants, many of whom returned to Rwanda only last year after fleeing the country's troubles, it is a model of good public health in difficult circumstances.

It is also the sort of project which belies the image of the Red Cross as, at best, the deliverer of short-term disaster relief and, at worst, a snooty body with an excess of dukes and duchesses on its headed paper which can afford to spurn donations from royal biographers of whom it disapproves.

News and pictures of the project appear on the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies web site, part of an ambitious attempt to bring news from some of the world's worst trouble spots to a wider audience in a way which even the international press has failed to achieve.

It has managed this by distributing digital cameras to aid workers, who are often the only witnesses to events in remote or 'unnewsworthy' places. Their reports are now available within days, allowing the Red Cross to make the most of the fundraising opportunities at the time aid is most needed.

The IFRC also offers a doorway into the wider Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. Don't, for example, confuse it with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, or the national societies, all of which guard their independence fiercely.

If you feel inspired beyond making a quick donation, you could always apply to be an international delegate, a role for which NHS management experience would probably be an ideal qualification, to judge by the job description.