The Lebanese Red Cross shared a video on their social media accounts to salute Rida, the boy who donated his allowance to help their cause.
Rida Fakhreddine, a 5-year-old boy, is a huge fan of the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC). According to his father, Rida came to love the NGO after watching their advertisements, campaigns, and volunteer work on YouTube.
Inspired, he expressed to his father his wish to give the heroes he looked up to, the money he had gathered as his allowance.
And so, the father contacted the LRC via Facebook and asked them to organize a meetup between their paramedics and his eager son.
“In our turn,” the Lebanese Red Cross said in the video montage, “we agreed to the request and wanted to make [Rida’s] dream come true, in our own special way!”
The video, titled “thank you, Rida,” documented their day with the cheerful young fan.
The meeting took place at one of the LRC’s stations and Rida’s dream came true when he became a paramedic for a day. Even his little sister opted in!
Rida suited up in paramedic uniform, rode an ambulance, answered phone calls at the station, used radio to communicate with his heroes, and supported his sister as the team mock-treated her leg.
He also played table football (“babyfoot”) with the paramedics, which is not something that many 5-year-olds can say they’ve done on a day out.
“He decided to donate all of the [pocket money] he has saved, instead of buying something for himself, to help people in need. So, he gave it away to the LRC, which will certainly put it to good use,” Rida’s proud father said.
As a thank you to their young fan, the LRC team that welcomed him posed for a picture with him and his sister. The paramedics also surprised the siblings with presents at the end of their one-day volunteering.
*All images used in this article are screenshots taken from the Lebanese Red Cross’s YouTube video.
