Red Cross Blogs

How are the volunteers in Haiti doing?

By Cathy Stephen
February 10, 2010 at 5:16 pm

I’m the new blogger on the block (wow that’s a really cheesy start!)  Just to introduce myself, before I start my regular blog rambling:

What do I do?: I support british red cross partners in East and West Africa in their long-term programmes.  This includes programmes in community health, HIV and food security, water and sanitation, disaster risk reduction and conflict transformation (yes it’s a very busy job)

But what do I really do? Day-to-day I help to develop, resource, manage and monitor British Red Cross supported programmes. I do this all from my comfy desk in London, working closely with many other teams like in fundraising, finance and communications.  Occasionally, I get the chance to visit and work alongside our partners in East and West Africa but most of the time it’s distance support -not always the easiest in countries with no postal systems, sporadic phone/email access and different time zones.
Sometimes I help with our disaster response operations for the mass sanitation emergency response unit (but that’s not quite often enough)

Which partners do I support? Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Liberia Red Cross Societies.

Interests: I’m a big Eastenders fan, I play netball for the red cross and I have a small crisp addiction (my favourites at the moment are pickled onion monster munch and frazzles)

As we’re such a big organisation, I come from a different place and perspective to some of the other British Red Cross bloggers so I’ll (try to) come to you each week and talk about some of the issues and challenges I see in my job and everyday life.  Enjoy!

—————————————————————————————————–
So, like many of you, I’ve been reading all the inspirational (and sometimes controversial, yes Claire I’m talking about you) blogs and articles from Red Crossers working in Haiti and it’s made me think about something:

I wonder how the Haiti Red Cross and their volunteers and staff are fairing with this huge disaster and the influx of agencies and money into the country?

The Haitian Red Cross, like any other national societies around the world, acts as an auxiliary to their government in disaster preparedness, response and social services.

I know that when the earthquake struck, 1000s of Haitian Red Cross volunteers and staff were some of the first on the ground to help search for survivors and to provide emergency help.  But they were overwhelmed with the scale of the catastrophe.
With the international response work now in full flow, the Haitian volunteers and staff will give a vital link to local knowledge and to make sure local voices are heard amongst the many international interests.

The Haitian Red Cross would not have been able to cope alone in this disaster, but one of the most important things when working to help the Haitian people recover will be to work alongside the local red cross society, support them and to help re-build the capacity of the Haitian Red Cross staff and volunteers

We always strive to support and develop the capacity building of our partners in our long term programmes.  This seems common sense to make sure that the Red Cross/Crescent in that country has the capacity to carry out projects, even when everyone else has gone.  But even in a sudden disaster, local volunteers and staff should be the focus of the operation and lead or deliver support, as much as their capacities allow.

Wherever we work around the world the red cross relies on the work of the national society and their dedicated volunteers.  For example in Ethiopia, volunteers visit people living with HIV and provide support on issues like how to access healthcare, how to lead positives life and have good nutrition. They also raise awareness in communities of how prevent further infection and try to reduce stigma and discrimination.

Volunteers are what make us a local, responsive and an understanding Red Cross and Red Cresent movement.  With over 20million active volunteers, that means we’re pretty good in responding in most parts of the world!

So as the enormous international wheel gears itself for a huge response and recovery operation in Haiti, I think I’ll keep remembering the never-ending work that local volunteers and staff will be doing there and around the world.  They’ll be there in emergencies, but also in the other ‘disasters’ occurring every day.

---

Comment (0) »

---

Tags: Haiti, Haiti earthquake, HIV, international volunteers, local capacity, volunteers

The Red Cross values comments both complimentary and critical. However, we will not tolerate the following: aggressive or personal criticism of the blogger, breach of copyright, obscene, defamatory, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive or likewise objectionable comments.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Emergencies, Health and social care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

---